Visa & Other Cardholders Miss Out on Olivier Tix
If you didn’t have any luck getting tickets to last Sunday’s
Whatsonstage.com Awards
and/or you’re ready for another star-studded Theatreland
prize-giving, set your watches now for next Tuesday 1 March
2011 at 10.00am, when tickets will go on sale to this year’s
Laurence Olivier Awards, taking place at the West End’s
Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Sunday 13 March.
It’s the first time that the Oliviers are being held in a
theatre since 2003 and the first time in more than ten years
that the public are being invited to attend (what a good
idea for a theatre awards ceremony…). Of the 2,200+ seats
in Drury Lane, 600 – in the Upper Circle and Balcony – will
be sold to the public.
Tickets are priced from £25, £45 and £65, which will
include a complimentary programme and interval glass of
champagne. There will also be screens in the auditorium
showing the red carpet arrivals of all the stars.
The headline sponsor for this year’s Oliviers is
MasterCard, which may be a problem for holders of Visa or
any other credit or debit card who’d like to buy Olivier
tickets. If you’re paying by card, you can only use a
MasterCard, whether you’re doing so in person at the tkts
booth in Leicester Square (which is also run by Olivier
organisers and theatre marketing association, the Society of
London Theatre), online at OlivierAwards.com
and via See Tickets. Otherwise, get down in person quick as
you can to the tkts booth, with cash or Theatre Tokens in
hand.
Also for the first time since 2003, the Oliviers will be
back on television this year, thanks to a tie-up with the
BBC, which will see live coverage throughout the night on
the interactive Red button.
In the payment card battle, Visa, which sponsors the 2012
London Olympics, recently attracted negative press – and an
Office of Fair Trading investigation – for insisting that
only Visa can be used for booking tickets to next summer’s
games. MasterCard is also a headline sponsor for Southbank
Centre’s upcoming Festival of Britain programme, but other
cards are currently being accepted for those bookings.
