"The system will choose the best seats for you."

Is that better or worse than the new system at the Oxford Playhouse where they are only releasing tickets from the front of the auditorium first. Meaning people can't book for the cheap seats at all until the rest have been taken.

Not the way to treat people IMHO

Not ATG up to its old tricks again?

Haha. No. I just knew when I went there for the first time, I never wanted to go back, despite the nice auditorium. The staff attitude stank. I can forgive one bad attitude but when you get it from every single member of staff you know something's wrong. There was an arrogance from them, like we should be grateful that they allowed us into 'their' Theatre. There's being proud of your place of work and then there's being in the wrong job. (You could argue that maybe it's me, but when I've never had that in any other Theatre then it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.)

(Apologies for going off on one when I said I wouldn't.)

The Oxford Playhouse is experiencing some very difficult times at the moment. Big name tours are not selling well and there is a sense of a venue in decline. This new booking policy is going to backfire. Many people have favourite seats slightly further back that they are just not going to be able to book at a time which is convenient to them - so they might not bother at all, meaning that long term loyal customers will be driven away.

I can understand the thinking behind making the theatre look fuller from the stage by forcing the audience to the front of the stalls - but the cost of doing that is upsetting your regulars without doing anything to attract new audiences to replace them. With the recent refurb, they went for a multi-coloured seat covers - so there are red, orange, blue and yellow seats randomly spread throughout the auditorium. The effect of this is to make it far more obvious when seats are empty - particularly with the bright yellow seats which just zing out visually.

There is a stubbornness surrounding the Playhouse and it wouldn't surprise me if they refused to change this policy - but it is not going to help producers and promoters or audiences. If the recent run of poorly attended shows continues (and looking at the programming, that is highly possible) then fewer producers will be tempted to include the Playhouse as part of a touring schedule and the rot will spread.

A big shame - and one that only a change in leadership attitude will cure.

Have you been since they redid the auditorium with the different coloured seats?

There are some nice ushers and then the others.  With a set of volunteers you will always get a very mixed bag - and that does affect the way audiences enjoy their visits.  

I haven't had issues with the box office staff - though their IT systems are not always the most reliable (which does lead to frustrations!)

It is a curious venue in so many ways and it can be good to work in as an actor and director.  Most of my visits in recent years as been as a reviewer and so perhaps I am more lucky with my team interactions!

Apologies to joem for having rather hijacked this thread - but the Playhouse situation has been playing on my mind!

I can see there's a problem they need to solve but as you say penalising early / regular bookers isn't the right way to go about it. Why not do more discounting on slow sellers or move people to the front / close the circle and move people to the stalls on the night?

Do they!? I always wondered why EVERYTHING there seems to be incredibly well sold. The New Wolsey was my local theatre growing up and it has a special place in my heart. I think their lovely front of house team, community atmosphere and work with their youth programmes helps counteract any sneaky things they try ticket wise.

Last week booking for Tempest @ Barbican in person I had the website availability open on my phone and was looking at the box office screen at the same time - they were quite different, many more good seats showing available in the latter. Confirmed my suspicion that seat availability shown on-line is fake news.

It wouldn't be the first time I've witnessed a Theatre wanting to have no money and empty seats rather than offering cheaper ones.

I'm impressed Oxford Playhouse let you book disabled tickets online. (My personal pet peeve. Why do so many theatres insist disabled people have to jump through extra hoops to book?)

Didn't know that the Barbican has sunk to this level, but common unfortunately happens a lot in the West End to show that the production is falsely nearly sold out (no one likes dissapointment do they), so theatre companies are taking money from their customers under false pretences, which should be illegal.

Same way as when they show day seats available on a sign outside, but wait go to the box office and they are sold out?

Interesting. One other stray observation, at one of the medium-sized subsidised venues the quality of the best available seats in the top price bracket I've got when booking on the first day of members-only advance booking have been notably worse than what I used to get on the first day of public booking - quite notably so, side circle instead of centre front stalls. I suspect they offload the less good seats on their loyal members.

Isn't it also increasingly common for regional theatres (and some WE) to outsource whole blocks of tickets to other vendors rather than stick to just their own BO?