The BBC reports that theatre tickets in the west end have risen by an eye-watering 30%. The average west end ticket is now just under £50, coming in at £49.25. However, that doesn’t mean that this price needs to be paid. As a regular theatregoer, I’ve picked up a few tricks to save some money.
5) Cashback
While you can gain cashback from almost anything, I was a bit surprised to see that theatre tickets were one thing you could earn cashback on. TopCashback for example currently offers 5.25% cashback on online orders at Love Theatre which is the same rate as ATG offers. Ticketmaster and London Theatre Direct also have cashback available to it’s well worth a look.
Cashback is the commission the website eans on the purchase and passes it back to the customer. Therefore, while cashback is not guaranteed for the times when the commission is paid elsewhere or when an eligible purchase isn’t made, you can reduce the chance of this by clearing cookies before logging in to make the purchase.
4) Dropping Down a Price Band
Choosing where to sit in a theatre can be challenging. Some venues do have pictures to give you an idea of the view, these aren’t everywhere and they can also be limited to the better viewing areas.
Looking at the price bands around the area you want to site at can be a great way to compromise and get some greats seats. You may find that the seat next door to the one you were going to purchase is half the price while the view isn’t that different.
Looking at sites like seatplan.com can help you decide if it’s worth doing this. These sites use user submitted reviews and pictures to give you a better idea of what your view is going to be. Seatplan started in the west end but is rolling out across ATG venues around the country.
3) Discount Sites
Groupon and Travelzoo have been around for many years and it seems that theatres, particularly regional ones are starting to advertise more deals through them.
This recent example outlines what the Regent Theatre offered on Kinky Boots
- Band A (£46.50-£49) £23
- Band B (£38-£40) £15
- Band C (£29.50-£30) £13
Take Band A Tickets in the example above reflect a 47% saving when you take into account the transaction charge! You do need to check the small print for blackout dates and keep an eye out for transaction charges but it’s possible to bag yourself a great deal.
2) Join A Membership / Friends Scheme
This one is particularly helpful for local regional theatre visits. Many theatres have some sort of friends scheme. Some of these are free to join such as the Birmingham Rep’s Preview Scheme for under 30s which gives you £5 tickets for select performances.
However, you can upgrade your membership and pay £25 a year to access further perks such as 20% off if you buy six tickets, a free backstage tour and 10% off at their restaurant.
I’ll be doing a rundown of some schemes like this around the midlands soon, so keep an eye out!
The Rep also has different schemes available for those who don’t fall under the under 30 scheme and these schemes share a lot of the benefits.
A perk for most membership schemes to is priority booking. This means you get the first dibs of the cheapest tickets.
ATG who operate many venues across the country have their theatre card scheme and one of the perks are no booking fees, alongside priority booking! Do always do your sums beforehand to make sure you save more than the membership but it’s worth checking out.
1) Join A Mailing List / Last Minute Discounting
Noneone likes spam, but theatres are far more likely to send you one or two emails a week, rather than some companies who email you daily. In addition, you will find some of these contain different discount codes and last minute ticket deals.
The Wolverhampton Grand currently offers £10 tickets (£13 including booking fee) to see the touring production of Rotterdam which is over 50% off for some price bands.
Not only may you find yourself a saving but there’s a possibility they’ll send you details of a production that wasn’t on your radar before.
Since the introduction of GDPR, there’s a chance you have been auto unrolled from mailing lists so double check as you could be missing out on some amazing discounts.
The Theatre Twittic 
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