Theatre 2023

To be honest if it is dynamic pricing £300 doesn't surprise me, unfortunately.

Wicked is back here next year and the best stalls seats are £145. For a regional tour. I'm not paying that, and I'm not going to pay £90 or whatever it is for a third tier seat either, and I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I have a bit of disposable income.

So double that for the Glittering West End doesn't astonish me, sadly.
 
I'm taking my two great nieces to see Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in October here, and that's £250 for the three of us, with no child concessions. It really pisses me off that so many people (particularly when it's children's shows) are excluded from theatre. We're lucky that we have a thriving smaller scene where you can go and see shows for a fraction of that, but you don't get the big productions that draw children in to a love of it.

And yes, I know Charlie is supposedly not very good @Ellie or @Christian (I seem to remember one of you posting it), but if they enjoy it, I will, regardless of any reservations. I've listened to the London Cast Recording and was a little underwhelmed.
 
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lolly said:
I'm taking my two great nieces to see Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in October here, and that's £250 for the three of us, with no child concessions. It really pisses me off that so many people (particularly when it's children's shows) are excluded from theatre. We're lucky that we have a thriving smaller scene where you can go and see shows for a fraction of that, but you don't get the big productions that draw children in to a love of it.

And yes, I know Charlie is supposedly not very good @Ellie or @Christian (I seem to remember one of you posting it), but if they enjoy it, I will, regardless of any reservations. I've listened to the London Cast Recording and was a little underwhelmed.
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I’ve not seen Charlie myself but yes, a few friends saw it and were not impressed.

I just can’t believe the prices for the touring shows. That’s way worse than the West End as at least there are Kids Week schemes during the holidays (had some brilliant ones for Frozen and Matilda this year among others) and loads of random flash deals. SpongeBob is touring and has a month long stretch at Southbank Centre and there were so many great deals for £15 seats, and pretty good ones too.
 
I've definitely noticed an increase in seatfiller availability from various sources, and that's great if you fancy something last minute - I'm sure I'd be all over it like you Ellie, if I lived in London.

But for taking children to shows particularly, you can't hold off months in the hope that you MAY get a cheap ticket in the week or so before. Part of the fun is the anticipation of it. They know that a huge chunk of people will pay the inflated prices for a guaranteed seat on the right day.

Perhaps that is the pricing strategy now - release tickets at an inflated price nobody in their right minds should pay, sell as many as you can in the hope you'll make £££, and then flog off the rest at whatever you can get for them.
 
Actually I bought my Cabaret tickets the week before the show which may explain why I got them so cheap.
 
Finn said:
I hope Cabaret is going to slide into full Chicago-esque stunt casting as the pool of good queer and queer-interest talent dries up.

2:22 A Ghost Story STARLET Cheryl as Sally Bowles for 2024, please. With Gok Wan as Emcee.
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Misread this as :starlet: as Sally and honestly, I'd watch it.
 
lolly said:
I've definitely noticed an increase in seatfiller availability from various sources, and that's great if you fancy something last minute - I'm sure I'd be all over it like you Ellie, if I lived in London.

But for taking children to shows particularly, you can't hold off months in the hope that you MAY get a cheap ticket in the week or so before. Part of the fun is the anticipation of it. They know that a huge chunk of people will pay the inflated prices for a guaranteed seat on the right day.

Perhaps that is the pricing strategy now - release tickets at an inflated price nobody in their right minds should pay, sell as many as you can in the hope you'll make £££, and then flog off the rest at whatever you can get for them.
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What are the best seatfiller sites/aps these days pretty please?
 
lolly said:
Perhaps that is the pricing strategy now - release tickets at an inflated price nobody in their right minds should pay, sell as many as you can in the hope you'll make £££, and then flog off the rest at whatever you can get for them.
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Yep. That’s pretty much it. And with touring shows with limited runs for a few weeks, they can get away with it!

ATG is one of the worst companies too. A friend messaged me last week about going to see The Enfield Haunting with Catherine Tate (opens in November) and prices are stupid right now. They advertise at “from £25” when the £25 tickets are for single seats at the back. Groups right at the back start from £40 and everything else (i.e. about 80% of the seats) £90-£150.

