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.

Gag House Comedy Superstars at White Rock Theatre, Hastings - 8th February 2019

As a busy mother of three I am always looking for an excuse to escape for the evening with my husband. There is nothing we like doing more than laughing, and going to see a comedy show is a great way to do this. In 2018 we went to see loads of comedians at our local theatres and we hope to do the same for 2019.

It's not always easy to see the big stars though as the prices can get pretty steep, and last year we missed a couple as it would have been £80 for the two of us and for a local night out in East Sussex, we thought that was a bit steep. For this reason I was super pleased to learn that Gag House Comedy are bringing a show to the White Rock Theatre in Hastings on Friday 8th February 2019, with the show starting at 8pm.

The cost of the tickets for this show is £20.50 - £22.50 including the booking fee, so I think that's really reasonable and especially when you consider it's a show being compared by Mark Dolan, with Lee Nelson headlining, accompanied by Jen Brister and Stephen Bailey.

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.

My London Musical Theatre Bucket List

Theatre Chairs Image from VDB Photos, thanks to Shutterstock

If you were to grant me a wish of doing anything I wanted to for the day, I would easily know what to ask for and it would always include a trip to the theatre in London. For years I went regularly and saw all the big shows, some I even saw a number of times. I think the Phantom of the Opera still reigns as my absolute favourite but I did see Blood Brothers around six times as I loved it so much, so that must be a close second.

Then the kids came along and things changed, we had a massive salary cut and of course evenings out then involved costly babysitters too, so I really felt the London theatre scene was passing me by and I missed quite a number of shows that I wanted to see, ones like The Sound of Music and Dirty Dancing.

Then about four years ago things started to change again and I found myself staying in London at least a couple of times a year and of course I wanted to see a good West End show whilst I was there. So in the last few years I've seen Wicked (twice), 42nd Street, Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia and Beautiful - The Carole King Story. Every one different and each with their own merits but the thing I really love about musical theatre is that you can lose yourself for a few hours in a world of bright lights and great songs.

Musical theatre is definitely my preferred genre and I'm so pleased that there are still dozens of shows that I haven't seen yet, so here is my bucket list for the next few years. You never know, if I'm really lucky maybe I'll get to book three sets of tickets for London shows each year and then I can crack this list in just over three years!

24 Hours in London - Reasons to be Cheerful #R2BC

This week I'm dedicating my reasons to be cheerful post to a great 24 hours last weekend spent with my Mum in London, belatedly celebrating Mothers Day. We've done this the last few years and it is a really nice treat to look forward to.

We start the weekend off with me heading over to meet Mum at Waterloo and enjoy a good cup of coffee at Costa, of course having a right old natter to catch up on what has been going on since we last spoke. The weather is then far too nice to head down to the underground so we walk along the South Bank and take in the street performers and the great atmosphere on the way to Westminster tube station.

There we pick up the tube to go to High Street Kensington as we are staying in the Holiday Inn just off the High Street and only a few minutes walk from the tube station. It proves to be an excellent hotel and I'll write up a review, even though I paid for it as my Mums Christmas gift.

Review: 42nd Street at Theatre Royal Drury Lane

What a show! I went into 42nd Street having no idea what it was about but assuming that because it was running at a big prestigious theatre like the Theatre Royal Drury Lane it must be a good show and yep, it really was! I'll start by saying, if you're in a hurry you don't even need to read anymore, just go and see it. You won't be disappointed and contrary to what you might believe it's not just for women. My husband loved it too. If you're a fan of musical theatre then it is for you.

From the start this show is spectacular and it's not just one thing that marks it out as exceptional. There's a large cast and a lot of variety. The singing is superb, the dancing is amazing, there are beautiful glittery costumes and the scenery will blow you away.

I don't think it has the strongest story line out of the many shows I've seen but the story felt secondary to the glamour and glitz of the production and that was OK. The show opens with us seeing the chorus line being cast for a new big-money show called Pretty Lady, that will open in Atlanta. The show is being bank-rolled by a rich businessman and for his investment he expects his mistress Dorothy Brock to be cast in the lead role. This frustrates the esteemed director Julian Marsh but he goes with it through no other choice. Dorothy Brock is doing a great job with the singing and the dancers keep her dancing inabilities well hidden but then the new girl from out of town, Peggy Sawyer trips her up accidentally and Dorothy ends up with a broken ankle. No more lead role for Dorothy!

La Petite Soirée - The Most Amazing Family Show

We just had the most amazing time at @lasoireelive, well the Petite version, suitable for all the family. 👄👄 I've honestly never seen anything like it before. We all loved it. My 14 year old was roaring away in laughter along with my 44 year old husband. It's amazing fun for everyone. 👄👄 A little risqué, so much talent, amazing showmanship, the most friendly hosts. It truly is unique. Do book, I want to see the original adult version now. Showing in London at the Aldwych theatre until 3 Feb 2018.

A post shared by Michelle Pannell (@michelletwinmum) on Dec 9, 2017 at 8:32am PST

La Petite Soirée was everything I hoped it would be and more. This extraordinary cabaret show deserves every award and glowing review it has ever received.

