Les Miserables - The Staged Concert

Ridiculous.

They arrived out of the blue about half an hour ago. I pounced as not many cheap seats in the new configuration. 

Mine was cancelled and so I got a credit note. Have rebooked a same price ticket for early February.
Do we think that JoJ will still do the Tuesday of the extra week?

Yes, I've now also received two refund emails, covering the value of the three bookings. I still haven't been told that two of them have been cancelled.

But I can rebook into seats that cost more each than the value of all the tickets put together...

Oh well. Nimax is running shows on Saturday and have 100 times better customer service...

I thought they had taken the current run off sale (coincidentally just after I pointed out the ridiculousness of that yesterday).

Really poor form if they have over-cancelled the cheap tickets just to sell more expensive ones.

I wonder what the T&Cs actually say about when they can cancel tickets (I presume there is a broad "operational reasons" catch all), as the Government policy is not a licence to cancel the cheap tickets alone...

What do you mean the comms are pitiful....It's clear in the emails which hardly anyone has received. "We will also be releasing a limited number of the production seats (normally reserved for the artists) in the Stalls and Dress Circle throughout December and January should you wish to upgrade your booking" - translated - "we're actually holding back a fair number of seats but as we can sell them for more than you have paid - hard luck". And hey the email is almost 700 words - and sorry appears once - what more do you want!!!

Looking at the seating plans for January there are now performances with more than 60 top price tickets on sale (I'm neither a DMT+ member or in the priority rebooking category) with presumably more to come.

Also compare the comms lines:

From the DMT email: "The financial implications of the Government's new directive have put a massive strain on this production which was, in any event, designed to simply break even under current circumstances. It is now almost certain to make a substantial loss.`

From Nica Burns when she announced the reopening of her theatres: “Although with reduced capacities it is not possible to make a profit, we will be earning a contribution to our costs.
With the furlough support scheme ending on 31 October, this income will help us retain Nimax’s highly skilled, experienced workforce and give work to some of the talented tapestry of freelancers onstage and backstage. We will also be able to support some of the many teams and businesses which together give our audiences a night to remember. Our theatre community cannot wait to get back to work safely.”

From the Open Air Theatre when they announced Jesus Christ Superstar: ''With social distancing, seating capacity has been dramatically reduced to 390 seats (from 1,256). This makes producing any large-scale show economically extremely challenging, particularly as we are an unfunded organisation. Nevertheless, both for us as a venue, and the industry as a whole, we believe it is incumbent upon us to do everything possible to reopen this year.”

All in the tone really - given that they are all pretty much making the same point. The latter two focus on making things happen in spite of problems and financial difficulties, today's is really about blaming others and passing the problem on to the customer.

Interestingly the Open Air Theatre one is from William Village - soon to take over as Richard Johnston as Chief Executive Office at DMT.

Don't get me wrong - the Government have shafted theatres (in all tiers) and put them in an unenviable position - but there are ways of dealing with it and communicating messages - and this doesn't seem to be it.

I've not had anything so far. I've got £95 dress circle seats so fingers crossed.
Also not heard anything from Palladium as due there the following night but again stalls seats so might also be OK.
Really sorry for those affected. Just when we thought there was something to look forward to at the end of the year.

Thanks for that, when I looked at the night show, 2 X 3 seats were available in row H, I quickly looked at the matinee, when I went back to the night, there was only 1 X 3 seats left so I just grabbed them

I rebooked for February cause I did get through a credit voucher. But I have a few things that have irked me today:

1. I know it isn't straightforward and would take a lot of man power (and they'd probably lose a week at the beginning to actually manage to do it, but everyone could have got in under the capacity cap if they'd moved to the Prince Edward. Yes it would be tricky but they wouldn't be running at a loss (as they now feel they must tell us, as if that's some kind of reason we should now feel grateful for how this has been handled).
2. The fact that they went for the cheapest people first. I fully get financially this is the wisest decision but I had no communication last week at all. Nothing until this morning. 23 million people are now not meant to travel for anything other than work, and if they had contacted people to offer refunds then there's a chance they could have got almost all of the performances under capacity. But the only effort I can see they made was a tweet/Facebook post on Thursday last week? It just didn't feel like it moved anywhere near as fast as it should/could have done.
3. Finally, I know that you pay for the show, not the names (I preach that gospel all the time) but I can't help feeling a little short changed in Feb. Very much looking forward to seeing Jon Robyns and Josefina Gabrielle, but at the Ball and Boe prices it just sits a bit weirdly with me.

I hate having a moan (despite the fact it probably looks like I rather enjoy it) but I'm well put off of CamMack now after this year.

Received my credit note with the explanations of what I could do and what shows were available to book...

Looked at dates in January and thought they were still packing loads of people in - looked like they were still booking at more than 50% capacity - so decided against it and went for a refund instead!!!

I thought the restrictions are only lifted for travelling to see family.

But then again, who would know?

Received my credit note but the options given were not good at all for me. Have limited days that we could make it and date of my original booking appears to be completely sold out. I've asked for a refund.

Not impressed by the way Delfont Mackintosh has handled this.