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Post by craigbowker on Jun 20, 2024 13:31:22 GMT
I don't buy full price weekend tickets, I wait for the lottery. That being said, the pricing structure doesn't bother me. Do I think an upper circle is worth £89? Nope! Would I buy that ticket? Nope! But I also think it's cool that they are trying something completely new. I also think it's cool that you can get best-row stalls for £89 on a Saturday night to the Olivier-winning Best Musical when the mixed-review Romeo and Juliet is going for like £300 minimum.
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Post by lt on Jun 20, 2024 13:31:59 GMT
Lol re the fans and the codes. Didn’t know that but can totally imagine it. Yeah I do totally take your points here. It’s become like all shows though. They charge what they can get. If sales fall off, prices will come down. No more a fan of this model than the next man but it’s just how theatres work 🤷🏻♂️ I don't think it has become like all shows. Most shows in the West End, you can see for roughly £25. The view might not be great, but there are tickets available at this price point and while they do go up over time, it's nothing compared to this. This has truly priced people out in a way that I've known very few other shows to ever do to this extent. They were justifying the £90 Saturday tickets at the start by saying it allowed them to keep the cheaper dates earlier in the week. Now those 'cheaper dates' are all being put up too. They're just in it to make as much money as possible which, sure, might be how commercial theatre works, but I've never seen a production company be this blatantly obvious about only being in it for the money. At least pretend you care about the accessibility of theatre... Speaking as someone who tries never to spend more than £25 on a ticket, the positive of their ticketing approach was that - through the lottery - I got great stalls tickets for a Saturday night. Yes you can see many shows in the WE for £25 but if that is back row of the upper circle, often the view is so poor that in many cases I don't think it's worth it. So it was a real treat to have great WE seats at a reasonable price for once. |
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Post by craigbowker on Jun 20, 2024 14:07:38 GMT
I don't think it has become like all shows. Most shows in the West End, you can see for roughly £25. The view might not be great, but there are tickets available at this price point and while they do go up over time, it's nothing compared to this. This has truly priced people out in a way that I've known very few other shows to ever do to this extent. They were justifying the £90 Saturday tickets at the start by saying it allowed them to keep the cheaper dates earlier in the week. Now those 'cheaper dates' are all being put up too. They're just in it to make as much money as possible which, sure, might be how commercial theatre works, but I've never seen a production company be this blatantly obvious about only being in it for the money. At least pretend you care about the accessibility of theatre... Speaking as someone who tries never to spend more than £25 on a ticket, the positive of their ticketing approach was that - through the lottery - I got great stalls tickets for a Saturday night. Yes you can see many shows in the WE for £25 but if that is back row of the upper circle, often the view is so poor that in many cases I don't think it's worth it. So it was a real treat to have great WE seats at a reasonable price for once. I also think they deserve some credit for having the BEST lottery system: - You don't have to remember to enter. Enter once forever. - You don't get randomly assigned a date or seat, you can pick both. - You can get up to SIX tickets at $25 so you can bring a group. |
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Post by fiyerorocher on Jun 20, 2024 14:11:11 GMT
Not sure the entering forever thing actually helps. I do wonder what proportion of 'wins' go to people who aren't actually available to go because they entered while they were in London on holiday and never bothered to remove their email from the lottery afterwards. Similarly the six tickets thing reduces the number of winners which is not ideal - although most people I'm sure don't buy six tickets. The fans often do, though, to maximise the number of times they can all go, so it's not the most help for getting ordinary casual theatre goers into the venue.
