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Post by steevo25 on May 3, 2018 20:53:54 GMT
Hi All,
Phantom of the opera has always been one of my favourite musicals. I saw it many times in the 90s and beyond. Two years ago, 2 friends that my wife and I had not seen for many years came to visit and we took them to see Phantom. At that time I bought 4 top-price tickets and each ticket was about £96. I thought it was a bit expensive but it was a special trip.
That was the last time I had seen Phantom. Then fairly recently my daughter and her boyfriend were talking about it after seeing the 25th anniversary DVD. For her birthday next month I thought I would surprise her by buying some Phantom tickets. Today I went on the box office booking site to buy some tickets. I thought I would try and get the same seats as before as we liked them before.
I am still in shock after seeing that 2 years later, the same seats that I paid £96 for are now a whopping £175. Needless to say, I have not purchased them. I love my daughter to bits but am not paying £700 for 2.5 hours of theatre no matter how good the show. I know I can get cheaper tickets elsewhere in the theatre but am still recovering from the shock.
Have I missed something over the last 2 years that has justified a 75% increase in the ticket price? Has the theatre now been overhauled with the ultimate comfort seats with stereophonic speakers built in to the head rests?
If the theatres are not careful, my generation will be the last generation that goes (or used to go) to the theatre on a regular basis. My daughters love the theatre and were brought up with many visits to various shows. But now, they could never afford to go and with the increasing prices I doubt will ever be able to afford to go.
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438 posts
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Post by Rukaya on May 3, 2018 21:10:57 GMT
If you're able to go Mon-Thurs you can get some of the best non 'premium' seats discounted at around the £50 mark, either through places like TKTS or Leicester Square Box Office. Also if you're able to do a Thursday Matinee, there's an offer on the Delfont Mackintosh website for a top price ticket plus afternoon tea at £49.50 per ticket which is a fantastic deal! If you can avoid going on the weekend there are usually great deals to be found But yes, some ticket prices have become ridiculous recently, there's no doubt about that.
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3,426 posts
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Post by ceebee on May 3, 2018 22:23:51 GMT
Forget the stereophonic speakers... the last time I went, I had my very own conductor right in front of me. If they've done anything to the theatre, you wouldn't know. The chandelier over the stalls falls down in EVERY performance. I'm taking some "No More Nails" to fix it next time. It worked in Regents Park for Jesus Christ Superstar, so it'll work for Phantom.
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19,659 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 3, 2018 22:48:43 GMT
This should be in the Phantom thread to be honest, but steevo25 has a point in his very first post about ticket prices in general so I’m hoovering. Whaddya think?
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19,659 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on May 3, 2018 22:49:18 GMT
*hovering 😆
(I hoovered earlier)
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3,426 posts
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Post by ceebee on May 3, 2018 23:33:41 GMT
Change to "Theatre ticket cost"?
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4,153 posts
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Post by kathryn on May 4, 2018 7:29:08 GMT
The subject is really ticket price inflation, isn’t it?
Though really this is probably dynamic pricing in action, either inflating the price of the tickets in the hope that a gullible American will pay that much for them (they’d still look reasonable compared to the $ price for the best seats on broadway), and then reducing them later if not sold, or pushing the price of the best seats up once a large proportion of the house is sold.
I do hate dynamic pricing.
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1,995 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 4, 2018 9:54:08 GMT
What exactly has happened to ticket prices in the past few years? How has this rocketing in prices managed to sneak in?
I'd be really interested to know what's at play (and why the public accept these major rises).
I've been largely unaffected by it because I don't have much interest in the new/hot Broadway import type shows. I've still got away with not paying more than £67.50 (for mostly stalls seats) and that's been for big shows like Dreamgirls, Sunset Boulevard (down the Coliseum) and Gypsy.
I would love to see Phantom again (haven't seen it at Her Majesty's since 2009) but not at £100+ for a good seat.
When and how did the £100+ ticket become normalised?...
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2,677 posts
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Post by viserys on May 4, 2018 10:37:12 GMT
What exactly has happened to ticket prices in the past few years? How has this rocketing in prices managed to sneak in? I'd be really interested to know what's at play (and why the public accept these major rises). I think it's various things at play, but first and foremost the rise of online booking and advancing technology WITHIN online booking that makes it much easier for producers to change the prices quickly. So it's much easier to start with sky-high prices and reduce them at short notice when they aren't selling. Stuff like "rush tickets" seem to play into it, too. I normally don't really follow these things all that keenly, but I've seen that for both "Chess" and "Bat out of Hell" they have apparently started to shift the ludicrously overpriced premium seats by giving them away as rush tickets. Which is less visible than, say, flogging them at TKTS at 50% and thus making it more obvious that they aren't selling out. So it's easier to take a risk not getting rid of them without losing face. Another thing is that London producers see what Broadway gets away with. Both New York and London are huge city destinations, so at any given time there are several thousand tourists in town who aren't theatre-savvy and want to catch a show as part of the experience. They don't mind spending big because it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for them. Tourist shows like Phantom probably benefit mostly from there, because they might have seen Phantom twenty years ago in their home country and want to see it again or just finally see it. I bet that a tourist walking into the box office and being offered a £150 seat, isn't even aware that this isn't a norm - especially when they're not familiar with exchange rates. I mean, I can easily calculate Euro vs Pounds vs Dollar in my head at this stage, but if I'm going to a new country whose currency I'm not familiar with, it gets a lot more complicated and I've found myself thinking "what the hell have I just spend?" more than once. I also have no real yardstick to measure if I'm being way overcharged for, say, a taxi ride or not, because I have no idea how much locals pay (and how it balances against their income). Thirdly, tourism is booming. There's a whole new affluent middle class in many countries that is able to travel for the first time and spend big on things. Only today I've read a half-amusing half-sad article on 4000 Chinese tourists descending on the nearby designer outlet village at the same time, having been given the trip as a gift from their company boss and each of them throwing hundreds of Euros around on designer brands. Do you think these people would think twice about spending £150 on a musical as part of their "London experience"? Obviousy tourist-orientated shows like Phantom benefit more from this kind of thing than smaller shows like Jamie or plays where the language barrier keeps most tourists away, which (I think) is why so many decent new shows have struggled recently.
