Palladium Pantomime 2023 - Peter Pan

Good to know, thank you. Are there big flying sequences for the journey to Neverland, or have the Darling house scenes at the beginning been axed? (feel free to put response in spoilers)

A lot less of them than i expected!

Thanks for the detail. Which seat were you in?

I was talking to a man at the box office who said it’s their best selling (or fastest selling) Panto ever.

The £20 seats at the Palladium are honestly described as having a severely restricted view but are close to the stage, you see the majority of the show and hear everything. There are images of the view from the seats. I don't think anybody should expect more than they get for the price they pay and I disagree that they should not have been put on sale. They cost more than £20 last year and if there had been too many complaints  I doubt if they wouldn't have been made available again. The £240 revenue from 12 such seats per performance wouldn't be worth the hassle 

When I booked C3 and C4 last week @ £20 I could have opted for seats in the centre of the front row @ £99.50 but decided the £159 difference for the two of us wasn't worth it. If the price difference had been say £39.50 instead of £79.50 per seat I would have made a different choice. 

Also not everyone can afford the ever increasing prices of most seats in many London theatres. Your comment is akin to asking why anyone would buy a budget product rather than middle or top of the range. We had a poster earlier this year who asserted that anybody who couldn't afford the prices of (in his view) the best seats for Newsies shouldn't go at all and he was rightly strongly criticised.

My question would be the reverse " why do people pay up to £195 ( ie £780 for two adults and two children) to sit in the premium seats for a pantomime ?" Plenty do.

I have no idea how families afford it, especially with travel, lunch, programmes, ice-creams, etc.

For my £20 seat, you can see one third of the stage, but you see much more than one third of the show (especially as most of it plays out at the front of the stage). Personally, I like to be able to see faces. So I consider this good value for money (standing the back of the Stalls is a cheaper option as well).

Plus, one advantage of being at the end of the third row is being just outside the audience participation range. Hint, don't sit in the expensive seats on the front row and wear a hoodie.

We had G40 and G41 I think which was £35 and a good view

Popped into the Palladium box office today to see if there were any options to upgrade our £20 seats. I was hoping for a bit of friendly reassurance TBH. Had a rather acidic response from the person helping me. It started with a ‘you can’t believe what you read online about seats. One person’s ’restricted view’ is another person’s ’happy seat.’ This then segued into ‘you’re telling me you’re surprised the ‘severely restricted view seats have a severely restricted view?’ when they checked my booking. And it was all topped off with an eye-roll when I said that ‘the theatre forum I read had said these seats were a great bargain last year, but obviously the scenery is different this year.’

So, you can ‘upgrade’ seats if there’s availability, and they levy a charge of £3 per seat to do it.

Any particularly sudden loud bangs in this years?

I normally react to bangs and I didn't find these anywhere near as bad as previous years. The pyro is more visual than noisy.

The main bangs are during the song, I've forgotten what is was, but 12 Days of Christmas style. Those ones were annoying, although after the first one, you know when they're coming.