12 posts
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Post by hereforham on Sept 19, 2017 19:19:25 GMT
Surely it doesn't take an awful lot of common sense to realise that there is a chance that a major full-scale building refurbishment is going to run over its schedule? People shouldn't need to be told to factor in the risk that an early show in any run might be cancelled, and indeed they are warned by the very fact the show is sold as a preview rather than for a show that has properly opened! Was your average ticket buyer aware (or my point, made aware) that the show was contigent on a major full-scale building refurbishment? I can't remember what the booking blurb said but there's a world (flight) of difference between Hamilton will take place in a shiny new theatre and buyer beware, the preview period will be extra precarious because we're booking an unfinished theatre.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2017 19:30:14 GMT
Was your average ticket buyer aware (or my point, made aware) that the show was contigent on a major full-scale building refurbishment? I can't remember what the booking blurb said but there's a world (flight) of difference between Hamilton will take place in a shiny new theatre and buyer beware, the preview period will be extra precarious because we're booking an unfinished theatre. But it wasn't your average ticket buyer buying tickets for those first few weeks. It was fans of the show or people who knew enough about it to book it on the first day and i'm pretty sure alot of those people knew it was going into a refurbished theatre. Of course, we all expected it to be ready on time, but it's not. Its a huge, major building project and problems happen. Yes people can be disappointed by it, but i dont get why some people are making such a big deal of it. Sh!t happens.
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Post by danb on Sept 19, 2017 20:30:45 GMT
Was your average ticket buyer aware (or my point, made aware) that the show was contigent on a major full-scale building refurbishment? I can't remember what the booking blurb said but there's a world (flight) of difference between Hamilton will take place in a shiny new theatre and buyer beware, the preview period will be extra precarious because we're booking an unfinished theatre. But it wasn't your average ticket buyer buying tickets for those first few weeks. It was fans of the show or people who knew enough about it to book it on the first day and i'm pretty sure alot of those people knew it was going into a refurbished theatre. Of course, we all expected it to be ready on time, but it's not. Its a huge, major building project and problems happen. Yes people can be disappointed by it, but i dont get why some people are making such a big deal of it. Sh!t happens. But with the right forward planning it needn't have happened...greed pure and simple.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2017 21:09:43 GMT
How does greed come into it??
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Post by danb on Sept 19, 2017 21:15:47 GMT
Pack them in, take their money without knowing that they can provide what has been promised! Greed.
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4,141 posts
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Post by kathryn on Sept 19, 2017 21:30:36 GMT
Like I said, I'd hedge a bet on this exact issue being covered in the terms and conditions on booking. If people didn't read them they've only got themselves to blame. Really? Well let's ask those who bought tickets if there was such a clause in their transaction to say 'it's on your heads if we don't get the theatre built on time.' Sounds unlikely to me. I didn't buy tickets but I do feel terribly sorry for everyone who did and who finds themselves in this mess. I'm not the least bit bothered whether they bought them so early on in the run to say ' I was there!' We all want to look back and say 'I was there!' for something that's special to us. I would imagine quite a few who bought tickets for shows for the first couple of weeks do not live in London (or even the UK) and are completely unaware of how behind schedule the theatre looks. I suspect many people didn't even realise the theatre was under reconstruction. *I* didn't realise the extent of the building work, since I don't go past the theatre and hadn't looked up what was happening with the theatre.
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4,141 posts
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Post by kathryn on Sept 19, 2017 21:33:56 GMT
Was your average ticket buyer aware (or my point, made aware) that the show was contigent on a major full-scale building refurbishment? I can't remember what the booking blurb said but there's a world (flight) of difference between Hamilton will take place in a shiny new theatre and buyer beware, the preview period will be extra precarious because we're booking an unfinished theatre. But it wasn't your average ticket buyer buying tickets for those first few weeks. It was fans of the show or people who knew enough about it to book it on the first day and i'm pretty sure alot of those people knew it was going into a refurbished theatre. Of course, we all expected it to be ready on time, but it's not. Its a huge, major building project and problems happen. Yes people can be disappointed by it, but i dont get why some people are making such a big deal of it. Sh!t happens. Oh, come off it. All a fan of a show needs ro know to book in the first few previews is when they start - they don't need to have looked up CamMac's refurbishment plans. I booked for previews because the tickets were cheaper, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I know to avoid the first few previews as a matter of course but many non-regular theatre-goers don't. Even I wouldn't expect a show to open 2 weeks late! Bottom line is that people will have *lost money* because of this as well as being diappointed. Unless they were rich enough to pay for more expensive refundable flights/train tickets/hotel rooms they will be paying fees to re-arrange their travel at the very least.
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1,497 posts
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Post by foxa on Sept 20, 2017 7:33:53 GMT
I book previews because I often like to see shows before the reviews are out and because the tickets are cheaper, like Kathryn says. I don't do it through ignorance or these bizarre bragging rights that have been mentioned - I'm not sure those would get me very far. I live in London and go to the theatre a lot but don't walk by that particular theatre so hadn't really known about the state of its refurbishments. In this instance, I knew enough not to book for the first previews, those are so often cancelled, but a week in seemed fairly safe.
As long as I have okay tickets earlyish in the run that the person I booked with and I can go to (as seems to be the case from the ticket receipt, though Ticketmaster haven't sent a confirmation) , I'm not upset. It's just a minor hassle. But if others are, after the trouble of making arrangements, etc. , it seems a bit weird to have a go at them. Sure stuff happens, but that doesn't mean that people can't get upset about that stuff. This show has been so hyped and one of the by-products of that is that people will feel very invested in it.
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2,774 posts
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Post by daniel on Sept 20, 2017 10:08:30 GMT
Anyone else think it's kinda ironic that we usually avoid the first preview due to its susceptibility to be cancelled, yet in this case the first preview was the "safest" one, due to its guaranteed date change with the same seats!
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430 posts
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Post by alison on Sept 20, 2017 17:51:02 GMT
Still nothing on my account re what show I am allowed to attend, despite filling in the form straight away. 11 days ago. It really shouldn't take this long! Same situation here. I'm one of the lucky ones in that it's more of an inconvenience for me rather than a major financial loss, but having to keep three weekends clear in the run up to Christmas is proving tricky. Just tell me already. I went past the theatre on Saturday and got a very quick sneaky peek in the door the workmen use as they were constantly coming in and out. Didn't see much, but it certainly doesn't look anywhere near ready. Not living in London, I'm only ever around the theatre when I'm in that area seeing something else anyway (in this case Starlight Express at TOP), so I had no idea how far behind it was until the ticket announcement.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2017 18:05:39 GMT
Requests for change of ticket dates had to be in by the 15th Sept, which was last Friday, so i doubt they made any decisions before then, and then they said you would hear within 10 working days. It stated that in the email so i'm not sure why peeople expect things immediately. I'd be very surprised if anyone heard anything before next week.
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8,031 posts
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Post by alece10 on Sept 20, 2017 18:17:34 GMT
My e mail says I will receive an e mail within 10 working days of receiving my form and not 10 working days after the closing date so I've worked out I should hear tomorrow. What's the betting I won't.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2017 18:25:20 GMT
The email does say 10 days after receiving your form, but to process each form individually based on their 3 preferences makes no sense. It's a huge logistical puzzle and you cant do that without having all the pieces first, hence the closing date. I'd bet on you not hearing anything tomorrow too But maybe you will!
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47 posts
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Post by pauln on Sept 21, 2017 0:11:16 GMT
Has anyone had any luck purchasing canceled tickets from Ticketmaster? I've been mining the site for a couple of weeks now but have yet to see the first seat pop up.
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2,774 posts
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Post by daniel on Sept 21, 2017 1:26:23 GMT
Has anyone had any luck purchasing canceled tickets from Ticketmaster? I've been mining the site for a couple of weeks now but have yet to see the first seat pop up. I would imagine that they're still being held back. I expect that there will be another onsale day where they will release all of the cancelled tickets, as well as all of the other seats that they had on hold. This may or may not coincide with a booking extension. At this stage, I wouldn't expect to see random tickets appearing on the site ala Cursed Child. In a couple of weeks when this has all died down and some relative normality had resumed, quite probably.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2017 15:02:23 GMT
I've just received an email telling me it's taking a little longer than 10 days to move everyone from the first two weeks.
