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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2016 23:40:13 GMT
Yes, the night I was there you could feel the whole audience react to the age gap revelation.
Would it have been that big of a deal when Ibsen was writing, though, I wonder?
It also crossed my mind that Hilda might have been making it up. She appeared to be just about as nutty as Solness. It seemed like he only admitted it to shut her up.
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Post by peggs on Jan 31, 2016 13:14:35 GMT
When she said 'you kissed me', in my head I was asking where?! A hurrah peck on the top of the head for a man who has just triumphed in his building. For those who have seen/read this before how much are we trust to what we're told about what went on, or is that the wrong type of question, i suspect it might be. I reflected this morning that my dissatisfaction with the Hilda character was as she seemed to be leading him to trouble but what had I been expecting as that is quite an Ibsen type role. I rather wanted everything to be somehow okay which clearly would have been something of a turn around and let down as a piece of drama.
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Post by harry on Feb 5, 2016 21:54:41 GMT
I've just looked on the website and have to say I'm pretty disgusted at the prices the Old Vic are charging for this. £140 for most of the stalls and dress circle, £90 for any other non-restricted view, £60 behind a pillar or miles back under the overhang so the top of the stage is cut off, £50 for side-view seats. I would have paid £60 for a decent enough seat but to charge what they say on the show page you click through before buying tickets is top non-premium price to have a "slim pillar in view" is just criminal. I realise Warchus has lost the organisation a LOT of money on his first three flops but this sort of money grabbing actually puts me off the Old Vic as an institution.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2016 22:52:30 GMT
Which pillar seats are you looking at? I've booked one of the best "behind a slim pillar" seats in the house, and it only cost the standard £16.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2016 23:51:07 GMT
Out of interest, Baemax, when did you buy? Looks like this could be a nasty case of our old friend 'dynamic pricing'...I'm reasonably certain prices weren't this high when I looked at the site when public booking first opened.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2016 0:41:41 GMT
The front row stalls has a seat for £140 on a random Monday in Feb
I am sorry but anyone who pays that is a Tw*t
Fiennes is the dullest actor dull in tone, demeanour and appearance and he seems like a dullard
All 3 of his stage roles I have seen were underwhelming and uninspiring
I paid £21 for The Master Builder and have never been so glad to leave as I did at the first interval
Old Vic is a sh*t bag venue
I hate it
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Post by harry on Feb 6, 2016 9:02:02 GMT
I think they hiked all their prices at some point either when it was selling well or maybe even just this week after the reviews. Just because idiots with money to burn or as Parsley so delicately phrases it "twats" will pay £140 to see it doesn't mean it is worth that or that you should charge that much. The website lists ticket prices as.
TICKETS: £12, £16, £21, £30, £50, £60 For information regarding Premium Seats and VIP Packages please call the box office.
The ever reliable Theatremonkey has a price plan as it was originally which fairly corresponds to the above description. However now most of the stalls forward of M are £140, back of that £90 until you are under the overhang. Originally the front row of the dress circle was premium £90 then the rows behind £60, now everything is £140. The upper circle was £30, back rows £21, now £60 and £50. So they are now selling the upper circle at their top quoted price.
It's just so disingenuous to say you are anti-touting and will refuse entry to people buying tickets at inflated prices but then your own policy is to inflate your prices to over double if something is popular.
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Post by n1david on Feb 6, 2016 9:11:04 GMT
Wow. My £60 seat in row J Stalls (bought in Sep) seems a complete bargain now. Much as I'm looking forward to this, if I could flog both of our seats for £140 I might take the £160 margin...
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Post by harry on Feb 6, 2016 9:12:22 GMT
Fair enough but this is dynamism on acid. £60 for those horrible old hard-backed seats in row E of the upper circle, miles from the stage with a top down view? No thanks.
The real shame is that regular theatregoers who know the Old Vic just won't pay these joke prices but people who aren't in the theatregoing habit and simply desperate to see Raph Feinnes onstage will be conned into thinking that is what these tickets are worth, get there and feel totally ripped off. It is perpetuating the myth that all theatre is elitist and prohibitatively expensive.
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Post by harry on Feb 6, 2016 9:15:34 GMT
Wow. My £60 seat in row J Stalls (bought in Sep) seems a complete bargain now. Much as I'm looking forward to this, if I could flog both of our seats for £140 I might take the £160 margin... Except if they found out they would say those tickets were invalidated. It's only allowed when they do it themselves...
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Xanderl
Member
Not always very high value in terms of ticket yield or donations
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Post by Xanderl on Feb 6, 2016 9:16:15 GMT
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Post by Snciole on Feb 6, 2016 14:56:35 GMT
That's horrific. I paid £30 for Row B of Lillian Bayliss, nice view but I would be reluctant to pay more.
