To think these theatre prices are outrageous?

[takeharry]

Currently looking at HAMILTON tickets, now I understand they have a ‘star’ casting in Leslie Odom Jr, original broadway cast but FIVE HUNDRED fucking pounds? For one ticket?

There are a few £250/£275 tickets left but the vast majority left are £500.

AIBU to think there should be some sort of regulatory body to prevent this kind of bullshit pricing?

£1k for a couple to have an evening at the theatre

Again the production staff and the actors are putting in their labour and efforts to create a performance for you. It's up to them, to decide what they charge for their labour. Not for MNers to whine and have a hissy fit that the tickets are too expensive.

You don’t know the name of a single Broadway star, do you? Go on. Name one. I’ll wait. Because “I’ve never heard of him” isn’t an argument, it’s a public admission that you don’t follow theatre. Your personal lack of knowledge isn’t the benchmark for who counts as a Broadway star.

Our tickets for Tosca at Glyndebourne in August were £290 each, and they went even the good seats.

Didn’t occur to me to be outraged. There are plenty of other options (The Barber of Seville in a local posh garden last week was also very good, and only £35.)

If you want to watch Hamilton on the cheap, go and see your local secondary school production. If not, suck it up and enjoy the show.

I think the "I don't follow theatre" part was obvious from the next bit 🤣

I’m not sure how many times I need to repeat this but the thread wasn’t about they are pricing in general or other options. It was specifically about the £500 seats for that one run of shows with LOJ starring. I don’t want to see Hamilton on the cheap, in fact I have tickets which were reasonably priced for a LOJ show, I have also seen the show several times both on tour and in the west end.

I am slightly surprised you think £290 is acceptable for a ‘not even good’ seat though but it does highlight that these prices are charged because people will pay them.

I think it's just that it feels unfair to have turned everything into dynamic pricing. The people sitting beside the £500 tickets will have paid less than half that for more or less the same seats just for booking earlier.

At least though, it is the theatre making the profit and not ticket touts selling them separately. These performances are locked down so private sellers can't sell for more than face value.

The £500 tickets are for maybe 10-20 seats per performance -- in a 1500-person theatre, that's about 1% of places being sold for Crazy Rich People money.

I'm fine with that, especially at a show like Hamilton, where they've always made a good attempt to sell more accessible tickets (and run the ticket lottery, too).

Someone super-wealthy who rolls into London and wants to see an otherwise sold-out show at whatever cost can afford to subsidise the charitable causes and the cheaper seats, and keep the show profitable. It would be a real downer if we were leaning towards the £500-ticket becoming normal, but I don't see it going that way.

My daughter and I just saw Leslie Odom Jnr, and we paid less than £500/pp but more than you, because I didn't get my shit together and jump for the more affordable tickets when they were first released. And I don't even mind, because it was (for us) completely worth it.

I know people get burnt out on theatre rip-offs and stunt-casting, but this was absolutely incredible if you're a Hamilton fan. Odom was crazy good and charismatic, with perfect vocals, and the whole cast were giving an A++ performance. I hope anyone who got tickets for this run at any price has a great time.

@takeharry £290 is positively cheap for somewhere like Glyndebourne and in my view is worth every penny. Of course people are willing to pay that much because the standard is world-class, exceptionally skilled and opera tends to attract people who are more affluent.

DH took his DM to see the full Ring Cycle at Beyreuth last year where tickets started at 1200 euros and were rare as hen’s teeth.

I’m still waiting to read @takeharry ’s opinion of the £500 seats now they know some of the proceeds are going to charity.

Thank you. This is the kind of reply I was hoping for in order for a discussion to take place. I take on board everything you say and perhaps it’s not so bad after all to have some tickets at a higher price point. I think I may have been more open to talking about it previously if several of the replies hadn’t been so hostile. I agree with you and again thank you for just discussing without jumping down my throat.

Overall I don’t think it’s any different tbh. The price is the price regardless of where the money goes. That said, with a kinder and more balanced reply regarding reasoning I can see IABU

We can't wait every time i see a clip online i.am giddy with excitement 😀 i am so glad you and your daughter enjoyed it.
We are not there till mid August so seems ages away.

Charity is ridiculous

No, not really. Charities make a difference. So it is churlish to have complained about the £500 ticket price, in my view, when you knew where some of the money was going (from last night).

Did you just pop along to insult me or do you have anything else to say?

Something needs to be done about this.

Yeah, no, that would be highly illegal. I love a good life hack, but “commit international copyright infringement” is a bold choice, even for Mumsnet. Hamilton hasn’t released amateur, school, or community theatre rights yet. Your local elementary school can’t just mount an unlicensed musical because someone is having a meltdown over West End prices.

Flipping heck, we have just paid £60 to see The Car Man later this month.
I thought that was expensive, but we are up in Yorkshire.
Incidentally, has anyone seen it, and would you recommend ? Thanks

Let’s just be 100% clear - nobody is having a meltdown. I tried to raise a sensible conversation, it didn’t happen, well until today anyway, no meltdowns involved.

That’s a bit unfair @takeharry

Plenty of PPs yesterday said that the high prices were just a few tickets, and it’s a positive thing if people with lots of ££ are happy to pay them so others can see the show at a more affordable price.

fwiw - I wouldn’t personally pay £500 to see Hamilton. Because you can pay less, even with LOJ in it. And also it’s not important enough to me.

I did pay that tho to watch the Paris Olympucs athletics in person. For me, for a one-off event I love, that frankly I won’t see again (not going to Aus or US) it was worth it. Happy for others to think what I paid was ridiculous though.

Well the amount of people that jumped down my throat made the sensible posts hard to read. The aggression I was shown and told I needed an economics course and that it is supply and demand, don’t pay it if you don’t want to was unnecessary. So I apologise to anyone I failed to listen to yesterday but obviously due to certain posters I was a tad defensive. I have since changed my opinion, amazing what can happen when people are just, you know, nice. You are right though there were other reasonable posts yesterday so I’m sorry for not taking those on board, I was slightly irked.

And I am just deeply jealous of anyone who gets to see Leslie's stint as Burr because his voice and performance on the recorded version is absolutely divine. Billy Nevers who did the UK tour is another amazing Burr - but I'd still absolutely love to see the originator of the role do it. Especially in the UK - it's often quite rare to get to see the original casts perform - Hadestown we got a very short stint over here so they could record the whole show (although I still insist the original West End cast were the best and I saw them).

Christopher Jackson is returning to Broadway for a stint as Washington - if he came over here after I might implode with excitement.

Christopher Jackson is returning to Broadway for a stint as Washington - if he came over here after I might implode with excitement.

Oh i can't afford to go again 😭