31 replies to this topic

[QuincyMD]

BBC News
Not sure hoe he can talk for other people and maybe it reflects the poor quality fare that ALW is putting on.

[dude-1981]

I read some of the comments on that article.  I advise you all to not make the same mistake I did.  I do not know where to start.  

[DanielWhit]

Seems theatre has got tons of hidden fees, according to many comments... Seems this industry is being tarred with the airline brush!

Theatre may have extra fees in certain booking situations, but hardly any are hidden

ETA - Oh dear God..

Quote

Also if the theatres are to be empty why not use them to screen the games for those of us with no tickets.

I need a drink.

[Jan Brock]

I notice that nowhere at all does he say what he actually wants done about this, but I suppose it would involve some taxpayer's money going into his own capacious pockets via VAT reduction or some such. Odd how organisations like the BBC think that because someone is extremely rich their view are somehow more relevant and carry more weight than normal people's and need to be reported (witness also the fawning over the banal utterances of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs).

[igb]

The other thing that he conveniently leaves out is the absolute magnitude of the comparison.  I may be wrong, but I would imagine the volume of booking eight months in advance for "commercial" theatre is quite low: Les Mis might be booking through until the heat death of the universe, but most productions outside that very charmed circle don't have booking horizons remotely as long.   10% of what would be expected to be sold out is a lot of tickets unsold; 10% of a handful of seats pre-sold is neither here nor there.

[armadillo]

Shall we have a sweepstake on how long we're going to have flops blamed on the Olympics? I say until October 2014  

[DanielWhit]

igb, on 30 December 2011 - 07:05 PM, said:

The other thing that he conveniently leaves out is the absolute magnitude of the comparison.  I may be wrong, but I would imagine the volume of booking eight months in advance for "commercial" theatre is quite low: Les Mis might be booking through until the heat death of the universe, but most productions outside that very charmed circle don't have booking horizons remotely as long.   10% of what would be expected to be sold out is a lot of tickets unsold; 10% of a handful of seats pre-sold is neither here nor there.

I took it to read "advance bookings for the Olympic period are at 10% of a standard look ahead of seven months" rather than "10% of the house is sold". Many shows are booking until October 2012 or longer now (can't think of any musical aside Crazy for You who are not).

[igb]

DanielWhit, on 30 December 2011 - 07:29 PM, said:

I took it to read "advance bookings for the Olympic period are at 10% of a standard look ahead of seven months" rather than "10% of the house is sold".

So did I.  But the question I'm asking is how many tickets that really is.   How many tickets for August 2011 had been sold by December 2010 (which is presumably the baseline)?   Les Miserables, to take an example, shows full availability for every performance in May (which presumably is not affected by the Olympics).

[Mark_21]

I read it as bookings are only 10% of what they would normally be for next summer at this time

e.g if this time last year 500,000 tickets for next summer had been booked in advance; this year only 50,000 tickets have been booked in advance for summer 2012.

When it's put like that, it would be quite worrying! I agree lower the prices for that period! As a Londoner, I would certainly take advantage if all shows did similar to Jersey Boys and the open air and have top price seats for £20.12!

[Matthew Winn]

Mark_21, on 31 December 2011 - 03:51 AM, said:

I read it as bookings are only 10% of what they would normally be for next summer at this time

e.g if this time last year 500,000 tickets for next summer had been booked in advance; this year only 50,000 tickets have been booked in advance for summer 2012.

When it's put like that, it would be quite worrying!

I don't think it's particularly worrying. Very few people book theatre tickets that far ahead anyway, plus many people who have booked tickets for the Olympics don't yet know what dates their tickets will be for and so won't be making other commitments that might conflict.