How do you purchase London theater tickets in advance
 

Is there a web site or phone number for those who want to purchase theater tickets in advance of their London stay? Thanx<BR>

<BR>I just got mine through www.theatertheatre.com<BR>There are quite a few to chose from, just put London theater tickets i the search engine.<BR>I choose the one I used because they offered me the best seats. Hope this helps you decide.

I've used www.ticketmaster.co.uk and was happy with the results. You do have to pay the dreaded ticketmaster service charge, but they confirm your exact seat location before you purchase the tickets, which some web sites do not do. <BR><BR>

We've used TicketmasterUK many times, in fact we just returned from London and saw 5 shows, all tickets bought through TicketmasterUK. I do not think the service charges are unreasonable, afterall - ticket prices in my home town are just about what I pay through TicketmasterUK. If you want decent seats, in advance they are wonderful. All our seats were in the first 6 rows of the Stalls (Orchestra). You can also check Albemarle Ticket Service's webpage, they have excellent seating charts. Ticketmaster actually gives you your exact seats which many do not. You print out the confirmation page and number and take it to the theater. Go to Will Call and pick up your tickets at show time - it can't get much easier!

I'm always amazed that this site is filled with people checking on how to save a few dollars on their travels with transportation, hotels, currency exchange, meals, etc. But then they turn around and use a website that charges substantial fees for theatre tickets or use one that starts with a marked up price on the tickets themselves. I understand if you don't mind paying extra money, but I think there is a much better solution.<BR><BR>I believe that the best way to get advance tickets is to call each theatre directly. This does take enough smarts to figure out the time change so you are calling during normal box office hours, and you do have to figure out how to call the UK (those are the two reasons people keep saying it is too difficult to call directly). But the theatre box office will politely help you with the best available seats, take your credit card number over the phone and hold the tickets for you right there at the box office until performance. There is no fee at all, and you have the best choice of seats.<BR>If you really want to know what you are doing, you can go to a website like www.albemarle.com and print off a seating chart for each theatre so you know exactly what they are talking about. I just got my phone bill for last month and there were three London box office calls -- the longest one cost $2.50, the other two were less -- significant savings over the fees and handling charges as well as the mark-ups that the agencies charge.<BR>Perhaps the best site for London theatre is www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk You can go there and enter the dates you will be in London and it will show you everything that will be playing then. It will list the actual theatre box office number as well as the address of the theatre, and the true ticket prices.

To add to Patrick's post, you can now book online from the www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk site. As always, there is a service charge. (The ticketing company is actually ticketweb.co.uk)<BR><BR>We recently booked 2 tickets (total ticket face value of 70.00) and the service charge was 6.30.<BR><BR>Be very careful.. there are lots of sites "selling" theatre tickets, and the prices vary widely.<BR><BR>Good luck and have fun<BR><BR>Darcie<BR>

Just to follow up on Patrick's thoughts...it is amazing how cheap calls from the US to the UK are. The days of $3/minute transatlantic calls are long since gone. If you use the 1016868 prefix calls cost an amazing 7.9 cents/minute. So a 5 minute call to book tickets would cost you the grand total of 40 cents....<BR><BR>This service is widely available in the US but is not universal. It is the best of the 101 services as there are no hidden costs, no monthly charges, no first minute charges of 99 cents. You are billed on your local phone bill.<BR><BR>To call the UK from the US is very very simple. Let's say the number listed on the theatre web site is 020-7555-1212.<BR><BR>To call the UK at that number, you dial 1016868-011-44-20-7555-1212. 1016868 being the cheap alternative service number. 011 the international call prefix, 20 the code for London. London local numbers either start with a 7 (inner London) or an 8 (outer London). Note that when calling the UK from outside the UK you ignore the leading zero of the phone number. If you were in Scotland, for example, and you wanted to ring that number you would dial the leading 0 (020-7555-1212). The 0 operates much like the 1 does in the US and Canada. It tells the switching equipment this is a trunk call in the UK.<BR><BR>Hope this helps everybody in booking those theatre tickets or making other arrangements in the UK. For example, you will find that by calling Eurostar in the UK directly, you can usually get a far cheaper fare on Eurostar than is available from Rail Europe.<BR><BR>

I go to my local library and get their latest edition of the Sunday London newspaper. All plays are listed in an entertainment section with box office phone numbers. I then call the theatre, purchase tickets, and have them for pick up at the will call window. Works for me! Regards - Tom

If there is a really hot show that I "must" see I just call the theatre directly and they hold my tickets at the boxoffice. Otherwise I get my tix at the 1/2 price booth. I go to at least five plays every week while in London but in the last 10 years have only booked ahead for four shows: Hey Mr Producer Royal Gala which only had two performances, My fair Lady last October, Riverdance's first run and Heartbreak House w/ Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Schofield and Felicity Kendal (because I could only go on a specific night). I normally just wait til I'm in London and have seldom been disappointed.

I e-mailed the hotel where I will be staying in Llandudno, Wales and asked for the name of a theatre there. They e-mailed me back with the name and URL for the theatre. I then went on-line and booked my ticket with my credit card and was assigned a seat. No extra charge. They had a seating chart of the theatre so I could see exactly where I'll be sitting. They are holding the ticket for me in the ticket office.

I just booked a seat directly through the theatre, paid with Visa, and I'll pick up the ticket the night of the musical. I had tried Ticketmaster but they did not have what I was looking for. I then called the theatre directly and found much better seats in an area Ticketmaster said was full.<BR>I had thought that the different vendors selling tickets were using the same database which apparently isn't so. So if a vendor does not have the seats you want try the theatre directly.<BR>

I agree with a lot of you that calling the theatre direct is the best way to go. The first time I went to London I got tickets through Edwards & Edwards, and although good seats, it was quite a bit more expensive. After that, I have always called the theatres direct and had them hold the tickets until I got there to pick up at the box office.

I go to my local library and get their latest edition of the Sunday London newspaper. All plays are listed in an entertainment section with box office phone numbers. I then call the theatre, purchase tickets, and have them for pick up at the will call window. Works for me! Regards - Tom

I am glad to see so much support for my views of booking directly. The last time I posted this suggestion I was slammed and told that it wasnt' worth the effort, that it was too difficult to call the UK, and that the small extra charge of booking through Ticketmaster was worth it. Glad to see people are "seeing the light". It is only too obvious that the best choice of remaining seats are through the box office itself, not a booking agency.

Patrick: I've read you posts on this subject on several other threads, and always thought this was good advice. Sure, it's probably not as easy as going through ticketmaster, but doing things the "challenging" way is half the fun of planning travel, in my book.<BR><BR>Plus I once booked Mamma Mia here in LA through Telecharge, who assured me that I would get the seats I was paying for. When I received my tickets in the mail, they were totally different seats. Telecharge took no responsibility at first, then said they would call me back. After two calls to them, I gave up (what could they really do anyway...kick the people who DID get my seats out?)...they never did call me back. I suppose it was just bad luck, but if I can call the theatre directly now, I will! (Not giving those bloody booking agencies extra money to screw me over if I can help it!) =P

I called the theatre directly, paid on my credit card. I called on a Monday and received the tickets in the mail (South Florida) the following Satruday. <BR><BR>I paid ticket price plus 1 pound each service. The postage on the envelope was 1 pound. Not much service charge. <BR>They told me what was available each night and I chose.<BR>

Should I get tickets for The Mousetrap in advance? Has anyone seen it? Is it worth seeing?