2,743 posts
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Post by n1david on Aug 30, 2016 15:11:15 GMT
Well I upped my level of support at the Almeida in order to jump the queue for this so nabbed my two tix today. Annoyingly forgot at 10am but got two stalls row B tix at 3pm. (Regular Friends go on sale Thursday at 10 and public booking 8 Sep)
Hope they are keeping tix back as Stalls seats were rather thin on many of the dates I looked at. Public booking should be better than R3 as Friends are limited to 2 tickets for Hamlet whereas they had essentially unlimited for Richard III.
Seems to be two levels of pricing which I can't work out without going through every date - I am in early March after the press night and tickets are £48, £34, £20 and £10 but I picked a random date later in the run and that's £38, £30, 18 and £10. Probably Friday/Saturday premium pricing. The 'behind pillar' seats in stalls all appear to be a tenner, along with the rear sides of the Circle. Row AA is the front row for ''tis show but couldn't find any row AA or A on sale - 'aubergine I was too late but more likely they are in a later release or day seats.
7pm nightly with some Weds and Saturday matinees at 1.30.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 15:22:48 GMT
Saturday matinees, surely? What's this about an aubergine?
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2,743 posts
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Post by n1david on Aug 30, 2016 15:31:50 GMT
Bloody autocorrect and trying to post something surreptitiously from the office. Corrected the matinee time, and believe it or not 'aubergine' should read 'maybe'
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2016 15:36:58 GMT
They do seem to have quite a complicated system for releasing tickets - I'd be very surprised if they weren't keeping rows A and AA for release nearer the time. Unless the Almeida is anything like my local theatre, which likes to confusingly put ALL the seats on the seating plan, even if the first few rows aren't going to be sold for a particular production.
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5,690 posts
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Post by lynette on Aug 30, 2016 21:42:21 GMT
I also 'nabbed' Hamlet this morning. No prob at all, I could have had any Saturday night I liked and even the seats I wanted in the stalls. I usually go for a Hamlet as it always throws up something interesting.
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Post by Jan on Aug 31, 2016 7:40:51 GMT
They do seem to have quite a complicated system for releasing tickets - I'd be very surprised if they weren't keeping rows A and AA for release nearer the time. Unless the Almeida is anything like my local theatre, which likes to confusingly put ALL the seats on the seating plan, even if the first few rows aren't going to be sold for a particular production. Their most mysterious strategy mentioned above, which they followed for R-III too, is towards the start and end of run the top price is £48 (all dates, not just Friday/Saturday I think) but in parts of the middle of the run it is £38 and the other prices follow suit. What is that all about ? I don't know of any other theatre doing that. Also they are getting a bit like the Donmar, they have so many levels of membership and booking dates (including TodayTix lottery tickets) that the amount on offer at each booking point is relatively small and the best seats (front rows) do not seem to be offered offered to the higher cost membership level. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2016 9:41:12 GMT
I don't know the Almeida's reason for this Peak and Off-Peak pricing strategy. However, one benefit of it may be that, if many price-sensitive bookers shun the Peak performances, there's much better availability and choice of seats for those Peak performances. So it makes it easier for everyone to book a better seat, if they so choose, for a £10 premium.
But it doesn't exclude everyone from their favourite seats because they can avoid paying this premium at Off-Peak performances, if they can manage to book early enough.
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Post by Jan on Aug 31, 2016 10:03:02 GMT
I don't know the Almeida's reason for this Peak and Off-Peak pricing strategy. However, one benefit of it may be that, if many price-sensitive bookers shun the Peak performances, there's much better availability and choice of seats for those Peak performances. So it makes it easier for everyone to book a better seat, if they so choose, for a £10 premium. But it doesn't exclude everyone from their favourite seats because they can avoid paying this premium at Off-Peak performances, if they can manage to book early enough. My assumption on this odd pricing is they want to screw as much money as possible out of enthusiasts who want to see plays very early in the run, and ditherers who only get around to booking something when it is about to close. But it is such a unique pricing strategy I assumed someone here would know the real reason. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2016 10:10:47 GMT
In any other theatre, I'd assume the same, but seeing how well the Fiennes Richard III sold, I don't think there'll be anything left for the real ditherers, unless the reviews are shocking and people return their tickets en masse.