I told her to hold off, wait for Black Friday and Theatre Week deals when they come around later. The only plays that end up with stupidly high prices tend to star young hot male actors anyway. I hope I’m right.

With Family shows aimed at kids, all bets are off. Exactly what you said with exploiting people who need to plan ahead.
 
Halli said:
What are the best seatfiller sites/aps these days pretty please?
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ShowFilmFirst.com - sign up to their mailing list club. It’s excellent and nationwide. Sometimes not even last minute as I got £20 seats at the front for We Will Rock You a few weeks in advance. You just have to be quick when the email links come through.

I’m on one other secret mailing list that’s invite only, doesn’t have a website and is really rather good. A colleague signed me up. They don’t have as much choice as the likes of Central Tickets and Audience Club, but it’s always quality stuff, you don’t need to load money into a kitty (PayPal £4 charge only) and only have to book one thing per year to stay on the list. Audience Club had a minimum of 10 shows a year and rarely offered anything good. Catch is you have to live in Greater London area to be accepted.
 
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lolly said:
I'm taking my two great nieces to see Charlie And The Chocolate Factory in October here, and that's £250 for the three of us, with no child concessions. It really pisses me off that so many people (particularly when it's children's shows) are excluded from theatre. We're lucky that we have a thriving smaller scene where you can go and see shows for a fraction of that, but you don't get the big productions that draw children in to a love of it.

And yes, I know Charlie is supposedly not very good @Ellie or @Christian (I seem to remember one of you posting it), but if they enjoy it, I will, regardless of any reservations. I've listened to the London Cast Recording and was a little underwhelmed.
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It's a decent family show, I'm sure they'll have fun. It was swarming with kids as you'd expect, but it seemed quite fidget free near me (the family tucking into a full picnic spread notwithstanding). Didn't think much of the score, but the story is all there which powers it through. "It Must Be Believed To Be Seen" is the best song by far, and a brilliant title too.

They hadn't fixed the very shaky (literally) Glass Elevator when when I saw it early in the London run, but they had already wisely added "Pure Imagination" following general audience disgruntlement that it didn't feature.

Don't know who's playing Willy Wonka these days, but I saw Douglas Hodge who was appropriately creepy and cold. I think they softened him up post-London though, just like they sadly did with Mary Poppins.
 
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Ellie said:
Have any of you seen Aspects of Love? Not one to turn down a free ticket, I thought well it’s famous. It’s supposed to be a bit crap but how bad can it be?

VERY BAD. It’s like what people who hate musicals imagine all musicals are like. If a fake musical within a film or TV show is made up to be a parody of something that is supposed to be bad… yeah, it’s that.

On the plus side, Jason Pennycooke and Russell Tovey sat in front of us.

You’re so ever so hard to please @Christian so I was surprised at your more positive feedback.
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:D

I love the score and it was a decent rendition of that. Still wish it had had design on the scale of the original London production by Maria Björnson (Phantom). So DELUXE.
 
Gareth Snook is Willy Wonka for the tour. Not heard of him personally.
 
@lolly - agree that Six! is amazing. The title song from it is always on repeat with me, but then it is basically GRL - Ugly Heart. :disco: With the show at only an hour long with no interval, I think they’ve got it exactly right. A great balance of comedy and history learning too.

@Lucille - seeing Cabaret in September in some amazing free seats because my friend’s sugar daddy has cheated on her and he bought her show tickets for her and a friend to say sorry :D

@jivafox - we saw 2:22 - A Cheryl Cole Ghost Story last night, with Frankie Bridges now playing Cheryl Cole. We went because there was a flash sale on with tickets and overall it was a pretty decent show and story for a Tuesday evening, 7/10.

However - and I really was willing this to not be the case - but the Frankie Bridges school of acting consisting of shouting and throwing either one arm or two arms in the air let the intricacies of the story down. In some parts she was OKAY when the dialogue was short quips, but I knew we were in trouble when her monologue about her tragic past started.

Her drunken acting in the last 15 minutes led to a smattering of sporadic laughter from across the theatre, particularly the fall to the floor which I know first hand is so hard to fake convincingly. The unintended effect of this Faye Dunaway school of acting was that the audience were in such a silly mood that the BIG REVEAL FRIDAY moment at the very end got a LOL from more than a few rows.
 
