London Theatre - 1/2 price ticket question
 

Does anyone know if Blood Brothers and/or Mamma Mia! are frequently offered at the high-price ticket booth at Leiceister Square? If not, what will be the best way to secure such tickets? We will be in London in early December. <BR> <BR>Thanks!

I doubt very much if Mamma Mia would be - it's pretty much the hottest show in town. If you want to be sure you see it go online and book via Ticketmaster, Albemarle, Global Tickets, etc. It may already be too late to get really great seats ... but I'd check. We saw it in the Spring - marvelous show (not great theater perhaps, but the kind of show that leaves you feeling good). Blood Brothers has been playing a long time, you can probably get tickets to that.

During the week of May 22, we went to one of the 1/2 price booths, stood in line for about 10 minutes (it was raiing, so that may have kept the crowd smaller) and were able to get tickets for Mamma Mia for the next night for about $30 US, in very good seats. We saw BB also, but got it through the Trafalgar London Week Pkg. we were staying in London on. I would agree that BB might be easier to get tickets for--the house was not full the night we went. There are several 1/2 price booths in the Leiceister Sq. area--I doubt if it makes a difference which one you stay in line for. They have the shows listed that are available for that night, but you can ask for succeeding nights, and that is how we got the tickets for MM.

hmh is wrong. There is only one "official" half price booth in Leicester square. It is the independent building at the south side of the park. Every ticket you buy there is an actual half price of the original value, plus a small service fee, all in cash only. They will never have any sold out shows, as they get their seats directly from the theatres on the day of performance only from the inventory that is left. And normally they will only have the original top price category of seats --great seats, in fact. They post outside the list of shows they have available on the same day so you can check it out before you get in line. Incidentally, I have been in the line there when it snaked half way around the park, but the longest it ever took was about a half hour -- they are quite organized. All those other booths are different. I'm not saying it isn't possible to get a good deal at one, but not usually. They do sometimes buy out blocks of seats and work through other brokers, but be aware that they are seldom if ever at half price of the value. A top ticket to Mama Mia is about $40 US, but they are likely to sell you a seat that would normally cost $15 to $20 US for $30. Be aware that in London, there is a much wider price range of tickets than in New York. You can get very inexpensive tickets at the box office for many shows. I still maintain that if you want good seats to shows and they are not available at the official half price booth in Leicester Square, then try the actual box offices. We got house seats (first ten rows center) for Lion King, Mama Mia, the Graduate, and Lady in the Van -- all sold out shows, by going to the box offices on the day of performance. Yes they were full price, but these shows were all definitely worth it, especially for such great seats.

I was in London this May and we got out theater tickets through www.lastminute.com. We avoided the hassle of standing in the 1/2 price line and the tickets were actually cheaper. The same shows were advertised on lastminute as were at the 1/2 price kiosk.

I am sorry if I was mistaken about the official 1/2 price ticket booth. Have used that one in the past, but the one we opted for provided a good value, we felt. The query seemed to want various options and this was one. Because we were able to purchase a ticket for the next day, we were able to plan our day-time activities(we were "on our own" ) more easily. We did book tickets for the May Chelsea Garden Show last Feb. through a ticket company called First Call and they also have theater tickets, with information on plays, availability , prices etc. They were very efficient in handling my request, using a credit card purchase and posted the tickets about three weeks prior to our departure.

I bought tickets to Chicago at one of the unofficial booths and paid 3x face for lousy seats. It appeared that all four "1/2 price booths" were the same. <BR> <BR>Clearly, not. Plan to spend 30 minutes in line and get there early, even in the rain. Most of all go to the OFFICIAL line! I hope this helps someone!

just back from the uk this week... have never used the 1/2 ticket thing.. found buying them online much easier.. you dont have to wait in line only to find out tickets are not available. <BR>slim to none chance of tickets for mamma mia.basically been sold out since it opened. i can however recommend the withces of eastwick.. it took it in this time.. costumes were great..theatre very nice.