Theatre Tokens, the Perfect Gift this Christmas

Photo by Gwen King on Unsplash

{This is a collaborative post}

I'm all about making memories; I'd much rather experience something and spend time with a friend or loved one than receive a physical gift. I probably won't remember the coat my husband bought me in ten years time but you can bet that I remember the trip to Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria I took 31 years ago. That was my first taste of going to the theatre in London and I have never looked back; I absolutely adore it and I'd go every week if I could. 

Moving from Hertfordshire to East Sussex nine years ago scuppered my regular theatre trips a little as it takes a lot more planning when you are no longer 25 minutes from central London but my trips to the West End are one thing that has not stopped. Even after the Covid chaos of the last couple of years, I managed to see Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in August, The Prince of Egypt in September and Cinderella, The Musical in October.

Then Miss M and I are off to London for the weekend in early January and we are planning to see a show and this is why I have asked my family for a Theatre Tokens gift card for Christmas. This way we can go along to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square to secure on-the-day tickets at a cut-price, or if we won't be in London for when the booth opens at 11.30am we can even go online now and book for a show later that day and still secure the discounts available. That is such a great addition for those of us who live further out of London and are trying to use rail discount cards so can't travel too early. 

Out of interest, I just had a look today to see what I could secure if I was booking for a matinee or evening show today and I was thrilled to see there are great discounts available -

• & Juliet - best stall seats for £47.80 each (40% off)
• The Woman in Black - best stall seats for £31.55 (47% off)
• Life of Pi - in the stalls of Dress circle for £30 (66% off)
• Mary Poppins - in the best stall setas for £49.50 (46% off)
• Les Miserables - in the best stall seats for £49.50 (48%)

How to Get Bargain Price West End Theatre/ Musical Tickets

9 to 5, the Musical

I absolutely love going to the theatre in London's West End but we all know that it can end up pricey. Before having my children I had seen most every musical that was out and my husband and I would think nothing of spending £80 or a £100 on each ticket. After the children came along, that just wasn't practical anymore and my trips up to London for the theatre became few and far between.

A few years back I realised how much I was missing out and started to find out how I could see some of the big name shows without spending a fortune. I have been lucky enough to see some crackers in the last few years - 42nd Street, Wicked, The School of Rock, Dream Girls, Thriller Live and the Curious Incident, all for a great price.

So I'm going to share with you how you can bag great price tickets too, but don't worry, you won't be sat up in the upper circle, I only like to be in the stalls or front of the Royal Circle, so I always get good seats.

1. Enter the Ticket Lottery for the Show you fancy
Have you heard of a ticket lottery?  I think many people haven't yet and they are great. You can enter online to be part of a lottery (lucky dip) to get one or two top price tickets for a much reduced rate. Of course many times you won't win but it is super easy to enter and costs nothing, so why not give it a go. I've entered a couple of times and won tickets for Matilda once. Sadly I couldn't use them as I got the week wrong, but I was able to pass them on for someone else to enjoy.

Matilda the Musical - up to 2 £25 band A tickets, drawn 3-5 days before the performance.

The School of Rock - up to 2 £15 band A tickets, drawn 3-5 days before the performance.

Hamilton the Musical - up to 2 £10 tickets, drawn the day prior. There is a 22 hour entry window.

Aladdin the Musical - up to 2 £20 tickets, the lottery opens at 11am on Mondays and closes at 11am on Tuesdays. Entrants can select up to 3 choices of performance for the next week

Aladdin

The Book of Mormon - up to 2 £20 tickets, entries accepted from 12 noon each Wednesday for performances the following week. Also there is a daily lottery in person, you can enter 2.5 hours before the performance.

School of Rock Musical - The Most Amazing Show

Kids Week
To celebrate London Theatre Kids Week, which runs for all of August my family were lucky enough to go and see School of Rock, the Musical and boy, was it fantastic!  I wrote about Kids Week earlier this summer, so if you're not sure what it is head over and check out my post, but basically most of the big London shows offer a kids tickets (for up to 16 years of age) for free with each adult ticket purchased. Also, if you have more kids than adults in your family you can then get additional half price tickets for the other kids, so all the family can enjoy a show together and it is more affordable.

I've purchased Kids week theatre tickets before and when booking opens it can be really busy and it is tempting to think that everything you want has sold out. but be patient as tickets release back into general sale after a short while, as people request them to be held via the online system and then never complete the transaction.

I'm writing this post on 16th August and I assumed (wrongly) that everything would be completely gone by now, but it is still worth trying to purchase tickets, as just today I saw there were £15 tickets for 'We're going on a bear hunt' and '42nd Street' is just £45. I saw this show late last year and its phenomenal! And these are just two of the shows I saw there with availability for a number of August dates.

Definitely put Kids week in your diary for next year, even if you can't make it this year. Booking opens in early June normally.