The problem is Old Vic should be offering £10 seats for all performances and then they could at least justify inflated prices to subsidise those but to offer cheap seats across 5 performances and then inflate the run is outrageous.
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Post by Jonnyboy on Feb 7, 2016 9:46:19 GMT
What is going on with theatre prices?! I've brought my family to London several times a year for 15 years and the pricing has just gone crazy in recent times. I used to cringe at paying £60 a seat front stalls but this is just ridiculous. I fear regular theatregoers are being priced out of 'starry' shows.
When I was under 26 I got a front row seat for £12. And now it's £140... I'll have to pass. Not paying £60 for a crappy seat.
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Post by theatreliker on Feb 7, 2016 10:32:52 GMT
Saw this yesterday and have to say I'm starting to enjoy Ibsen more recently. Only having seen Hedda Gabler (at the Old Vic too) I thought I'd read more of his work and The Master Builder seems to have ideas about art also explored in When We Dead Wake. But here, like in An Enemy of the People, the protagonist takes a bit of jump in his thinking. In An Enemy of the People, Stockmann goes from wanting to persuade the town about the town's water supply to soon decrying them all as mongrels or some such. Here, although I found it believable, I thought that Solness' thoughts later in the play about why he's building the spire seem to come out of nowhere. I thought the music really added to this, and Fiennes' and Snook's chemistry worked well; I did get the idea that they were in some sort of dream, perhaps, and she was his muse as suggested in the programme. Fine performances from the whole cast, and the set is great. The set, cast, lighting and sound all came to together at the end to produce an effective tragic end.
The Old Vic have apparently filmed the first 3 productions in the season and they might put them on their website apparently. So even more people can dislike the first two! I jest. However, I don't like the £10 preview deal when it's not really accessible to those outside London and dynamic pricing is surely going to put people off (especially the young, but I managed to buy my ticket ages ago for this).
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 8, 2016 17:03:09 GMT
The Old Vic this year has such a varied programme that each individual production appeals to a different sector of casual theatregoers. So, the premiumification of The Master Builder for the poshos who want to see Ralphy in a classic won't be noticed by the general audiences for Tim Spall in Pinter or for the Drew Maconie narrative dance show or for the USAn movie musical. The only overlap audience is the theatre junkies like you lot. But you've already bought discount tickets at the optimum time, being in the know. So I don't think the present Ibsenite inflation will do much damage to future box office, and I expect that the unfunded Old Vic is desperate for this extra income at the moment so good luck to them!
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 8, 2016 17:48:09 GMT
Yes, I agree that "stupid prices for bad seats" is tantamount to mis-selling. But dynamic pricing of excellent seats, and even of good seats, is now generally accepted as a reasonable way for producers to improve their financial stability, to balance their less successful shows. And extreme premiumification has the benefit of increasing availability and access, for those willing and able to pay.
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Post by Honoured Guest on Feb 8, 2016 18:11:26 GMT
You have access to much data on ticket purchasing and I'm just making assumptions. But I would think there are many people who attend theatre only occasionally, and like it to be an excellent event on those irregular occasions. So premium pricing is a good way for theatre producers to maximise their income from these attenders whilst also giving them easier access to excellent, and good, seats.
There are plenty of alternatives for the frequent and value-seeking attenders.
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Post by Jonnyboy on Feb 8, 2016 20:45:35 GMT
Interesting points here!
It's harder, I suppose, for people who don't live in London. I come down from Manchester several times a year and there's just no way I can plan ahead to book tickets that far in advance. Consequently, I'm finding myself being 'targeted' by price hikes nearer the time.
Just checked on the dates I was considering for this - the seats have pretty much all gone! So somebody is buying them! And who can blame the theatre for trying to get as much money as possible? It might not be ethical but it's a business at the end of the day.
Oh, what's this I see? Row T seats available in the stalls... £100 each. What?! And I'm sure they were £90 just yesterday!
Oh well...
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Post by David J on Feb 8, 2016 21:37:43 GMT
I'm really engrossed by this
A real psychological character study, with so much to listen to
Ralph Fiennes is superb in this
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Post by harry on Feb 8, 2016 23:55:17 GMT
Yes looks like the prices have gone up again today. It saddens me that the Old Vic which used to be THE example how an artistically programmed building putting on a programme that was far from easy or purely populist could thrive in the commercial sector while charging little more than the National and offering commercially subsidised seats to young people and local non-theatregoing communities has been turned into a venue greedier than the most aggressively commercial of West End theatres. Rather than making me want to book early in future this has put me off going back at all.
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Post by fossil on Feb 9, 2016 10:07:25 GMT
It is not just the commercial sector that goes in for dynamic pricing. The RSC does this, albeit on a far more modest scale. From the RSC August 2016 - February 2017 season brochure "Prices are guaranteed throughout the priority booking period until Monday 29 February 2016. After this date, prices may vary by performance."
Checking brochure against current web prices for a couple of dates. Cymbeline 6 May increased from £42.50 to £47.50 and Don Quixote 22 March from £37 to £45.
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Post by Jan on Feb 9, 2016 11:15:11 GMT
It is not just the commercial sector that goes in for dynamic pricing. The RSC does this, albeit on a far more modest scale. From the RSC August 2016 - February 2017 season brochure "Prices are guaranteed throughout the priority booking period until Monday 29 February 2016. After this date, prices may vary by performance." Checking brochure against current web prices for a couple of dates. Cymbeline 6 May increased from £42.50 to £47.50 and Don Quixote 22 March from £37 to £45. Interesting. I suppose another cruder form of dynamic pricing is the NT' and Trafalger where you start stupidly high to soak your regular audience then dump them onto TKTS later (wonder.land, Waste, As You Like It, Homecoming).
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Post by alnoor on Feb 10, 2016 7:35:40 GMT
Have returned a Dress Circle ticket for today's matinee. Theatre will try and resell. I paid £21 row A 29
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 20:02:11 GMT
Delays for us this afternoon- five minutes late starting, and then the House Manager went on stage during the second interval to announce "technical problems" and gave apologies for a later than planned start to Act Three. Good overall, not brilliant... Not convinced by the actress playing Hilda, but not because of hand-waving as this seems to have stopped. Nice set and clever little coup at the end!
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Post by vickster51 on Feb 19, 2016 14:58:26 GMT
Well I'm relieved to see others on here weren't particularly fussed about this production. after seeing so many reviews calling it a masterpiece I thought there was something wrong with me! I saw this last night, from behind a slim pillar that cost me £50 (but by now may have gone up even more). The acting was all very good. Fiennes was great, but more impressive in my view in Man & Superman, which despite the long running time had me engrossed from start to finish. Last night I was simply bored and almost left after each interval (I've still never done it, as I always hope it'll improve).
Ultimately I just wasn't bothered about the story. It all seemed a bit pointless to me and I didn;t really like any of the characters. Also, I didn't think the set changes added anything to the play and so only added unnecessary time on to the running time.
As for the pricing, I have to agree it's put me off the Old Vic. I'll try and go to the £10 previews but other than that I think it'll be one I downgrade on my list of theatres to visit. Under Spacey, it wasn't cheap but I never felt the audience was getting ripped off. £140 for the front row and half the stalls is just dreadful. I think I find it more offensive after hearing all Mr Warchus's talk about wanting the Old Vic to be seen as less posh under his watch. If that was the way he saw it before (which always seemed a bit rude to his predecessor who did such a great job of building its reputation and making it successful), then charging such high prices for everyone other than those who book immediately isn't going to help.
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Post by Snciole on Feb 19, 2016 15:59:24 GMT
Absolutely nothing stopping The Old Vic bringing back under 25 tickets or doing what the Young Vic do and have free/cheaper tickets for local residents in Borough and Lambeth to make it accessible and "not posh" but he has done the exact opposite.
The £10 tickets will go to those in the know and the high priced tickets are aimed at rich tourists or older patrons that perhaps already spend a lot in sponsorship. I have a friends membership but unlikely I will renew beyond August if I can get £30 or under Glenda tickets before then.
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Post by Latecomer on Feb 19, 2016 16:25:56 GMT
I am happy with their new system...real theatre fans can book for the £10 previews (if you can fathom out how to get a seat on the website that no-one else has just nabbed!) and as I am not under 25 (by quite a long way) but not yet a senior (also by quite a long way!) I used to have to give most stuff a miss! I will take my chances on previews and probably see more than I used to here!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 18:21:29 GMT
Heavens, Monkey, whatever have you been drinking?
I spoke to a colleague the other day who loves theatre and adores Fiennes, and even she said she'd only award it 3 stars out of 5...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2016 19:13:29 GMT
Heavens, Monkey, whatever have you been drinking? I spoke to a colleague the other day who loves theatre and adores Fiennes, and even she said she'd only award it 3 stars out of 5... Perhaps it was the pillar...? Only joking, Monkey.
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Feb 22, 2016 20:47:41 GMT
Always lose concentration when Fiennes is acting. Don't know one actor who plays up the hammy actor as much as Fiennes.
I can hear the Fiennes commentary in his head. It goes something like... walk from table to bench purposefully, and pose. And deliver lines.
Walk from bench to chair, how shall I walk? Yes let's do it purposefully and don't forget to hold chair in the pose that you only ever see on stage. And deliver lines, wow that was powerful text.
Now walk from chair to table, I must do this purposefully and remember that pose as I lean on the table in a completely unnatural manner. Deliver lines and repeat.
Hope this is not giving away a spoiler for anyone who has not seen see The Master Builder but I was dreading the set in act 1 with so many props for Fiennes.
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