I’ve been doing the rounds in the West End recently, buying the cheapest possible seats to various shows, so I can let you know whether they are value for money or not. Check out my first blog about it here and look out for part two coming soon!
My £7.50 ticket to Dear Evan Hansen, mentioned in my first blog, was severely restricted and I only caught a few glimpses of the actual actors (and I had to lean forward for that). But for £7.50, I wasn’t expecting a great view. I thought ‘if you can’t afford standard theatre ticket prices but love the music from the show, then this at least gives you an opportunity to be in the room and hear the music played live’.
But I have seen today a show selling £15 restricted view seats in the West End which come with a warning that ‘you will miss at least 90% of the stage’. And this made me think ‘is ok to sell theatre tickets when you know the person buying the seat will only see 10% of the stage’?
Charging £15 to see 10% of the stage would mean you would have to pay £150 for a ticket to see a clear view of the stage but even the most premium of seats for this particular show are less than that.
So where should the line be drawn between what seats should be sold and which should just be kept off of sale altogether? Should there be a bare minimum view of the stage (say 25%) for tickets to be allowed to be sold?
What do you think?