Theater Tickets

[lakeguy]

We are spending more than a week in London next spring and plan to attend 3 West End performances. I would like to purchase tickets from a vendor who will send me the tickets and not have to collect the tickets when we get to London. Can anyone help?

[LondonTowner]

Try Ticketmaster

[orchestrapal]

We are spending more than a week in London next spring and plan to attend 3 West End performances. I would like to purchase tickets from a vendor who will send me the tickets and not have to collect the tickets when we get to London. Can anyone help?

 

For most shows you will pay much much more buying from any ticket seller.

We spend 5-6 weeks in London a year and attend a performance every day.

We would only buy directly from the theaters. Some will mail you the tickets and others will have the tickets for you to pick up just before the performance.

All this can easily be accomplished online or by phone.

[Mairnealach]

Some theatres and music venues are moving to e-tickets which can be printed at home after booking online through their websites. This is now the case with English National Opera and the Royal Albert Hall (for Henry Wood promenade concerts). The tickets are scanned on arrival at the venue, the same procedure used for airline boarding cards. I would assume that over time more venues will adopt this practice.

 

 

The last time I booked, the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Royal Opera House still required tickets to be collected from a machine in the foyer by inserting the credit card used to make the booking; or, in the Globe's case, from a person at a desk by showing the credit card. I do not recall if they post tickets overseas for a fee. I always book directly with the theatre and have found collecting tickets on the night of the performance to be no problem whatsoever.

 

Dermot

[Pet Nit Noy]

We are spending more than a week in London next spring and plan to attend 3 West End performances. I would like to purchase tickets from a vendor who will send me the tickets and not have to collect the tickets when we get to London. Can anyone help?

 

If you're going to use Ticketmaster to buy West End tickets, you can only use the UK web site. You cannot purchase international tickets by calling the US 800 phone number or, even using the US site.

 

On our fall visit, we asked our concierge to handle our ticket purchases for us. We discussed date and price range with the concierge and, then, the concierge took over the mechanics. We were handed our tickets at check in.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Pet Nit Noy

[LondonTowner]

Whether you buy through Ticketmaster or with the theatre direct, you still pay a handling charge. Many theatres only sell the tickets via a company like Ticketmaster, they don't handle direct bookings. It depends what you want to see.

 

If you decide to see a show that has been running a long time or isn't that popular you may be able to get 'returns' on the day of the performance, which can work out very economical.

[orchestrapal]

If your going to the many musicals running you can usually get tickets at the half price booth on Leicester square day of the show.

We don't do musicals and most all of serious theatre tickets can be purchased from the US directly with the theatre website and many can now be printed at home.

[ozscotart]

National Theatre plays sell out quite often, I would recommend booking when the play opens for public booking, dates for this will be noted against each play on their website. I haven't had any problems collecting tickets at the box office on the day.

Re musicals, other posters are correct, you may be able to get returns at the theatre on the day, or tickets at the half price ticket booth. Personally, I prefer to bite the bullet and pay full price in order to get a decent seat. Most West End theatres use booking agents so Ticketmaster is a good safe site to book through. Some theatres have some very poor seats, bad sightlines etc, price is a good guide to this.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Some theatres have some very poor seats, bad sightlines etc, price is a good guide to this.

 

Indeed it is, but for more help check out Theatre Monkey, which has details of every London theatre, reviews of the seating arrangements (often down to individual seats) and details of box office and agency ticket arrangements.

 

Not a particularly well designed website, but an incredible amount of info. This is the link for their list of venues (they also do it by productions):

 

http://www.theatremonkey.com/INFORMATIONBYVENUENAMEAtoZ.htm

[calmac]

This is another route to buying tickets for shows at ATG Theatres. We have a Theatre Card and managed to save more than it's cost due to special offers on two shows.

 

http://www.atgtickets.com/

[jsmeeker]

Not sure if this helps or not but I bought tickets to Book of Mormon (showing at Prince of Wales Theater) directly from the show/theater. They don't mail them to the States. They didn't do electronic or print at home. We picked them up at the theater before the show. But it was easy and fast. No real line. You tell them your name. Show them the card your used to book. they hand them over. Super simple.