Hi.in a previous message I asked what the best way to purchase tickets to Mama Mia in March when we will be visiting london.

Someone responded with the answer to call the Prince Edward theater directly at
020 7447 5400. When my husband called this morning, he got some sort of ticket agency not the theater directly....HELP!!! i've tried to search for their phone number, but cannot seem to locate it. any help will be appreciated.

mhenz41 - Here is the box office number 0870 850 0393 or 020 7447 5400. However, during closed hours and busy times the box office number will revert to ticketmaster.com - which is probably what happened to you. Ticketmaster.com will add 1 pound to each ticket and 1.75 pounds to the full order. If you reach the box office you will still pay the 1 pound per ticket, the savings is the 1.75. You can find all of this out at theatermonkey.com, my favorite theater site for London. They also include seating charts for the shows and they indicate which seats are worth the price! Check it out! Susan

thanks for the info susan.......i appreciate it.

Things are changing in London. I called what I thought was the direct number for the Cambridge Theatre box office this week and I also got an answer of some "agency". It ends up that you can no longer contact the Cambridge by phone for tickets, but they are one of several theatres into a sort of "pool" of ticket services -- still not like Ticketmaster for example. There was a charge of 2.50 pounds each for the phone booking. I think those days of calling the theatre and not paying any service charge are rapidly coming to an end.

By the way, I got the number for Cambridge Theatre from the Theatre Monkey site, but whenever I tried to call it, I got a recording that it couldn't be called as dialed. I tried replacing the 870 at the beginning with a 207, but using the rest of the number and got it. When I mentioned that to the person I spoke to, she said they haven't had those 870 numbers in years.

HI...

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUGGESTIONS. MY HUSBAND CALLED THE PRINCE EDWARD THEATER TODAY DIRECTLY AND GOT OUR TWO TICKETS. WE WILL PICK THEM UP AT THE BOX OFFICE THE DAY OF THE SHOW. I'M SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

Really Useful Theatres I believe is the name of the theatre group Cambridge is part of. It's not really an independent ticketing agency like ticketmaster but rather a group of theatres something like the shubert group that once existed (or may still exist) in NY. It used to be called something starting with an S Moss theatres.

More and more of the theatres are adding a small service charge of something from £1 to £3 per ticket for phone orders and apparently the only way to beat that is to go to the theatre box office directly.

The advantage is that with the one phone call you can book several shows at once like Jerry Springer (Cambridge) and then Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty's) and Les Mis (the Palace for the time being). It's just the way it is....you still come out slightly ahead of ticketmaster which will add additional higher fees.

Really Useful Theaters is, I believe, Andrew Lloyd Webber's umbrella.

Yes, vcl is correct. And theatremonkey humorously explains that fee their box office system charges as "paying for their psychiatrists, theatre monkey thinks."