Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Pay Less.... See More

As you can see from our Now Booking / Coming Soon we've got a lot of shows coming up in the first half of the year and the cost of tickets quickly adds up - no press freebies for us! So we take advantage of any offers we can to reduce ticket prices, and it seems only fair to share some of these tips with you...

The offer we make the best use of is definitely from the Citizens - every seat for performances on a Tuesday night is only £6 which is a great saving on prices in the main theatre, and makes the more "unknown quantities" in the Circle studio less of a risk.

The Citizens also does special previews for some of their bigger shows and the prices for these can be as low as £3, but these are only available in person on the day. September 2007 - as per the comment below the previews are now pre-bookable.

A lot of other shows/theatres also do discounted tickets for the first night of a run and this generally suits us as it's nice to get a review up here nice and early when anyone reading can still get tickets for the show. Our bookings for Futurology by the NTS at the SECC cost only £5 per ticket instead of £15, and for Aalst by the NTS at the Tramway is only £6 instead of £12.

The Traverse for example does an Apex ticket offer which offers discounts on selected performances for tickets booked a week in advance.

Another tip is to look at shows in studio theatres or unusual venues where seating is unreserved. For these you can often wait until reviews come out before booking and you won't miss out on the best seats by booking late - so long as you remember to turn up early on the night! But be careful you don't get caught out by waiting too long and find the show is a sell out - as happened to us with "Volpone".

Shows that are touring can often have quite different prices at different venues so it's always worth checking if there is an alternative local venue that may offer better value.

It's also worth considering youth, community and amateur productions as with no professional salaries to be paid tickets tend to be generally better priced.

Lastly, come Edinburgh Festival time most shows do 2 for 1 offers for the first weekend. It's a bit of a risk as you'll not have seen any reviews but if you can pick shows based on the past performances by companies it's a great way to see things a little cheaper and minimise any loss if you do end up catching some of the inevitable dross.

And remember - don't just save money - use it to see more shows!

4 Heckles

Anonymous said...

You are so right. There are great deals to be had: we paid £15 each to see "Europe", "Dicssocia" and "Happy Days" at Dundee. Not only that, but the deal included free programmes. It makes the top price at the Lyceum look ridiculous. And even although there are apex-type deals at the Traverse, prices here are creeping a bit high for new work. Stirling MacRobert prices are always lower than Perth Theatre, which are again, too high. We have deliberately not booked EIF, because in the past two years we have seen what have become 5 star shows for half-price. We did pay for Blackbird, and we missed Black Watch - caiught it at Pitlochry.

So sorry you missed Volpone. Saw this at Perth matinee, and had tickets way in advance. Only about 30 seats. It was amazing. Perhaps they will do it again.

I don't know if you are opera-goers, but I saw a wonderful Albert Herring done by the Opera School students in Glasgow last night. These RSAMD performances are well worth catching, and even although 'student productions' they stand up well to professional critical assessment.

Statler said...

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. It's nice to know that good value is available all across the country if you look for it.

Opera isn't really our thing (even musicals are a bit of a stretch for me) but we have meant to catch some of the RSAMD drama productions for a while, so we'll try and make a bit more of an effort to do that soon.

And do feel free to add your thoughts on Volpone as a comment to our own "non-review".

Helen Black said...

Just thought I should mention that the Citizens' Theatre previews can now be booked in advance...still at the joyous price of £3 a ticket for any seat in the house. In addition, every Tuesday at the Citizens' all seats are only £6! So even if you're skint there is always a way to see the show you're after inexpensively. Hx

Waldorf said...

Helen - thanks for the update on the prices. We've updated the post to reflect this.