Analysis of 14 London theatre ticket websites to find the best websites to buy Blood Brothers tickets…

The Phoenix Theatre’s auditorium is made up of three seating sections (Stalls, Dress Circle and Upper Circle) and choosing where to sit and which company to purchase tickets from can be a difficult task. Different seating areas offer different types of views and experiences, and prices can vary dramatically depending on where you choose to sit.

We compared 14 theatre ticket websites to find out which ones are the cheapest and the best value for money. We searched each site for evening tickets for two people for Blood Brothers on Saturday 15th October 2011 to get an idea of which websites are doing the best deals. We have separated the research by seating areas:
• ‘Close to the Action’ – the best Stall seats,
• ‘The Best View’ – seats in the front rows of the Dress Circle
• ‘Cheap, Cheap, Cheap’ – the cheapest seats in the Phoenix Theatre which are located in the Upper Circle.

We listed the best three prices for each seat type and have included our full list of websites and prices in a sortable table at the end of the post.

Close to the Action (Stalls)

Stall seats are located on the ground floor of the auditorium and are closest to the stage. If you would like to feel a part of the action or wish to see the actors’ facial expressions in detail, then choosing a seat in this section may be for you. The face value of a top-priced ticket in the Stalls is £56.

Best value tickets:
1. HitTheTheatre.co.uk – £55
2. Ticketmaster – £56 with the option to choose your own seat
3. Lastminute.com – £56

The Best View (Dress Circle)

The Dress Circle is situated above the Stalls on level 1 of the auditorium, and offers some of the best views at the Phoenix Theatre. As you are seated a little higher up, you are not peering down on the stage, but rather viewing it as a whole. If you do not mind about seeing the actors up close, then sitting here may be for you. The face value of a top-priced ticket in the Dress Circle is £56.

Best value tickets:
1. HitTheTheatre.co.uk – £55
2. Ticketmaster – £56 with the option to choose your own seat
3. Lastminute.com – £56

Cheap, cheap, cheap (Upper Circle)

The Upper Circle is located above the Dress Circle, on level 2 of the auditorium. Seats here are located rather high compared to the other seating sections, and you may feel quite far from the goings-on from the stage. On the plus side, tickets in this section are by far the cheapest, and are often worth it. The face value for the cheapest ticket in the Upper Circle is £27.50.

Best value tickets:
1. Ticketmaster – £27.50 with the option to choose your own seat
2. Lastminute.com – £27.50
3. OfficialLondonTheatre.co.uk – £30

Conclusion

HitTheTheatre provides the cheapest tickets for the Stalls and Dress Circle sections at £55 each, less than face value, although you were not able to choose your specific seat as on Ticketmaster. Lastminute.com was equal in price to Ticketmaster, although again potential buyers are not able to choose their own seats. For Upper Circle tickets, Ticketmaster and Lastminute.com again came up as the cheapest at £27.50, with OfficialLondonTheatre.co.uk providing some cheap tickets for £30 in the Upper Circle.

Some sites such as tickets.1st4londontheatre.co.uk, uktickets.co.uk, londontheatredirect.com, londontheatrebookings.com, theatreticketsdirect.co.uk and uktheatretickets.co.uk show face value prices and then show their own prices next to them which are usually considerably higher. There are also a couple of sites such as seetickets.com and lovetheatre.com whose ticket prices initially seem cheap, but add a large booking fee of over £5 to each ticket. See the table below for full listings of prices for each of the fourteen London theatre ticket websites that we researched.

This research was based on a Saturday evening performance on October 15th 2011. We noticed huge differences in price for matinee and mid-week performances with tickets being sold at less than half price. If you have flexible dates we recommend using CheapTheatreTickets.com as this site shows prices for the date you choose plus a few days before and after making it easy to spot cheaper tickets.

Our Blood Brothers tickets research: