Theatre websites and booking engines - the good, the bad

Honestly, ATG's constant revisions of their website has led me to catch a bus into Edinburgh to use the Playhouse box office in person recently. The website constantly crashes, especially on Edge, and it is painfully slow, with several screens between selecting your seats and actually paying for them. No ATG, I do not want to buy your Variety Boxes, Ambassador Lounge passes, wine vouchers, programme vouchers, ice cream vouchers and god knows what other crap ughhh.

Going to the box office actually saves me 15p too.

£3.65 booking fee, £3.50 bus fare.

Ooop. Hey up. I've gone back a few pages, refreshed, logged in this time and I'm in the old GUI.
How exciting!
I wonder what the next page will look like.

I’m more surprised that you’re booking Motown. Direct quote from my friend who went the other night:



Sharpen up your shushing skills! 

Hahah. To be fair, I was looking for alternatives for this evening as my original plan of Royal Exchange has gone down the toilet. Was checking ticket prices* out of intrigue more than intent as it's not really my bag but I'm trying to be more open to things. That review helps solidify the decision though, looks like I'll be spamming on here tonight instead. Sorry!

*£25 all seats with the theatrecard tonight.

No idea. Incredibly frustrating, especially when the previous model involved clicking a seat to reveal seat prices. 

I hate it passionately, I agree it's discriminatory. I can sort of see why a large West End theatre wouldn't want people leaving weird little gaps all over the place, but when it's somewhere like the Donmar Warehouse doing City Of Angels or the Almeida doing Richard III, there's no WAY those random solo seats are going to sit there unsold for the entire duration of the run.

I did have some fun with this last time I was booking a ticket at the Menier Chocolate Factory though; there were two seats together in the front row, and I only wanted one, so I selected the seat I preferred (call it A16) and tried to put it in my basket, to which it said "no, you can't leave a single seat, that's bad". So I changed my view from "select a seat" to "choose best available for me", asked it for a single seat in my price bracket, and it offered me the other one of the two (call it A15). So I left A15 in my basket in one internet browser, opened up the seating plan in another browser, and it let me buy A16 without any complaints whatsoever. And you know what? Despite being a single seat left all on its own, A15 was sold by the end of the day.

I've already complained about it on the previous page. It drives me mad as I go to the theatre on my own about 95% of the time, and the rest of the time when my mother comes with me we don't sit together as we have different seating preferences, so I'm always buying a single seat & therefore hit this issue fairly regularly.

Completely agree it’s annoying either way, but I think it’s worth noting that there are quite straightforward ways to work around trying to buy 2 seats out of a group of 3 (I actually had to do this myself yesterday!) whereas trying to buy 1 of a 2 (or sometimes 1 of a 4) might not be so straightforward and the only option could be to spend more money calling up to book over the phone.

If you're leaving a single seat you can normally put that in your basket in another tab to hold it, book the ones you want in the original tab and then just cancel the single seat.

Serious question: With all the "leave no single seats" policies in place, how come there are always single seats dotted around the place anyway?

I've not often come across the problem because either there's so much availability that I can pick a single seat in an half-empty row or indeed just pick a left-over single seat.

I agree it's annoying though. It has something of the old stupid vibe of "only sad losers do things alone, we keep our nice seats for the normal people who only ever do things in pairs or groups". And surely people who do go in pairs could bear to be parted by sitting in different rows, if only single seats are left, seeing as they aren't meant to talk during the performance anyway.

First preference: go on your own 😁
Second preference: go with someone but don’t sit together 😐
Last resort: sit together 😕

I get that going to the theatre maybe the first time alone is daunting if you haven't done it, but otherwise yes it really irritates me (is it me or is it also THOSE types of couple who can't BELIEVE you're single who also come out with those types comments too...) Again it's one of those 'fine don't go to the theatre alone yourself but don't make a drama out of the fact I/lots of people do.'

Plus having to talk to other humans you bring with you is overrated sometimes.

Also with the sitting separately, surely seeing the thing you want to see is more important than sitting next to someone (again is it me or is it THOSE couples, could't possibly be seperated from my love-bunny for 90 minutes during the show)