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4,153 posts
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Post by kathryn on May 4, 2018 10:57:01 GMT
Yes, having just checked the seating plans for a few Saturday nights in May, I can see that the reason why they're getting away with it is that people are paying the prices! The seats are sold.
It looks like the seats are in the chandelier 'drop-zone', which I suppose can be used to justify them being 'the best seats' and worth paying a premium for. But a £79 increase in 2 years just seems mad.
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1,995 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 4, 2018 16:45:20 GMT
What exactly has happened to ticket prices in the past few years? How has this rocketing in prices managed to sneak in? I'd be really interested to know what's at play (and why the public accept these major rises). I think it's various things at play, but first and foremost the rise of online booking and advancing technology WITHIN online booking that makes it much easier for producers to change the prices quickly. So it's much easier to start with sky-high prices and reduce them at short notice when they aren't selling. Stuff like "rush tickets" seem to play into it, too. I normally don't really follow these things all that keenly, but I've seen that for both "Chess" and "Bat out of Hell" they have apparently started to shift the ludicrously overpriced premium seats by giving them away as rush tickets. Which is less visible than, say, flogging them at TKTS at 50% and thus making it more obvious that they aren't selling out. So it's easier to take a risk not getting rid of them without losing face. Another thing is that London producers see what Broadway gets away with. Both New York and London are huge city destinations, so at any given time there are several thousand tourists in town who aren't theatre-savvy and want to catch a show as part of the experience. They don't mind spending big because it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for them. Tourist shows like Phantom probably benefit mostly from there, because they might have seen Phantom twenty years ago in their home country and want to see it again or just finally see it. I bet that a tourist walking into the box office and being offered a £150 seat, isn't even aware that this isn't a norm - especially when they're not familiar with exchange rates. I mean, I can easily calculate Euro vs Pounds vs Dollar in my head at this stage, but if I'm going to a new country whose currency I'm not familiar with, it gets a lot more complicated and I've found myself thinking "what the hell have I just spend?" more than once. I also have no real yardstick to measure if I'm being way overcharged for, say, a taxi ride or not, because I have no idea how much locals pay (and how it balances against their income). Thirdly, tourism is booming. There's a whole new affluent middle class in many countries that is able to travel for the first time and spend big on things. Only today I've read a half-amusing half-sad article on 4000 Chinese tourists descending on the nearby designer outlet village at the same time, having been given the trip as a gift from their company boss and each of them throwing hundreds of Euros around on designer brands. Do you think these people would think twice about spending £150 on a musical as part of their "London experience"? Obviousy tourist-orientated shows like Phantom benefit more from this kind of thing than smaller shows like Jamie or plays where the language barrier keeps most tourists away, which (I think) is why so many decent new shows have struggled recently. Everything you've said makes sense. How unfortunate that the regular theatregoer, for whom it is more of a hobby comes off worse in this - in market aimed in the West End particularly at affluent tourists. We seem to be the Cinderellas in this tale!
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Post by floorshow on May 4, 2018 17:00:40 GMT
We seem to be the Cinderellas in this tale! I wish, we're never home by midnight!
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on May 4, 2018 17:05:52 GMT
Another thing is that London producers see what Broadway gets away with. Both New York and London are huge city destinations, so at any given time there are several thousand tourists in town who aren't theatre-savvy and want to catch a show as part of the experience. They don't mind spending big because it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for them. That's certainly got a lot to do with it. The trend towards "premium seating" began on Broadway (I think The Producers was the first show where it stuck, though there were some $100 premium seats for the Broadway production of Miss Saigon way back in 1991). Dynamic pricing also, because it enables producers to test the outer limits of what people are prepared to pay. Some of it, though, is plain old-fashioned cynicism/greed on the part of the producers. The seat that cost me £57.50 in the first booking period for Hamilton is now £100 - towards the rear of the dress circle, far enough to the side that some of one side of the stage is not quite visible. £57.50 is a fair price for that seat, £100 is not. It's cheeky pricing - and when they get away with it, they'll push the boundary a little further on the next big hit show. And ticket prices on touring productions have shot up over the last few years. A cheap seat at somewhere like the National AND return train fare from where I live to London - about 200 miles each way - costs a bit less than a stalls seat for the Manchester run of Matilda.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2018 17:12:23 GMT
In the defence of dynamic pricing, it also has its benefits. Such as yesterday, when I got centre Stalls Row E at the evening performance of Dreamgirls for £20! That same seat a week later is currently listed at £125! Although the principal of the matter is borderline criminal.
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494 posts
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Post by ellie1981 on May 4, 2018 17:39:22 GMT
It happens everywhere across the board. Talking with some work friends today who never go to the theatre but they were chatting about football. One of them has a ticket to the Arsenal match at the weekend which they got ages ago. Now it’s going to be Arsne (sp?) Wenger’s last home game the prices have been hiked up. Apparently there’s some Champions League match taking place next week so the airlines have increased the flight costs to £1200.
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1,561 posts
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Post by showtoones on May 4, 2018 18:28:05 GMT
Sadly, I think the bottom line is that it is crazy, but as someone said earlier, they can charge what they want and it's our choice or not to pay that price. No one put a gun to my head to spend 200 quid on a Hamilton ticket but at the end of the day I wanted a good seat and it was my choice. Now would I want to spend less? OF COURSE!
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Post by lem on May 4, 2018 20:26:26 GMT
It’s all a case of supply and demand. I’ve not yet seen Harry Potter or Hamilton and don’t expect to do so for several years, or at least until it’s no longer such a hot ticket. Some prices listed are way beyond stupid, but be flexible and you can get Day seats to 42nd street for £15.
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1,995 posts
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Post by distantcousin on May 4, 2018 20:37:42 GMT
So what is the definition of dynamic pricing?
Prices that are changed at short notice - raised if demand is high, dropped if low?
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1,970 posts
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Post by sf on May 4, 2018 20:40:25 GMT
So what is the definition of dynamic pricing? Prices that are changed at short notice - raised if demand is high, dropped if low? Exactly that. Dynamic pricing means the supplier can raise/lower the price in response to demand.
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Post by aksis on May 5, 2018 8:37:19 GMT
I bet that a tourist walking into the box office and being offered a £150 seat, isn't even aware that this isn't a norm - especially when they're not familiar with exchange rates. I mean, I can easily calculate Euro vs Pounds vs Dollar in my head at this stage, but if I'm going to a new country whose currency I'm not familiar with, it gets a lot more complicated and I've found myself thinking "what the hell have I just spend?" more than once. I also have no real yardstick to measure if I'm being way overcharged for, say, a taxi ride or not, because I have no idea how much locals pay (and how it balances against their income). Went to the Ferryman box office yesterday to get some information about the day seat line and the guy was trying to scare me into buying full price tickets in the back. Arguments that they are closing and it is crazy busy and there is such a small change but if you pay more .. I can imagine people will panic buy tickets.
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Post by loureviews on May 6, 2018 12:39:49 GMT
It's called greed. Pure and simple. But as long as the tickets continue to sell, the prices will continue to rise.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2018 15:44:19 GMT
And ticket prices on touring productions have shot up over the last few years. A cheap seat at somewhere like the National AND return train fare from where I live to London - about 200 miles each way - costs a bit less than a stalls seat for the Manchester run of Matilda. I recently found a ticket for the first tour of Les Mis at the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1993: £7.50 for row D of the Dress Circle on a Wednesday matinee. A quick Google search suggests this is the relative value of £14.77 today. However, the same seat for the upcoming Les Mis tour (albiet the Festival Theatre, not the Playhouse) is priced at £58.00. A similar London comparison between a 1996 ticket for Les Mis in the Palace Theatre and today's prices at the Queens (it's the only show still running in London from that time that I can find a ticket stub for): I paid £25 for mid Dress Circle on a Thursday matinee in 1996 (which is apparently the relative value of £45.75 today). Dress Circle premium seats are now £99.75, although to be fair, you probably could find a similar non-premium seat for £57.25. I know this may not be a great illustration of London price increases, as the prices for Les Mis are nowhere near the likes of Hamilton.
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Post by shady23 on May 6, 2018 21:59:27 GMT
It is what it is. There's always going to be more expensive versions of everything we buy. It's about choice.
I did a two show day in London this weekend.
Chess was £17 and the view was perfectly fine.
I got my ticket for 42nd Street for free with my Today Tix credits.
Two great West End shows for £17 seems pretty great to me. Even adding on travel costs that costs less than the inflated prices of touring productions at my local theatre.
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Post by timothyd on May 7, 2018 16:17:13 GMT
Compared to where I live in Europe London is really expensive.
Lion King premium here is 80 euros for example. Mamma Mia premium was 70.
A week before the show you can buy most tickets for half price.
200 pounds for a show is really really expensive.
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Post by timothyd on May 7, 2018 16:17:23 GMT
Compared to where I live in Europe London is really expensive.
Lion King premium here is 80 euros for example. Mamma Mia premium was 70.
A week before the show you can buy most tickets for half price.
200 pounds for a show is really really expensive.
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