ticket prices

[johnandsyl]

Coming down to London on thursday 19th,Can anyone please tell me where is the cheapest place for tickets to " Funny thing at the Forum" Do I turn up at box office, or do Traf. Square or is there somewhere cheaper???

[Stu]

You might be able to get half price tickets at the official booth at Leicester Sq - it's the brick building in between the two Odeons and roughly opposite the Wetherspoon pub...

 

HTH, Stu

[the kid]

Although this is a bit off topic, why is there always such a differance in pricing for theatre tickets I've got 2 sets recently 1 was £22.50 the other £15.

 

Where does all the money go?

[Just Some Bloke]

The Half Price Ticket Booth in Leicester Square is good if you want good seats, but don't forget that nearly all theirs are top price tickets that are reduced. A £45 ticket at half price + booking fee may still be more expensive than a cheap seat bought at the theatre. On the whole the best thing is to go to the box office and pay cash. Best of all, if you know that the show won't be sold out, is to get there 30 minutes before curtain up and ask for 'standby' tickets. For these you'll have to claim to be a student or unwaged or something along those lines - they may ask for proof but it may be possible (if you don't have any) to admit to not having anything with you and if they say they can't do it, say "in that case I'll have to not bother because I can't afford full price" and make to leave. It's surprising how often they'll take any money rather than none!

 

P.S. If you know anyone who works in a London theatre see if they can get you a good price. They often can.

 

In answer to the kid, different shows cost different amounts to stage and therefore their tickets reflect this. A one-woman show with no set and an unknown actress is going to cost a lot less than a Disney musical with 30 in the cast, 3 of whom are 'names', 20 in the orchestra, 20 crew, a huge set, top name production team and enormous marketing campaign. You'd expect to have to pay more for the latter rather than the former.

 

That's the official answer. The real answer is that they charge what they think they can get!

[the kid]

I should also say they are both one man standups.

[andy_s]

they might still have different overheads to cover - for example, smaller theatre - less seats therefore need to set prices higher to make same money - or as JSB suggests - bigger ego says "I'm worth more money" - it's then up to us the punters to prove or disprove the truth of this by choosing to buy or not buy.

[robloxley]

A £45 ticket at half price + booking fee may still be more expensive than a cheap seat bought at the theatre. 

But by the time I've hiked down to London I'd rather pay £22.50 for a front-row seat from the Tkts booth than £15 for a restricted view seat in the gods on the door.

[andy_s]

A £45 ticket at half price + booking fee may still be more expensive than a cheap seat bought at the theatre. 

But by the time I've hiked down to London I'd rather pay £22.50 for a front-row seat from the Tkts booth than £15 for a restricted view seat in the gods on the door.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

but don't go for front row at the Olivier - there's no leg room and you can hear the stage crew going about their business in the scene changes. (very noisy in "Dark Materials")

 

although to be fair these weren't the top price seats!

[Just Some Bloke]

A £45 ticket at half price + booking fee may still be more expensive than a cheap seat bought at the theatre. 

But by the time I've hiked down to London I'd rather pay £22.50 for a front-row seat from the Tkts booth than £15 for a restricted view seat in the gods on the door.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I take your point entirely and I have to admit that my previous post was about West End in general and not all applied to the National or other South Bank venues.

 

However, another trick to pass on to those who aren't used to the London ruses, is that if you are offered cheap tickets to a show that will probably have sold very well, don't do it: they'll be bad seats. If you are offered cheap seats for a show that probably won't have sold well grab them: either they'll move everyone into the good seats to make the theatre look fuller (e.g. close off the upper circle and move everyone down to the dress circle where tickets should have cost double) or there will be so many empty seats around you can just move forwards. 9 times out of 10 no-one will mind as long as the seats you move to haven't been sold.

 

I know that many young people in particular can't afford to pay the train fare to get to the capital plus another £40 - 50 for a ticket. If they're in the business anyway (why else whould they be reading this site?) then learning a couple of tricks should help.

 

Enjoy the show!

 

JSB

[andy_s]

Just on my way from A to B on the tube and spotted a poster for "forum" which says it is part of the cheap tickets season at the NT - ie tickets available at a tenner from the theatre. I know these tickets go pretty quickly, but you can buy them through the theatre's website. Also - I think the NT keep a number of tix for sale to personal callers at the box office on the day of performance - I expect you need to start queueing pretty early for these, though.