Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Seating/Pricing Thread

[(Insert Clever Name)]

juice23 said: "Hey all- I have two tickets available for Thurs and Fri. May 24 and 25. I am just looking to get back what I paid... my parents can no longer go on this night. The seats are row H in the dress circle, center. Seats 103 and 104. They are available for transfer already. With the fees, it came to $851.50. I think it is too close to the event for ticketmaster to accept a return, but I am trying. I figured I would see if anyone here was interested first."

Keep calling until someone refunds them, it might take a few tries but in my experience, someone will misread the policy.

[Notreallysilent 2]

RealCursedChild said: "I was lucky enough to win the $40 lottery for this Wednesday's performance.
Any idea what seats they reserve for the lottery winners? Also, do they give out better seats if you pick up the tickets earlier in the day because I won't be able to pick up the tickets until about 1pm."

I believe the tickets you get are based on when you bought it. They already picked your seats I think before picking it up. I don’t know  for sure though. Have fun st the show! 

[juice23]

Thanks. I've tried twice so far, and even just asked to change to a different date. No luck. The tickets were purchased after April 3, so I guess I'm out of luck.

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Orch R row S seats 6-8 have been released for 199 a part for many dates until the 20th

[Notreallysilent 2]

There are $130 seats for Thursday/friday and Sunday. As well as some other price points

[greenifyme2]

Wow, $130/part to sit in the 4th row of the Balcony? Crazy.

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Pricing makes little to no sense, I paid 40 to sit in 5th-row DRESS CIRCLE dead center and they want to sell an objectively worse seat for over triple the price?

[hermionejuliet]

I think it just means that the producers are spreading the affordable tickets around the theatre which is amazing. Most producers limit their cheap purchase ahead tickets to the last two rows of the theatre or partial views.

There's nothing like a fantastic seat to a show, and apparently about 60% of theatre goers to Cursed Child are first time theatregoers. Hopefully, they continue to do this and grow theatre fans along the way.

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Honestly, I would be pretty mad if I hadn't been on the positive end of the pricing. Imagine paying $299 for a ticket because you are from out of town, went through the verified fan and all the BS, and then the person next to you paid 20 and got a ticket yesterday. It's not a fair system at all and you aren't even paying for views, a seat row behind my $40 one and off to the side is $165, but for an objectively worse view.

[Nycat63]

(Insert Clever Name) said: "Honestly, I would be pretty mad if I hadn'tbeen on the positive end of the pricing. Imagine paying $299 for a ticket because you are from out of town, went through the verified fan and all the BS, and then the person next to you paid 20 and got a ticket yesterday. It's not a fair system at all and you aren'teven paying for views, a seat row behind my $40 one and off to the side is $165, but for an objectively worse view."

Yup, I fully expect I will be this person.  I've resigned myself to it somewhat...

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Where are your seats?

[LesWickedly]

I paid $299 per part for B1 in the orchestra in June. Along with the high price comes the certainty that I'll actually have a ticket and a great seat, but will be frustrating if I see $40 per part seats near my area pop up on the site for my date and I am past the return period. This is the most I've ever spent on a show (and hopefully ever will), but have been able to justify it because it is the highest anticipated show I've ever had. 

[(Insert Clever Name)]

I feel those seats are premium seats that seem like they should stay premium, front and center seems like you are in some of the best seats in the house, but I personally prefer mezz/dress circle. In my opinion row a dress/mezz are the best seats in the house.

[hermionejuliet]

I get it, but when there are 300 seats at a reasonable price per show, you can either spread the wealth around or shove everyone up in the balcony. Plus, it happens all the time with lottery and rush seats. $10 front row seats for Hamilton with tickets averaging about $500(?) two rows behind.

I've also recently read an article about dynamic pricing for shows. It happens on planes, hotel rooms etc. and there has been talks about it happening for theatre tickets. I personally think in this case it is being done to deter scalping by allowing someone to scoop up a ton of affordable seats at once and place them on stubhub.

Regardless of what it is, I think that most people simply buy their tickets and go to the show. I certainly know this is true for several of my friends with sets of tickets to Cursed Child. You'd have to be following pretty closely/ really shopping around to know the difference.

[macnyc]

hermionejuliet said: "I think it just means that the producers are spreading the affordable tickets around the theatre which is amazing. Most producers limit their cheap purchase ahead tickets to the last two rows of the theatre or partial views.

There's nothing like a fantastic seat to a show, and apparently about 60% of theatre goers to Cursed Child are first time theatregoers. Hopefully, they continue to do this and grow theatre fans along the way."

They're spreading the cheap seats all around the theater, and they're also spreading the expensive seats all around. I wish they would just let us choose our seats from a chart like a normal production, so we can see what's available at that point in time and make an informed decision  

This nonsense of releasing seats in dribs and drabs is just infuriating!

