Phantom of the Opera in London - Is Row N, Seat 26 good?
 

I had to cancel a few attractions to get them but I splurged on good seats, the best availiable on ticketmaster and thats what I got(Row N, Seat 26). From the chart they look very good but I was looking for someone whose had some hands-on experience for their input. Thanks!

It's 12 rows back, but only two seats in from the wall and is right next to a pillar. Not very good in my opinion, but will probably be OK as the main level really isn't that big.

It would have probably been better to have called Her Majesty's Theatre direct. Ticketmaster is not very good at giving you the best tickets. The box office could have probably found you better seats and you wouldn't have had to pay the Ticketmaster fees. When I did that last year, they found us two seats in the front row of the dress circle (first mezzanine) which were simply wonderful. Ticketmaster will normally sell you downstairs tickets that aren't as good.

If you want to look at the seating chart, here is a link:
http://www.theatremonkey.com/HER%20MAJESTYSstalls.htm

As Patrick says - the stalls (orchestra seats) aren't huge so you will be OK. But I would certainly have preferred the 1st or 2nd row of the Dress Circle.

"Best Avaliable" on Ticketmaster's computer usually means 1) Stalls, 2) Dress Circle, 3) boxes, 4) 2nd balcony and so forth.

But except for the first few rows of the stalls, the Dress circle is almost always better. (And some boxes are better than most of the stalls, while some are worse than the 2nd balcony.)

That is why calling the theatre is a good idea - they would be able to tell you which seats are REALLY the best available.

But as we said - your seats aren't horrible or anything - you will be OK.

It probably won't help you for this visit, but next time you should check the Theatremonkey website. <http://www.theatremonkey.com>

They have lots of information about which seats to go for or avoid in every London theatre, as well as up to date cast info and reviews. I've found it very helpful (and I heard about it right here on Fodors!)

Thanks for the help. Prob werent worth quite all that I payed for them but I checked ticketmaster again and all other seats were much worse for the only availiable night I could go.

About calling the theatre: Wouldnt that have been expensive since its an internaiotnal call or do they have a toll free number?

And finally, exactly how would the pillar affect my viewing? Anyone have an actual picture of the inside of the theatre?

Thanks!

I don't think the pillar will affect your viewing at all. I'm sorry if the mention of it seemed to imply that it might. Meanwhile the pillar may be a slight advantage as your seat is not going to be wedged tight between two other people. The pillar is apparently beside you. Stall seats in London theatres are notoriously narrow.

What I meant was that Ticketmaster may not show all the seats that are available from the theatre. Also their idea of "best available" and mine are often drastically different.

And when calling the UK, I always dial:
101-6868 then 011-44-etc.
All calls will be billed to your home number at less than 5 cents a minute!!!

Hi
even if you call the boxoffice directly, you will want an opportunity to see a theatre seating chart.

www.playbill.com is just one website that has seating charts, New York and London.

We had seats toward the back --Row O, I think- on the opposite side from yours, but found that they were not very good because they balcony overhang obscured the chandelier that comes down from the ceiling in the show. We were a bit disappointed by this, though our tickets were same day, Leicester Square TKTS (only 25% off though). Hopefully yours will be better...one row ahead, different angle. We'd paid a fortune for Lion King tickets in advance, but they were perfection! I liked using the TheatreMonkey site for the advance booking...

Oh, thats good news, then. And that number is a great tip would have lowered a $16 charge I recieved when I called my ex g/f in London a few months back while she was on vacation there.

Every now and then I fax the UK, and I accidentally dialed direct once and a single page fax was something like $9. Now I always use that 101 number and the fax usually costs about 9 cents.