penelopesimpson Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 For those of us shuddering under the weight of forking out for ROH, try this. Russell Malipant is putting on Conceal at Messums, a new venue near me in Wiltshire. The cheapest ticket is £100 for 2hrs, and if you want a drink before hand it is £150. The performance will take place in a barn. A very nice barn, admittedly, wonderfully restored, but it's still a barn. That's it. Unsurprisingly, there are masses of unsold tickets. You do wonder at people's common sense when they set these prices. This is a well-heeled area that supports the arts, but... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 I'll admit to have been pretty put off by the prices for Will Tuckett's "immersive" Nutcracker, too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 For those of us shuddering under the weight of forking out for ROH, try this. Russell Malipant is putting on Conceal at Messums, a new venue near me in Wiltshire. The cheapest ticket is £100 for 2hrs, and if you want a drink before hand it is £150. The performance will take place in a barn. A very nice barn, admittedly, wonderfully restored, but it's still a barn. That's it. Unsurprisingly, there are masses of unsold tickets. You do wonder at people's common sense when they set these prices. This is a well-heeled area that supports the arts, but... Sounds like some sort of fundraising event rather than a performance that ordinary people might go to. Though clearly won't be successful if the tickets aren't sold! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 ROH is pushing it with some of their ticket prices.. Sleeping Beauty for example. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I'll admit to have been pretty put off by the prices for Will Tuckett's "immersive" Nutcracker, too. Same here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Sounds like some sort of fundraising event rather than a performance that ordinary people might go to. Though clearly won't be successful if the tickets aren't sold! It is on for three nights and is in two sections of 40 mins each which gives a total running time of 1hr 20 mins watched from wooden seats in the round. I would have liked to have gone as it is only six miles from me, but the prices are staggering... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 ROH is pushing it with some of their ticket prices.. Sleeping Beauty for example. Interesting to note that of the 25 performances of SB, 6 are sold out (the first 6), 2 have fewer than 10 tickets left and 3 more have fewer than 100 tickets left. The remaining performances vary quite significantly in tickets sold. I'm not sure what to make of that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Interesting to note that of the 25 performances of SB, 6 are sold out (the first 6), 2 have fewer than 10 tickets left and 3 more have fewer than 100 tickets left. The remaining performances vary quite significantly in tickets sold. I'm not sure what to make of that! School holidays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Ticket prices at Leeds Grand and Birmingham Hippodrome seem to be going skywards these days too. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 (edited) Interesting to note that of the 25 performances of SB, 6 are sold out (the first 6), 2 have fewer than 10 tickets left and 3 more have fewer than 100 tickets left. The remaining performances vary quite significantly in tickets sold. I'm not sure what to make of that! The wider public craves for classics. Edited November 21, 2016 by Amelia 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 (edited) The performances around Christmas are sold out. The ticket sales for the February/March performances are more patchy but then for amateur ballet goers buying tickets for performances three months ahead requires careful thought.. This second part of the run generally has higher sales for weekend matinees to be performed by dancers whose names are known outside ballet fandom but I don't think that anyone should worry that the remaining tickets won't be sold. The ticket sales should remind everyone that the prpgramming at Covent Garden and the casting is of concern to several distinct audiences, ballet fans,fans of individual dancers, the occasional audience member and the family treat and the powers that be at Covent Garden have to try to please them all. I am not sure that all of them would be that keen on Schechter or McGregor at Christmas. Edited November 21, 2016 by FLOSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Pigeons Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Ticket prices at Leeds Grand and Birmingham Hippodrome seem to be going skywards these days too. I seem to be drowning in notifications that I can still get tickets for this year's BRB Nutcracker season. From this I can only assume that not including it in the subscription package was a mistake, tickets are not selling and they have overpriced them this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 A couple of weeks ago I looked on the BRB website for tickets to the matinees on November 27th and December 10th and they were pretty much sold out. I guess the matinees are always the first to go with this ballet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colman Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Look, you can easily sell tickets to Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty and that's pretty much it, so companies have to milk those to fund the rest of the year. That's just the way it is - and that's why we mostly get over priced repeats of those from Russian commercial companies in Dublin, with the odd Giselle or Romeo and Juliet thrown