Post by oxfordsimon on Aug 1, 2017 12:17:55 GMT
In response to the Oxford Mail article and me ranting on Twitter, the Oxford Playhouse have clarified their new ticketing policy - www.oxfordplayhouse.com/news/a-few-facts-about-our-new-tickets-and-prices
Sounds better than the initial information implied. Particularly - "The initial release of all shows will always include the cheapest price tickets. Every week-long show at the Playhouse goes on sale with £10 or £15 tickets available. If we ever start to run out of tickets at the cheapest prices, that’s when we release more seats further back. So you never have to wait for the cheaper seats. We will always make sure that early bookers have access to the most affordable tickets. "
The £10 tickets are the front row - which in the Playhouse is not a very comfortable experience. It is a relatively high stage and so the front row is often the last to sell (under the old system) because people just don't like sitting there.
Some of the better value seats are towards the back of the stalls - and these are the ones they are holding back from sale because of this rather ill-defined term 'atmosphere'
None of this answers the basic flaw that their booking system now creates - and that is that people can no longer choose where they want to sit from the outset of the booking period. The £10/£15 thing is a smokescreen to mask the fact that they are reducing choice.
The vast majority of the tickets that go on sale from the outset are at the newly increased top price. They have rebranded the front row as cheap seats in order to help mask this fact. It is the midrange tickets that are now more difficult to get.
I am afraid that the Playhouse's response is a classic example of trying to justify things by only presenting certain facts. Not good enough and the pressure to return to offering the full range of tickets from the start will continue to grow.