 

[Nycat63]

(Insert Clever Name) said: "Where are your seats?"

Orchestra Row L 1 and 3.  I'm very happy with the seats, it's just that if I had the luxury of waiting/taking the risk, it seems I could get similar seats for far less.  But I'm out of state, need two together, have only one day of my trip for HP because we've filled up the rest with other shows, and am coming the week after the Tonys, so I can't really roll the dice. I normally never buy premium tickets for anything, but for a number of reasons was pretty limited to the $299 seats for this show if I wanted to actually see well and enjoy it. 

I'm still checking from time to time since I'm within my return window still, but I don't think anything better or as good but cheaper will pop up until much closer to the date.

And I did participate in all those verified pre-sales, never getting a code but spending all sorts of time stressing out, only to have an abundance of options later at the premium price point. I'd love to have that time back!

So it goes.  This may be my last theater trip with my daughter for a long time because she's going to college in a year, so while it burns me a bit, I'm trying to be grateful to even have this problem.

 

[(Insert Clever Name)]

Exactly, but I digress, I feel like this seating system has helped me get cheap seats in a good spot before Tonys, which is everything i wanted.

[haterobics]

hermionejuliet said: "I've also recently read an article about dynamic pricing for shows. It happens on planes, hotel rooms etc. and there has been talks about it happening for theatre tickets. I personally think in this case it is being done to deter scalping by allowing someone to scoop up a ton of affordable seats at once and place them on stubhub."

That isn't how dynamic pricing typically works. It just means if there are less seats available, the price goes up. And if there are more seats available at a given time than there should be, they reduce the prices. When Sara was in Waitress, all of the orchestra seats close to the stage were pretty much premiums, but then as the show got closer, if they were unsold, a single row of premiums would become regular price. Conversely, if premiums were getting close to sold out, the price could go up.

Potter seems to not be doing this, but actually trickling tickets out at all levels at all times, so that you might always have a better chance at regularly-priced seats at all price points. The scalping deterrent is you don't know how many seats will be released yet for the same date and when, so trying to make a profit is less assured.

[hermionejuliet]

Agreed. It isn't easily followed dynamic pricing, but the Orchestra seat that went from $199 to $130 to a last minute $40 this weekend does follow that pattern to the extreme.

There's also the fact that you can't see a variety of tickets but simply "best available" - so really they could be frequently changing prices of some tickets without anyone knowing based on any number of factors (for example how often a date is search or how well tickets are selling that day).

It isn't easy to track and that along with trickling does seems to be the deterrent in this case (leaps and bounds ahead of other popular productions)

And while I'm not following the box office numbers religiously - I'm gathering the method is working just fine for profit.

[greenifyme2]

I agree that the way they are selling tickets for this show doesn’t make any sense, but for those of you who spent $199-299 on a premium Orch seat- rest assured, you will not regret a single penny. It really is quite an incredible show.

[Dancingthrulife2]

I saw the show last week and was aghast at how bad the American cast was. I wasn't wowed by all the London cast when I saw it two years ago, but at least no one stood out as bad. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when a totally clueless imposters of McGonagall and Snape were on the Lyric stage. It seemed as if they received little to no direction and had only read the first paragraph on their character's wikipedia page before being shoved onto the stage. The text is no Stoppard, and terrible performances made it seem worse. I don't remember the London cast playing for even half as many cheap laughs that actually murdered the momentum of some scenes. The renovated Lyric is a sight to see, but what is going on inside is not just as impressive as what the magnificently decorated lobby and corridors suggest. 

[CT2NYC]

Dancingthrulife2 said: "I saw the show last week and was aghastat how bad the American cast was. I wasn't wowed by all the London cast when I saw it twoyears ago, but at least no one stood out as bad. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when a totally clueless imposters ofMcGonagall and Snape were on the Lyric stage. It seemed as if they received little to no direction and had only read the first paragraph on their character's wikipedia page before being shoved onto the stage. The text is no Stoppard, and terrible performances made it seem worse. I don't remember the London cast playing for even half as manycheap laughs that actually murderedthe momentum of some scenes. The renovated Lyric is a sight to see, but what is going on inside is not just as impressive as what the magnificentlydecorated lobby and corridors suggest."

Wrong thread for a review.

[(Insert Clever Name)]

^^^ try the previews thread

[hermionejuliet]

Back to the matter at hand, there's a lovely pair of seats in Row H for $130 tomorrow on Ticketmaster if anyone needs them.

[Notreallysilent 2]

I just returned another ticket (sad I know ) it is for June 20 $40 per part row d of the balcony. They are up now on the website