National Theatre All Season Announcements

We've talked about this before a few times, I don't pay the full whack but a slightly reduced donation for a Young Patron membership. If you do this, the only hardship is they'll ask you to reconsider the amount you donate every so often which is totally fair.

As to the other bits about the NT holding back tickets at each round of booking, whilst I've complained about the front row seats being held back for public booking in the past I would always accept that it's up to them, they don't promise you can book anywhere you'd like, just that you have earlier access to being able to book some seats. It's up to us if we want to accept those terms or not, we can all cancel our memberships any time we like. I'd like them to give the best seats to me, but I'd also expect them to give good access to the general casual member of the public, for whom the theatre is also supposed to cater to. I'd hope that they try to strike the right balance for everything, and certainly in the last round I thought they did.

Hasn't this structure has been in place for a while: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/my-nt/membership/renew

What I think has changed is the availability at each level of membership so, for example, there have been are fewer cheaper tickets for Advanced members (virtually none of the front three rows)

I did notice the NT was advertising for data analysis roles about a year ago but had no idea if they were replacing existing staff or taking a new direction.

I didn't know about this 'donation' thing, and I don't know how the lower pricing has changed - the £15 have gone, replaced by £20, but also £10 Friday Rush?

For it to really be a donation, it ought to be voluntary - otherwise it is just a fee.

So if the membership is £11 and the £69 a donation then you should be able to opt out of the donation and just pay the membership. Otherwise it is just a way to get round Gift Aid rules - and not a very ethical one.

You absolutely can do that, that's exactly how it works. You have to contact them though, you can't purchase it through the website as normal. 

And showgirl I can see in April 2018 the tiers were the same, but don't have any evidence from before that. I'm ecstatic that people keep bringing this up though, every time we get another nugget of information about how it works and it helps people choose if a membership is worth it or not. 

I said it on some topic before, but I know from talking to someone at the NT that they do look at data on how people buy tickets, what sorts of tickets they buy and when. Presumably the reason we get runs of booking periods where there are plenty of £15 and then runs when there are none is that someone is looking at what people do. If they see that all the members just buy the more expensive tickets anyway then it stands to reason they'll just keep the cheap seats away from us in the long run.

I get on OK with priority m membership only once have I not been and to get cheap seats down the front . I do find booking quite stressful. Last time was a nightmare but I phoned t he box office and they were just so helpful, I could feel the stress floating away. Well done office.

Painless priority members booking this morning. Was about 110 in the queue and had completed my purchases by 08.45. Both the Lyttelton and the Olivier had a better selection of front £20 seats than they had for the £15 ones with more near the centre of the front stalls available than before. Front row seats were available in both auditoriums. I got the impression that perhaps fewer seats are being held back for the next level bookers than before.

For the dates I looked at in the Olivier all the side block circle seats and the centre block back three rows are £20. The Circle centre block front row was £56, second row £46 and the next two rows £36. Stalls row D was £66 with the £86 seats being a central block starting a few rows back.

If I remember correctly I think only the back couple of rows in the Lyttelton circle were £20.

A busy booking week this week. RSC members booking last Monday was quick and easy. I just hope the Bridge tomorrow and Chichester on Saturday prove equally stress free.

Well, people in the regions are right. I'd write and explain/complain. Doesn't seen fair.

Ah interesting, clearly they just didn’t want the young folk to have them!

Yeah it's quite confusing now? You have to be logged out for it to work. I didn't like it before because whenever I was logged in I couldn't access normal tickets but it seems more confusing to have something tied to your account only be accessible if you aren't logged in to said account. Why not just allow all entry pass accounts to see regular and entry pass tickets? I guess their IT infrastructure is just that bad that they can't ensure that it won't glitch and let other accounts see them or something (it hasn't ever been very good tbf, whenever I try to log in on my phone it'll say the log in was successful but it never is the first time).

Yes very strange IT infrastructure indeed!

Doesn't make any sense to have to log out of your account, find a specific page, click a specific link and then relog into your account to purchase Entry Pass tickets..

Also, it was annoying before when it would show "sold out" to young people for all performances, with no option to purchase any tickets at all; when oftentimes there were many many tickets available, just no Entry Pass tickets.

Sort out your website NT!

Appears to be zero queue and a lot of tickets (including press nights) available in the general sale today.