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I saw 2:22 A Ghost Story last week too! Probably the same flash sale. It was a bit underwhelming and Stuart from Eastenders was just playing Stuart from Eastenders, so I wondered how other actors had played it before. The audience was jumping all over the place for some reason, and I couldn’t work out why. At the very least at 2 hours including interval, it didn’t outstay it’s welcome.
 
Frankie Bridge plays Lauren rather than the main character Jenny that Cheryl played, is that right? I saw it with Cheryl as Jenny, I really rather enjoyed it, she was OK, I would like to see it with Jaime Winstone to compare!
 
Halli said:
Frankie Bridge plays Lauren rather than the main character Jenny that Cheryl played, is that right? I saw it with Cheryl as Jenny, I really rather enjoyed it, she was OK, I would like to see it with Jaime Winstone to compare!
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Yes that’s right. Jaime Winstone was very good. I thought they were all fine. It was just generic in the staging and not in the least bit spooky.
 
Just saw FROZEN. It was good, but I did upset a German family behind me when I asked them to ensure that their child stop kicking the back of my chair. ES TUT MIR LEID!
 
Going to Book of Mormon on a Friday matinee now on one of my days off. Someone on a Twitter Community group was selling it for £20. Bargain!
 
Suomi said:
Just saw FROZEN. It was good, but I did upset a German family behind me when I asked them to ensure that their child stop kicking the back of my chair. ES TUT MIR LEID!
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We had a seat-kicking child behind us during Matilda in NYC.
And when we saw Frozen there was an Italian family sitting in front of us. The mother was basically translating all of the dialogue for her children.
Thankfully my partner has a short fuse and went ballistic at the parents. That softened their cough.
Not our problem they're bringing kids to kids shows :D
 
www.whatsonstage.com

Choir Boy at Bristol Old Vic announces casting

The production is Bristol Old Vic’s new artistic director Nancy Medina’s first since taking up the position
www.whatsonstage.com www.whatsonstage.com

@lolly Maybe one for you? I saw Michael Ahomka-Lindsay in Newsies and his voice was just incredible. Like BUTTA.

mike myers snl GIF
 
Ellie said:
www.whatsonstage.com

Choir Boy at Bristol Old Vic announces casting

The production is Bristol Old Vic’s new artistic director Nancy Medina’s first since taking up the position
www.whatsonstage.com www.whatsonstage.com

@lolly Maybe one for you? I saw Michael Ahomka-Lindsay in Newsies and his voice was just incredible. Like BUTTA.

mike myers snl GIF
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It's very much on my radar, thanks Ellie. Just deciding who I want to see it with. I've got a feeling my teenage nieces would love it, but again that would leave me being the one paying for it in all likelihood :D
 
That's the first production by the new artistic director, as the link you posted says. And she's the first female to hold the post, and the first person of colour.

That she's chosen to make her first production a queer black love story feels like quite the statement of intent.
 
I've managed to hoodwink my teenage niece into seeing Sunset Boulevard Starring Nicole Scherzinger by giving her a summary of the plot and humming the big songs.

She's coming over to watch the film as a warm up. I hope she'll be able to run through her All Time Top 5 Norma Desmonds by the time the show is on.
 
Chrissy are you seeing Next To Normal? I see the RAVES have started to roll in
 
Why does the Donmar Warehouse always show massively in demand things when they obviously sell out immediately? Hardly anything transfers either. It was the same with Tammy Faye at the Almeida. At the moment I’m just banking on someone putting one up for resale on a convenient date. The majority of the ones I’ve seen come up on offer are for under-30s tickets too!
 
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Donmar shows are massively in demand because of the effort they make creatively, plus the space itself is tiny. Their shows have limited commercial appeal and are often star cast without paying star salaries, hence are tough to transfer and replicate in a standard West End theatre.

Tammy Faye is in development, hence the limited run and the lack of transfer so far. It will reappear with a bigger budget at some point.
 
We’ve booked for Private Lives with Nigel Havers in October! Lyonesse maybe a little bit later but haven’t decided yet.
 
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