It’s enough to make even the most well-heeled theatre buffs sigh: Alas, poor bank account.
For the best seats at a new Shakespeare production are officially priced close to £300 – and yet more on another website.
Much Ado About Nothing begins a run at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane next month, featuring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell in the lead roles.
But enjoying the drama won’t come cheap. The box office price for the most expensive tickets is a hefty £285 and an eye-watering £345 on the London Theatre Direct website.
Cheaper weekend tickets are available from LW Theatres – which is putting on the production – for £89.50 and mid-week tickets at £35.
Unsurprisingly, West End productions starring Hollywood stars command higher prices. The top tickets for Elektra, starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson, are currently selling for £145 at the Duke of York’s Theatre. And stall seats for Oedipus, starring Rami Malek, are on sale for £210 from The Old Vic.
Much Ado About Nothing begins a run at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane next month, featuring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell in the lead roles
The box office price for the most expensive tickets is a hefty £285 and an eye-watering £345 on the London Theatre Direct website
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the London borough of Westminster
The cost of Much Ado About Nothing tickets is likely to reignite controversy about theatre pricing squeezing out the less well-off.
An annual ticketing survey carried out by industry newspaper The Stage revealed that last year the average price for a top ticket in the West End was £154.56, up from £141.37 the year before.
A spokesman for The Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre said: ‘Producers remain dedicated to cultivating a new generation of theatregoers through accessible pricing and outreach schemes, subsidised by revenue from top-price tickets.’
LW Theatres and London Theatre Direct was contacted for comment.
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