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Post by mmmbop on Jun 20, 2024 23:11:38 GMT
Surely the bigger scandal is that, despite the huge range of merchandise, there is no magnet available?!!! Honestly though 😂 |
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Post by properjob on Jun 20, 2024 23:51:39 GMT
They really don't have any concept of the actual problem here. Also 'well we wanted a bigger theatre' is such nonsense - that show would drown in a bigger theatre. It suffered a little even going from off-west end/fringe venues into the Fortune. This is just Avalon getting on the defensive. They're pretty new to producing theatre and they want to establish themselves as legitimate by doing something different, except the thing they chose to do was stupid and now they're frantically trying to justify the unjustifiable and find ways to fix their mistake without just admitting they were wrong and adopting a normal and sensible pricing strategy. And those 'fixes' are also making things worse. I don't think that's fair. Noone is suggesting Dury Lane. The other theatre specifically mentioned in the article is the Trafalgar which our favourite monkey says is 630 seats rather than 427 for the Fortune. |
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Post by fiyerorocher on Jun 21, 2024 9:00:54 GMT
They really don't have any concept of the actual problem here. Also 'well we wanted a bigger theatre' is such nonsense - that show would drown in a bigger theatre. It suffered a little even going from off-west end/fringe venues into the Fortune. This is just Avalon getting on the defensive. They're pretty new to producing theatre and they want to establish themselves as legitimate by doing something different, except the thing they chose to do was stupid and now they're frantically trying to justify the unjustifiable and find ways to fix their mistake without just admitting they were wrong and adopting a normal and sensible pricing strategy. And those 'fixes' are also making things worse. I don't think that's fair. Noone is suggesting Dury Lane. The other theatre specifically mentioned in the article is the Trafalgar which our favourite monkey says is 630 seats rather than 427 for the Fortune. Personally I still think that would be too big. This hit best at the Southwark Playhouse. It just about works at the Fortune, but from the back of the upper circle it's pushing it (probably especially if you paid £90 to be there). |
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Post by khiar on Jun 21, 2024 13:09:35 GMT
Regardless, if you had the nice stalls seats at £120 and the upper circle at £50 it would feel more accessible, wouldn’t it?
We are not fans of not being able to make a decent number of really good seats available to people who can’t afford it. Can anyone make heads or tails of what this triple-negative sentence is saying? Avalon should never have agreed to take such an interview unless they thought they would really knock it out of the park with their response. They... did not. |
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Post by lt on Jun 21, 2024 14:20:06 GMT
Regardless, if you had the nice stalls seats at £120 and the upper circle at £50 it would feel more accessible, wouldn’t it?
We are not fans of not being able to make a decent number of really good seats available to people who can’t afford it. Can anyone make heads or tails of what this triple-negative sentence is saying? Avalon should never have agreed to take such an interview unless they thought they would really knock it out of the park with their response. They... did not. Sometimes if you quote what someone said directly, it looks less clear than if you hear their answer. To me what's been said is clear, which is that the production want to make a decent number of really good seats available to those who can't afford to pay top whack. Personally, I have a greater problem with the question. Why on earth would having stalls tickets at £120, and circle tickets at £50 make it more accessible? When currently top price is considerably less than £120? |
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Post by producerfacts on Jun 21, 2024 14:45:51 GMT
Personally, I have a greater problem with the question. Why on earth would having stalls tickets at £120, and circle tickets at £50 make it more accessible? When currently top price is considerably less than £120? Because £50 is considerably lower than the current price Wednesday to Saturday. The entry price in this situation is what threatens the accessibility, not the top price. |
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Post by Oobi on Jun 21, 2024 15:11:44 GMT
Sometimes if you quote what someone said directly, it looks less clear than if you hear their answer. To me what's been said is clear, which is that the production want to make a decent number of really good seats available to those who can't afford to pay top whack. Personally, I have a greater problem with the question. Why on earth would having stalls tickets at £120, and circle tickets at £50 make it more accessible? When currently top price is considerably less than £120? Because what matters is the barrier to entry - minimum price, not top or average price.
Take airlines for example: something like 80% of their income comes from business and first-class tickets. In a very real sense, rich people's premium flights "subsidize" economy class and hence make flying accessible for millions of people who couldn't otherwise afford it. The same principle applies in theaters - the £200 seat in the middle of the stalls is what allows people like me to buy a £15 corner seat.
I grant you that if what you care about is "seeing the show from the best possible seat" rather than just "seeing the show", Mincemeat's pricing strategy is better. But that's a two-sided coin; what about the people who wind up buying £40 restricted-view seats in the back-corner of the Grand Circle, which in any other similar theater would be far cheaper?
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Post by Jon on Jun 21, 2024 15:23:03 GMT
Avalon's approach to Mincemeat is basically what they do with comedians which is one flat price for every seat.
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Post by caa on Jun 21, 2024 19:17:28 GMT
Avalon's approach to Mincemeat is basically what they do with comedians which is one flat price for every seat. I agree this is their approach but interestingly with their recent Royal Court season there were last minute offers so they can change their model. Avalon have also been in the news with their 65-minute Taskmaster immersive experience costing £100 per person which has upset people. |
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Post by producerfacts on Jun 21, 2024 22:19:59 GMT
Avalon's approach to Mincemeat is basically what they do with comedians which is one flat price for every seat. Would make sense if comedians did open ended runs of eight shows a week |
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Post by Courfeyrac on Jun 22, 2024 11:52:20 GMT
Finally got to see this thanks to the lottery, and okay it was great. A part of me wishes that I hadn't been so sceptical about the comedy and gone a lot sooner, but there's never enough time to see everything when I'm down in London.