Upon arriving at the beautifully refurbished Aldwych theatre in central London my family's expectations were a mixed bag. I'd done some research so I sort of knew what we were heading in to see but my family had no real idea apart from the little I'd told them and you really can't do it justice until you've seen the spectacular for yourself. The girls were up for the ‘posh circus’ as they'd named it and I could see that my husband and 14 year old son were reserving judgement.

We headed in to collect our tickets, not knowing what the PR agency had booked for us and were pleased to find we had ringside seats. These are general admission seats so we were given a wristband and able to take a seat wherever we fancied within the ringside area. Our arrival at 2.40pm (20 minutes before the show started) gave us a good pick of the seats but the closest we could get was 4 rows from the front. I'd imagine you’d need to be at the theatre about another 20 minutes earlier to get front row seats but of course you also need to be prepared to join in and be a good sport if you sit in the front row!

Looking forward to La Petite Soiree at Aldwych Theatre, London

Our family love going to the theatre, especially when it is a show in the West End but to be honest it doesn't happen all that often nowadays as we live a couple of hours outside London and I can't deny it, London theatre can be expensive for a family of five.

But La Petite Soiree has tickets starting from as little as £15 and that is really affordable. Its not even just the Grand Circle that has seats at this great value price either, there is a child price (for age 15 and under) on the higher price seats too and that remains at £15 throughout (excepting what they call the posh seats), which I am very impressed with.

I suspect you might be wondering what La Petite Soiree is though, I certainly was when the press release first arrived in my in-box. This is what they publicise about the show -

"We love the fact that the powers that be have, for some unknown reason, allowed us into London’s Aldwych Theatre to cause some trouble and bring our own brand of mischief to the West End over the festive season. LA SOIRÉE is a show that has created a shorthand with worldwide audiences in understanding what makes a wild and unforgettable night out at the theatre… joyous, celebratory, hilarious, cheeky, irreverent and at times quite saucy. With LA PETITE SOIRÉE we will deliver all of the above, minus the sauce. The spirit of LA SOIRÉE will run deep through the veins of its afternoon offspring but we look forward to welcoming a new audience with a brand new show." Creative Producer, La Soirée

Review: Wicked, the Musical at the Apollo Victoria

Images courtesy of the Wicked Musical website

I'll start off by being totally upfront with you - Wicked is an amazing West End show and we absolutely loved it. In fact last week was the second time I've seen it. A show doesn't run in a theatre that seats 2,300 people for over ten years if it isn't good, does it?

I found the Wicked story line so very clever, it isn't a prequel, nor a sequel to the Wizard of Oz, it runs alongside it and some of it does happen before the classic story that we all know but I love the way the two stories intertwine together, it is very, very clever. The story keeps you hooked from the moment it starts right through to the end.  I easily could have watched for another hour.  Needless to say the show ended with a standing ovation from the crowd.  The performances were absolutley sublime.

I really don't want to tell you too much about the story line though as that would take away some of the fabulous surprise elements. Although having said that, I saw it in 2011 with my mum and then this time with my husband and I didn't recall the story line at all, how bizarre is that? I know I loved it first time round though as I have the evidence here on my blog.

So many themes are explored as part of this theatre show- friendship, falling in love, being disappointed, being different and learning to accept yourself, not being one of the popular kids and standing up for what you believe is right to name just a few. Probably my favourite angle to the show is that things are not always what they seem, so you mustn't judge a book by its cover because bad isn't always bad (or wicked in this case).

Horrible Histories at The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill

We had a fun family afternoon at the De La Warr Pavilion last Sunday. They had gifted us tickets to watch Horrible Histories, Barmy Britain part 3 and to be honest I had no idea what to expect.  The kids all watch the TV programme (well 8 year old Miss M and Miss E do as 12 year old JJ tells me he outgrew it years ago) but he still seems to have a massive collection of the books in his room but apparently reading is different, much more grown-up!

The one hour theatre show is billed as being suitable for children aged 6 years upwards and I think it was perfectly pitched. My kids have not been to many live theatre shows before and I think TV has spoilt them somewhat as they were a little disappointed there were only two actors in it, Neal Foster and Anthony Spargo. Neal and Anthony was fantastic though, so much energy and just bouncing off each other. They were the full works as far as I'm concerned.

I didn't expect to laugh so much at this stage show but it has a definite comedy edge to it. The audience were encouraged to participate in many ways with a sing along, calling out, clapping and one lucky little girl even got to go up on stage, one of mine would have loved that!

I thought the show was super clever, it was two men, one big travel case and two stacks of costumes and they dd everything in front of our eyes including changing clothes but it remained fun and the high-energy kept up the whole way through. We bounced our way though some of the major British historic events and we met King Charles II, the Puritons and Nelson. Here is a glimpse of some of the sketches -

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Booked via TodayTix

My lucky, lucky boys got to have a wonderful day together this weekend; it is so important for JJ to spend time one on one with his Dad and for them to have the opportunity to be guys together.

They headed up to London to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane courtesy of TodayTix, a new (for the UK) mobile app that allows users to buy the best priced West End theatre tickets in around 30 seconds between one day and one week before the performance.

I got to use the TodayTix app to procure the tickets for my husband and son and it really was very simple. The app is available to download for iOS, Android and Amazon and just took a minute. Once you open the app you can start to browse straight away for the shows that take your fancy and you get an indication of the kind of price you might pay. Of course, there are various pricing options for each show depending where you want to sit.