Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Yesterday I walked past the theatre around 1pm and there was a queue of around 10 people.

Some particular highlights of my five minutes of hovering:

one person rejected a ticket
another person had to think about it but then took it
one bloke couldn't understand why he needed to see two shows
another bloke carefully explained this to him

it always amazes me when people reject tickets for completely sold-out shows. Or don't follow the rules by eg, not having cash. I once returned a ticket for something hot (Donmar maybe?) and the person at the front of the queue offered me her  credit card. Obviously I told him I wanted cash and she seemed to think i was mad. When I actually came back for the show acouple of hours later , she was having exactly the same conversation with someone else and couldn't seem to understand why her card wasn't very useful in circumstances 

But surely, judging by tweets, if people are THAT desperate to see the play they will just take the seats, if not then they are really in no position to moan if the online queue doesn't go there way as they will have had a chance to see the play - and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this scenario has played out in reality.

It could be anything?  I did once return my mediocre £50 stalls seat for a play on the day of the performance after queuing for a day seat in the morning and thus getting a much better seat in the front row for only £10. If they hadn't sold it, I would have been OK with paying £10 more to be in the front. If they sold it (and they did), I "earned" £40 which wasn't a bad bargain.

Also, I guess if you're in London from out of town for a weekend or as a tourist, you'd be happy to bag ANYTHING they'll offer you as a return, but if you live in London and have time to try several times... why not reject an awful balcony seat if indeed you might be lucky and get a great stalls seat?

That makes sense but what I mean is, there's usually not many people returning their tickets for a show like this per day so aren't people lining up more so for the equivalent of cancellation lines on Broadway which are unused house seats? I feel like if they were just getting seats that had been returned they wouldn't bother queuing because there would be hardly any. Am I wrong?

100% no idea, however see my comment earlier for what I saw for the one time I said hello to the queue. Let us know as I'm very curious about success rate too (I've got a friend who wants to see it this summer, and I'm pondering trying to go back again).

Fair enough. It's hard enough for me tolerating more than an hour in a day seat line where you can estimate based on numbers if you'll get a ticket or not. Joining the returns line for potentially several hours with no guarantee is a tall order! Good luck with it

Wow. Might be time to start considering setting up a line sitting business!

Wow that's impressive!

Now I wouldn't mind standing in a line for several hours if you're going to pay me handsomely to do it...

There's absolutely no way I'd queue up overnight for a 2-part play. It's not so bad if you can be done at the box office by 10, find somewhere to nap for a few hours, to come back out refreshed for a 7.30 show, but for me personally, if I'd been in a queue since 3am, I'd be falling asleep by lunchtime! But I guess needs must!

So I was 13th in row yesterday and got in about 1 hour before the show. The seat is J12, and three people in front of me got J13, 14, and 15, the row right under the dress circle overhang . Fantastic view, needless to say. Four people in front of us were offered dress circle seats around 1 hour after the box office opened. I believe more people got in after me. So, my suggestion would be arrive at 6 or 7, take a book or bring a friend to kill time, and very likely you'll be able to snatch a last-minute ticket.