in. <sigh> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 those of you who go to BRB, be grateful you don't live in Toronto, where best seats for Nutcracker are the equivalent of 100 pounds (vs 66 pounds in B'ham, and I see you can go on a less popular day and get a seat for 47 pounds). Worst seats in Toronto are 50 pounds! And it's even more expensive for the regular, non-Nut performances. Best seats are, wait for it, 156 pounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I seem to be drowning in notifications that I can still get tickets for this year's BRB Nutcracker season. From this I can only assume that not including it in the subscription package was a mistake, tickets are not selling and they have overpriced them this year. Yet I've not as yet seen any offers, and the season starts on Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 those of you who go to BRB, be grateful you don't live in Toronto, where best seats for Nutcracker are the equivalent of 100 pounds (vs 66 pounds in B'ham, and I see you can go on a less popular day and get a seat for 47 pounds). Worst seats in Toronto are 50 pounds! And it's even more expensive for the regular, non-Nut performances. Best seats are, wait for it, 156 pounds. That's awful! If I lived in Toronto I would never have been able to go to ballet. At least the ROH has some reasonably inexpensive seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 Interesting that the dreaded Viagogo has tickets for virtually every performance of SB and Woolf Works. WW talks tickets £153. These agencies are real parasites. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coated Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 (edited) Interesting that the dreaded Viagogo has tickets for virtually every performance of SB and Woolf Works. WW talks tickets £153. These agencies are real parasites.Couldn't agree more. If a publicly funded arts organisation held back 100 tickets to sell for silly money if the rest of the performance sold out, they'd be regarded as greedy sods. If a tout buys up a chunk of tickets and sells them on Viagogo or similar, they are 'enterprising'. Pah. Edit: did have a quick browse on Viagogo and found an amphi standing for just over £50 - reduced from £79.80. And 250 pound tickets for performances that still have good tickets available on the ROH side. What is wrong with people? Who is daft enough to buy this? Edited November 23, 2016 by Coated 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 What on earth are they doing on Viagogo? It's a resale site, isn't it? Wonder if the ROH knows about this - they allegedly have the ability to invalidate the tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMM1 Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Yet I've not as yet seen any offers, and the season starts on Friday. The BRB press release about the Australian conductor that Janet posted has the following: "In the run up to opening night, The Nutcracker has recorded one of its biggest ever years for ticket sales and looks set to be the most commercially successful production in a generation." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 I should hope it *would* be, given how often it's performed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Interesting that the dreaded Viagogo has tickets for virtually every performance of SB and Woolf Works. WW talks tickets £153. These agencies are real parasites. Couldn't agree more. If a publicly funded arts organisation held back 100 tickets to sell for silly money if the rest of the performance sold out, they'd be regarded as greedy sods. If a tout buys up a chunk of tickets and sells them on Viagogo or similar, they are 'enterprising'. Pah. Edit: did have a quick browse on Viagogo and found an amphi standing for just over £50 - reduced from £79.80. And 250 pound tickets for performances that still have good tickets available on the ROH side. What is wrong with people? Who is daft enough to buy this? What on earth are they doing on Viagogo? It's a resale site, isn't it? Wonder if the ROH knows about this - they allegedly have the ability to invalidate the tickets. I was horrified to read about ROH tickets being on Viagogo at inflated prices and decided to enquire about it. The official ROH response was that there is no commercial arrangement between the ROH and Viagogo and purchasers of such tickets could well be refused entry to the performance. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 I was horrified to read about ROH tickets being on Viagogo at inflated prices and decided to enquire about it. The official ROH response was that there is no commercial arrangement between the ROH and Viagogo and purchasers of such tickets could well be refused entry to the performance. Well somebody is letting Viagogo in. There are masses of tickets on sale. Interestingly, the event I based this thread on opened last night with many empty seats. But - Have just had an email from them telling me they have tickets left for tonight and tomorrow (what a surprise) but the prices remain the same. It is a freezing cold night here, the barn is in the middle of nowhere which means driving, and you get less than two hours of ballet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Just looked again at Viagogo. There are 41 tickets for Nutcracker at ROH. Example: Dec 8 Stalls tickets @ £296 How is this happening? What is to stop any of us bulk buying and then reselling? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 I was horrified to read about ROH tickets being on Viagogo at inflated prices and decided to enquire about it. The official ROH response was that there is no commercial arrangement between the ROH and Viagogo and purchasers of such tickets could well be refused entry to the performance. I am not sure I believe this. It would surely be illegal to refuse entry to patrons bearing tickets which they had legitimately purchased from an established agency Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 I imagine many people who get caught out by these tickets could be tourists. When our group was going to St Petersburg the best way to get appropriately priced tickets for the Mariinsky was from their official ru. Site. A couple of people in the group had looked online and decided the Mariinsky was too expensive for,them. When we told them what we had paid for our seats they went ahead and booked from the main theatre site too. I think some people just look at who is advertising tickets at the top of the Google list and think they must be best to buy from. I wonder when people are sold tickets by Viagogo ( never heard of them till a few mins ago!) if there is something in the small print which says no money can be refunded( eg if ROH was to not let them in they wouldn't get their money back) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 In fact why do people use ticket agencies rather than the theatre source to buy tickets? Is there ever an advantage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 In fact why do people use ticket agencies rather than the theatre source to buy tickets? Is there ever an advantage! From what I can work out, the reputable agencies such as Ticketmaster have tickets allocated to them. The theatre may have sold all their seats but you could still book through an Agency. Of course the charge per ticket is how they make their money but the charges seem enormous to me. I booked for BRB's 2017 Nutcracker today. The Christmas production is no longer included in the Birmingham subscription which means that unless you go to the theatre and PAY IN CASH you get hammered with the booking fee (5% on line). What really adds insult to injury is that you then have to pay a postage fee on top (starting from £1 but BRB postage is £1.50 - work that out if you can!!). Talk about feeling ripped off!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 From what I can work out, the reputable agencies such as Ticketmaster have tickets allocated to them. The theatre may have sold all their seats but you could still book through an Agency. Of course the charge per ticket is how they make their money but the charges seem enormous to me. I booked for BRB's 2017 Nutcracker today. The Christmas production is no longer included in the Birmingham subscription which means that unless you go to the theatre and PAY IN CASH you get hammered with the booking fee (5% on line). What really adds insult to injury is that you then have to pay a postage fee on top (starting from £1 but BRB postage is £1.50 - work that out if you can!!). Talk about feeling ripped off!!! But why are tickets allocated to agencies that are (effectively) NOT reputable - i.e. they're known to sell them on at many times the face value? (Or do Ticketmaster sometimes do that too?). And anyway why not just sell them all through the venue? (Do the agencies pay a lot more for them than we do?). Booking fees are really annoying. If they didn't sell the tickets/have an audience, there wouldn't be much point putting on the performance. And often there's no real choice as to booking method so no way of avoiding them. I suppose if they didn't have them, though, they'd just charge more for the tickets. I don't know if the fees are really related to the costs of the booking systems etc, or just a way of getting more money from purchasers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulcinella Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Janet, you can always opt to pick the tickets up at the box office to save on the postage fee. I always do this but usually pick them up the next time I visit the theatre, you don't have to wait until the day of the performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Viagogo is a legitimate established ticket agency with routes in America. They first made their name with bands and big star gigs but then moved in to ballet et al. I have to assume ROH is using them but I don't understand why. The popular classics sell themselves, and people aren't going to be rushing to an expensive agency to get tickets for Raven Girl! I!ve also never heard that Viagogo get their tickets from ordinary patrons who want to resell. They are far too big to mess about with such tedious methods, yet they have tickets available for every performance. I might post something on the ROH website and see if they pick it up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penelopesimpson Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 But why are tickets allocated to agencies that are (effectively) NOT reputable - i.e. they're known to sell them on at many times the face value? (Or do Ticketmaster sometimes do that too?). And anyway why not just sell them all through the venue? (Do the agencies pay a lot more for them than we do?). Booking fees are really annoying. If they didn't sell the tickets/have an audience, there wouldn't be much point putting on the performance. And often there's no real choice as to booking method so no way of avoiding them. I suppose if they didn't have them, though, they'd just charge more for the tickets. I don't know if the fees are really related to the costs of the booking systems etc, or just a way of getting more money from purchasers. Ticket master behave in the same way as Viagogo (latter is now UK's biggest). Both agencies are 100% legit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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