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8,031 posts
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Post by alece10 on Sept 21, 2017 16:04:45 GMT
Same here. Hopefully they are reconsidering the crappy seat they appear to have given me and will allocate me something similar to what I booked and paid for.
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8,031 posts
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Post by alece10 on Sept 25, 2017 8:14:37 GMT
Ever the pessimist me but does anyone else think the further delay could be because they are going to push the start back even further? They seem to have reallocated many people if the thing we did on the Ticketmaster website is correct when we requested a copy of the receipt and found the new date allocated. So why hold that information back?
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4,361 posts
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Post by shady23 on Sept 25, 2017 8:18:32 GMT
More than two weeks later I still haven't heard a thing. Why is it taking so long? I need to arrange travel, sort holiday from work etc. Not all us just live around the corner.
The postponement was annoying, but this continual delay is ridiculous!
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3,057 posts
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Post by ali973 on Sept 25, 2017 8:33:41 GMT
^ same, sort of. I want to book other shows around those travel dates, and I'm sort of stuck.
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821 posts
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Post by ensembleswings on Sept 25, 2017 10:37:14 GMT
Ever the pessimist me but does anyone else think the further delay could be because they are going to push the start back even further? They seem to have reallocated many people if the thing we did on the Ticketmaster website is correct when we requested a copy of the receipt and found the new date allocated. So why hold that information back? I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did push the start back further. To me it feels like they could be waiting until they know for definite the building will be ready before they say they've reallocated you all, although they could just be waiting until they'e reallocated everybody and then just sending one bulk email/announcement rather than contacting you all once they've sorted your individual seat.
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840 posts
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Post by Steffi on Sept 25, 2017 11:31:24 GMT
My receipt has now changed to show my (I guess) new date. In regards to pushing the start back further: My three choices of alternative dates were all in December and right now it looks like I am going on December 15th.
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239 posts
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Post by dizzieblonde on Sept 25, 2017 16:31:37 GMT
Ever the pessimist me but does anyone else think the further delay could be because they are going to push the start back even further? They seem to have reallocated many people if the thing we did on the Ticketmaster website is correct when we requested a copy of the receipt and found the new date allocated. So why hold that information back? I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did push the start back further. To me it feels like they could be waiting until they know for definite the building will be ready before they say they've reallocated you all, although they could just be waiting until they'e reallocated everybody and then just sending one bulk email/announcement rather than contacting you all once they've sorted your individual seat. Didn't people from the original first preview already get reallocated to the new 1st preview date? That kinda fixes in the first preview date, if so. They just can't reallocate those early previews (the ones now starting from 6th Dec) again! I think they're now bound to those revised dates - whether the theatre as a whole is completely ready is another thing! I suspect that all efforts will be going into the stage and auditorium completion - if there are uncompleted areas backstage, and elsewhere, they'll likely live with that and force the rest of the work to be done during preview period. Whilst they'll need working light and sound rigs etc, they can run the previews with a less than perfect theatre as a whole. Opening night is another matter - that's the hard stop date - but given it's a whole month later than the original date they were planning to start previews, I'd say they'll most likely meet that deadline. It beggers belief that a 20 month project isn't enough to complete this work - if the original handover date was early November, changing that to mid December is surely enough lead time to complete everything (you'd think)!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2017 16:56:21 GMT
Of course, with Ticketmaster knowing my buying history, every time I go to check the status of this order, I get an advert encouraging me to part with some money to see Company as soon as I load their site.
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5,124 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Sept 26, 2017 13:10:10 GMT
20 months to practically rebuild a listed theatre, on a tight and complicated site in central London, seems like almost nothing to me. Looking at the planning documents, it would take almost that long just to read them all!
Ultimately, the date Hamilton opens will be decided by Westminster City Council and/or London Fire Brigade.
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