Donmar All New Seasons

Have the Donmar done away with £10 circle seats completely now then? Cheapest seems to be £21 even on the far sides with only standing showing as £10.

Appears to be an extra circle row and stalls row on the opposite side of the auditorium now too for A Dolls House 2.

I was told that the loss of €10 seats was just for dolls house 2 but maybe not?

Not impressed by the price hike here. £15-20 price rise in 2 years clearly a rise higher than in inflation. £60 for a ticket to Donmar?!? I normally love coming here and was fine for paying £45 for Force Majeure and Mary Seacole but this is really quite offputting.

Ah, Spelling Bee. I absolutely loved that show and that production. The critics really panned it and at the time I seem to remember it was seen as a very strange show for the Donmar (whose musicals had tended to be quite serious or at least not frivolous up to that point) but I remember having a fab time. Parade (also superlatively good) didn’t transfer. There is something about seeing musicals in such an intimate venue that I think will always beat a bigger West End house. Then again the Menier have an excellent track record of wonderful intimate musical productions making successful transfers into town so maybe I’m just talking nonsense!

Either way I don’t know The Band’s Visit at all but have booked to see it and really looking forward to it.

News of this has been out for 24 hours but no one has started a thread on this which I find fascinating.  Time was when the Donmar was the theatre everyone wanted to go to, if they could get tickets, or talk about if they couldn't.  Has it lost its mojo?  I could be persuaded to see the Lillian Hellman Watch Over the Rhine, though I must admit the plays I've seen of hers strike me as being more of historical interest rather than gripping shows in their own right.  These days I guess she is best known as as the object of the one of the great literary putdowns, Mary McCarthy's 'Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the'.  I don't know anything about Diana Nneka Atuona or Next to Normal, so I shall reserve judgment there.  Anyone seen anything by Atuona or any of the US productions of the musical?


www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/donmar-warehouse-2023-season-next-to-normal_57567.html

Plenty of discussion about Next to Normal, including the obligatory casting of Rachel Tucker. The existing thread has doubled in length over the last 24 hours.

theatreboard.co.uk/thread/8536/next-normal-donmar-2023?page=4

Two USA plays out of three. The UK subsidised sector continues to enable US cultural imperialism.

At least two productions in between I expect. 

They just wanted the hype for N2N so announced it super early. 

I'm not sure if Next to Normal would do well commercially so they probably wouldn't want to jump the gun planning a transfer this early on.

If it’s cost viable for them to transfer it to one of the smaller West End venues then I can’t imagine it not happening. The Scottsboro Boys had a 5 month limited run at the Garrick, I could well seeing that being the trajectory for Next to Normal (good luck to other musicals next year in the best musical/best actress race)

Seems like an event for those with deep pockets.

A bit of a spurious celebration too as it’s been operating much longer than 30 years. They are counting from the redevelopment in 1992 but I saw my first show there in 1983 (when the auditorium wasn’t much different) and it actually opened in 1977. It was even a producing theatre prior to 1992 - when the RSC had it they first produced Educating Rita there amongst other things. They should have roped in McKellen, his Macbeth remains one of the most famous productions they’ve hosted.