Had Holly Sumpton on as Montagu, and she was fantastic along with the rest of the cast.
I don't think I would've seen it if it wasn't for the lottery win - spending £80 on a show that I'm unsure about is a bad decision, but I also feel like I got the bargain of the century for centre stalls at the £25 mark. I think I'll stay subbed to the lottery for any future trips but not sure how I'll feel about any potential wins when it's not feasible to get there.
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Post by ladidah on Jun 22, 2024 15:23:44 GMT
Interval. The show is still perfection. Nothing like it.
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Post by ladidah on Jun 24, 2024 7:06:47 GMT
I went in on Saturday hoping the new cast were okay, knowing that I would be comparing them to the originals.
But wow, I loved every single cast change, they all bring a little something new along with perfect characterisation.
How they manage to learn every word/step/prop of 10+ characters each - I will never know.
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Post by lt on Jun 24, 2024 8:50:39 GMT
This has the potential to be the beginning of a new cult british musical starting next week, the team are all very talented and the subject matter is certainly interesting. Had a listen to some of the songs and they're really catchy with very funny lyrics. Blurb from the website - "The year is 1943 and we’re losing the war. Luckily, we’re about to gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Operation Mincemeat is the fast-paced, hilarious and unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us World War II. The question is, how did a well-dressed corpse wrong-foot Hitler? Operation Mincemeat is Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train, Noel Fielding meets Noel Coward, in a new collaboration between three members of award winning Kill the Beast and glam-punk composer Felix Hagan." This turned out to be a remarkably accurate prediction! |
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Post by hoopoe on Jun 25, 2024 20:01:46 GMT
At the matinee today a little way into All the Ladies a crew member walked on and called a show stop. Took a little over 10 mins and when we resumed Jonty Peach was taking the place of Christian Andrews. Not a clue what happened but it was well handled in terms of keeping us informed, then making some jokes about it when they resumed. Obviously hope all is well with Christian.
I first saw the show about a year ago, and I knew my dad would find the story fascinating but wasn't sure if he'd like the show, so I bought him the Ben Macintyre book. He then told my mum all about it as he was reading and told me several times how good it was. Long story short, I went with my parents today for what was their first West End show and they both loved it. My dad will tell you every chance he gets how much he hates rap, and he does tend to like a whinge so I was a bit nervous, but he had nothing bad to say at all.
For me, it was my first time seeing Christian (briefly), Jonty, Sean and Chloe, and I thought they were all great. I may have preferred some things about Jak's performance, but to be fair he'd had much longer to hone the role, and didn't win an Olivier for nothing.
It's also my first time seeing any show more than once, but I totally understand why people keep returning to Operation Mincemeat, it just has something special.
Last time I remember my partner and I saying while it was excellent overall it wasn't 'hilarious' as seemed to be commonly said, but this time I laughed out loud a lot so I don't know what had changed on that front.
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Post by Rory on Jun 25, 2024 20:06:27 GMT
Jonty Peach. What a fabulous name!
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Post by kyvai on Jun 26, 2024 1:03:23 GMT
Jonty Peach. What a fabulous name! You could imagine “Jonty Peach” working at MI5 couldn’t you! |
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Post by BVM on Jul 9, 2024 10:46:09 GMT
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Post by Courfeyrac on Jul 9, 2024 11:03:19 GMT
The mailing list has sent around another survey aimed for the US crowd about casting: ys7b6gtblwn.typeform.com/to/fuuTV6L6 (Yes this link looks terrible but it is from the mailing list and is also linked through WhatsOnStage). There's some... choices in how they've phrased the questions, especially around understudies. |
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Post by capybara on Jul 9, 2024 11:08:49 GMT
I just…
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Post by solangelafitte on Jul 9, 2024 11:26:45 GMT
The mailing list has sent around another survey aimed for the US crowd about casting: ys7b6gtblwn.typeform.com/to/fuuTV6L6 (Yes this link looks terrible but it is from the mailing list and is also linked through WhatsOnStage). There's some... choices in how they've phrased the questions, especially around understudies. Ah yes, Liza Minnelli, who famously starred in the Broadway production of Cabaret. |
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