I was heartily encouraged when the press release arrived for the stage version of Brief Encounter that the brilliant young director Emma Rice is bringing to the Cineworld Cinema in the Haymarket, restoring it to its original use as a theatre (when it was known as the Carlton, though the original stage was completely lost when part of the site was sold off to become part of an adjoining office block). Ticket prices were listed as being just £25-£29.50, which I thought was a terrific move towards making the West End more realistically affordable (and draw the younger audience that Kneehigh seeks to attract). But it turns out that the press release wasn’t telling the whole truth: if you visit the show’s website, it turns out that these prices are only fixed to March 2; from March 4 onwards, they spike upwards to £35-£39.50.
It has always been the case, of course, that the Travelex £10 season at the National doesn’t in fact mean that the whole house is £10; just that the majority of the seats were, with only the prime centre stalls area going at £25.
But as the initiative returns for a 6th season next month with the opening of Nick Hytner’s production of Major Barbara, there’s been an even more subtle massaging of the price breaks: now the £10 seats are just the front few rows (which they always are, in fact) and the side and rear circle seats. Side stalls and centre circle are now £15, while the centre stalls are now £30.
And when the Donmar Warehouse announced its West End initiative, to take over Wyndham’s Theatre from September for a season that will include Chekhov’s Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh, Twelfth Night with Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench in Madame de Sade and Jude Law as Hamlet, Michael Grandage originally promised that prices would be kept at the Donmar’s own house levels. In fact, at one end its actually cheaper – instead of the current bottom price of £15 at the Donmar, the West End will offer seats at £10; but the top end has crept up a bit, with tickets up to £32.50 rather than the current prevailing weekend top price of £29 at the Donmar itself.
But if each of these initiatives still looks like a bargain (or in the case of Brief Encounter, at least initially), the truth nowadays is that for all but the few biggest hits in the West End discounting is so rampant that no one needs to pay much more than £25 for anything.
SOLT’s own annual Get into London Theatre promotion to tide the West End across the post-Christmas blues is with us once again – but even if that, too, has seen an upwards spike with some musicals (and, bizarrely, the newly arriving production of The Importance of Being Earnest) being offered at £35, the majority of shows are pitching their offers at £15 and £25. But those are the sorts of prices you will regularly find at other times of the year, too – simply go to theatremonkey to find the current offers being made collated in one place.
I love English theatre. There's no theatre in the world that's as consistently good. I just wish that there was more low price availability for people like me, who love it but can't afford it.
Don't forget that most West End theatres have
lower prices for groups of 8-10. Fringe theatres also have group and senior rates.
Ted
theatres need to start pricing their seats as airlines do.