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The elitist price of theatre tickets

Epona said:
Some places do cheaper tickets - I recall the Royal Opera House and the ENO used to years ago although I've not been recently (I like a bit of opera) if you were ok to go on like a Monday night or to a matinee performance or similar or queue for a leftover standby ticket, and The Globe does cheap tickets for plays if you're OK to stand, RAH does cheaper tickets again unseated if you are OK to stand in the upper balcony - it's not necessarily always particularly accessible though in older theatres and venues, especially if you are older or have some mobility issues (but not severe enough for a blue badge).
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Yes, and eventually the cheapest tickets for even the biggest shows often go down to £39.50 territory. One just has to wait a long time for the top shows to offer such prices.

A month ago I bought my OH tickets for Cabaret for her birthday (fucking brilliant, btw). Because it has been running for about two years, lowest weekday evening tickets are available for the immediate future and relatively reasonable for a multi award winning top West End show. The top
ones were still £200 though.
 
domestos said:
You're not anyone. You're the bad boy rebel of U75 with a single goal. To be the most blocked. There can be only one
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That's possibly the poorest post I've read all year. It's a pisspoor invention and dull to boot. But it's persuaded me to put you on ignore, if it's the best you can do
 
Hah. You like dishing it out don't you, on thread after thread but a bit of a shrinking violet when it comes back.

Let the thread continue.
 
T & P said:
Yes, and eventually the cheapest tickets for even the biggest shows often go down to £39.50 territory. One just has to wait a long time for the top shows to offer such prices.

A month ago I bought my OH tickets for Cabaret for her birthday (fucking brilliant, btw). Because it has been running for about two years, lowest weekday evening tickets are available for the immediate future and relatively reasonable for a multi award winning top West End show. The top
ones were still £200 though.
Click to expand...

It has been a while since I've bought tickets to anything tbf, I do remember seeing Carmen and a couple of other operas back in the day for something like £3 standby tickets, I do think it is less financially accessible now. Covid certainly won't have helped with that.

I think the Globe tickets I was interested in recently (I keep wanting to go!) were around a tenner plus booking fee, but that's a standing ticket which isn't great for us. Seated tickets with restricted view start a lot higher than that. And you're getting into a weeks worth of grocery shopping territory in terms of cost which isn't really feasible for us and others in a similar economic situation.

I have always enjoyed going to the theatre mind you, it's not me griping because it seems like something other better off people do that I just want to have a moan about - I can't think of much I like better really than going to see a play or opera and early meal first of course, but the cost of a night out like that can quickly get into insane territory.
 
The ENO does offer free tickets for kids and other discounts but it's not obvious. As I recall you have to register and there's no automatic reduction at check out for those not in the know (like me until I heard an ad).
Saw a great, inventive HMS Pinafore at Wiltons but still over £110 for two kids and two adults.
 
For anyone who can do weekday matinees, they can be very cheap. We also decided to randomly walk into a theatre as a matinee show was about an hour from starting, and landed box tickets for £25 a head. I guess if a play is not a sellout for a given performance about to start they’re happy to sell tickets cheaply that would definitely be lost otherwise.
 
domestos said:
Hah. You like dishing it out don't you, on thread after thread but a bit of a shrinking violet when it comes back.

Let the thread continue.
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It didn't come back, you posted something that was both a fib and dull to boot. I can take 'it' but not having dished out stupid boring lies I don't see why I should receive them without response
 
T & P said:
For anyone who can do weekday matinees, they can be very cheap. We also decided to randomly walk into a theatre as a matinee show was about an hour from starting, and landed box tickets for £25 a head. I guess if a play is not a sellout for a given performance about to start they’re happy to sell tickets cheaply that would definitely be lost otherwise.
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See also

www.todaytix.com

TodayTix | Theatre Tickets to Musicals, Plays, Broadway, More

Get the best prices on theatre tickets today in New York, London and more. Read reviews. Win exclusive lottery or rush tickets. Download our app.
www.todaytix.com www.todaytix.com
 
Pickman's model said:
It didn't come back, you posted something that was both a fib and dull to boot. I can take 'it' but not having dished out stupid boring lies I don't see why I should receive them without response
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I'm certain you flounced off yesterday having said you'd blocked me. Couldn't resist having just one more peek could you? Must have been a sleepless night, tossing and turning, worrying about having the last word, until at 7am you only went and did it. Bravo Pickmans Nose! Adios amigo, hasta nunca
 
domestos said:
I'm certain you flounced off yesterday having said you'd blocked me. Couldn't resist having just one more peek could you? Must have been a sleepless night, tossing and turning, worrying about having the last word, until at 7am you only went and did it. Bravo Pickmans Nose! Adios amigo, hasta nunca
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i slept very well, thank you. and changed my mind about ignoring you.
 
Please God no. Couldn't bear to suffer your prepubescent quibbling twice. On the bright side, when I read your sneery posts littered with "to boot" I see Rick The People's Poet complete with beret.

Go on, you know you can resist if you try hard enough but to make it easier for you, more out of tedium than anger I'll ignore you. Win win, you get to have the last word and I get to ignore it.
 
Last edited:
Elpenor said:
American Idiots!

It’s annoying isn’t it
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Its just a total rip off.
Service charge.
Order processing fee
Delivery charge 😡
Paid less, at shower notice for the Coliseum last week. There was a time you could by tickets, for the price stated on the ticket from the box office
I reiterate the tickets are not for me.
 
hash tag said:
How many add on's can you add to the price of a ticket :mad:
Green day tickets just bought on behalf of someone else
View attachment 399081
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For those of us lucky enough to live or work near the theatre in question, it really pays to make a trip to the venue and buy the tickets from their box office. Not always practical, and if you need a particular date and it’s a popular show, by the time you get to the venue there might not be any tickets left for the day you wanted anyway.

For the last few shows I’ve booked online I’ve purchased the insurance offered. It’s not fully comprehensive and will in most cases not cover accidental no-shows such as missing your train; but at least it covers illness preventing you from attending. And more importantly, unlike say car rental insurance, which can be nearly as much as the hire rate, ticket insurance is usually in the £5 range, which is not that much of an extra hike on top of a £75 ticket.

But even then you might still have to provide medical proof, rather than tell them you were unwell. Last year the OH had a bad stomach complaint on the day of the show and we had to go into A&E. The insurance company requested medical back-up paperwork, and we were able to do so because we’d been to a hospital. If one of us had come down with Covid on the day and stayed at home, I reckon we would have had a fight in our hands to get them to pay out.
 
It's the add-ons that will stop me buying tickets if I'm not sure whether it's an event I especially want to see. For example, I love Carmen and will bear the additional costs because I really want to go, but Don Giovani I'm not so sure, so if the additional costs are high I'll not bother. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

I'm especially irked when I get delivery charges for e-tickets. It costs nothing to deliver the tickets, so why do I have to pay? Admin I can understand, but why isn't that part of the ticket price?
 
dessiato said:
It's the add-ons that will stop me buying tickets if I'm not sure whether it's an event I especially want to see. For example, I love Carmen and will bear the additional costs because I really want to go, but Don Giovani I'm not so sure, so if the additional costs are high I'll not bother. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

I'm especially irked when I get delivery charges for e-tickets. It costs nothing to deliver the tickets, so why do I have to pay? Admin I can understand, but why isn't that part of the ticket price?
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Spot on.
 
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