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Post by Jan on Sept 1, 2016 9:57:21 GMT
First day booking for the lower tier members today. Usual total shambles with the website too slow to use or totally crashed. 50 minutes to book a single show. It has been like this the past few times too.
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590 posts
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Post by lou105 on Sept 1, 2016 10:08:53 GMT
It wasn't much fun, particularly when I couldn't buy the pair I wanted because it would leave a single seat. All very well, but at two tickets per person, they're going to have to be sold as a 2 and a 1 anyway..They were also different price levels and it really bugs me when the system still insists on treating different priced seats as a block.
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Post by profquatermass on Sept 1, 2016 10:23:14 GMT
First day booking for the lower tier members today. Usual total shambles with the website too slow to use or totally crashed. 50 minutes to book a single show. It has been like this the past few times too. I thought you didn't believe in membership schemes ? |
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1,502 posts
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Post by foxa on Sept 1, 2016 11:18:04 GMT
I was at the Almeida last night and spoke to the box office for any tips for today. They said that it wasn't as busy as it had been for Richard III and for the higher level people were generally done and dusted in well under an hour. Their one tip was to book for both shows as they were booking about equally well, so don't just book for Hamlet and then think you can wait a few weeks for Mary Stuart. I had the usual slow thing but got Hamlet in about 35 minutes and got exactly the seats/date I wanted (cheap stalls) but I didn't then risk getting the Mary Stuart ones (which I was only lukewarm on anyway) as the website was so slow and glitchy I was afraid I'd lose the Hamlet tickets in the 15 minute window to buy. So just now went back on and got Mary Stuart and for the date I wanted, but it was quite picked over.
Of course, the irony is that I'm not really keen on Juliet Stevenson and she is in both shows....so I have been a bit of a membership scheme/hype/have to see Andrew Scott dupe, I suppose.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2016 11:19:34 GMT
Website booking completely crashed now...
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Post by lolli on Sept 1, 2016 11:47:04 GMT
Phones not working either
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2016 12:38:29 GMT
Am I right in thinking the Almeida advertised for a digital manager recently, whose responsibilities included shepherding through an updated booking process? Or was that a different theatre? They badly need it, anyway.
I'm dreading public booking next week. So much so that I might actually not bother - I like Scott, but I've seen a few Hamlets recently and I'm not sure I need another! Plus my moderately expensive seat in the circle for RIII was a bit disappointing, given what I paid for it. And I suspect stalls will go fast for this, too.
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Post by johng on Sept 1, 2016 12:54:31 GMT
I assume the proceed to checkout button was missing because it failed to see your membership.
I have the same problem but cannot get the checkout button to appear despite having a membership that I bought in May 2016.
The Almeida "process" of endlessly logging in and out or clicking randomly around the site until it suddenly acknowledges your membership isn't working for me today, and of course there's no way to get through on the phone.
Great to see the Almeida up to its usual standard
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2016 13:20:27 GMT
They have indeed appointed a new digital manager. Hope sorting out the booking is a priority, especially the refusal to leave a single seat unsold. Particularly in a case such as this where people can only buy a maximum of two tickets anyway!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2016 13:56:37 GMT
Thank the Lord, I'm not going mad then. Not that I've been job-hunting recently or anything *innocent face in the office*
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Post by Jan on Sept 1, 2016 14:30:05 GMT
First day booking for the lower tier members today. Usual total shambles with the website too slow to use or totally crashed. 50 minutes to book a single show. It has been like this the past few times too. I thought you didn't believe in membership schemes ? I don't. I don't think any subsidised venue should be allowed to run membership schemes which give priority booking. They should just have public booking open to all. However I'm not going to put myself at a disadvantage to others by refusing to join. I'm a member here and NT though the latter is under close review. |
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Post by Jan on Sept 1, 2016 14:33:13 GMT
One advantage of the Almeida's shambolic booking system is when it fails to let you book anything and you phone to complain they can give you seats they have held back for the next phase of lower tier booking. I've had that a couple of times. Agree NT booking system is now good after years of similar chaos.
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Post by profquatermass on Sept 1, 2016 17:48:09 GMT
Think I have both booked, but not had a confirmation email. Wouldn't let me log in 10 mins before booking opened, but I remembered on here that someone said you could put stuff in your basket, then buy them after 10am. Got exactly the tickets I wanted, and had them in the basket for 10am... but no "proceed to checkout" button - despite it letting me log in after I put the first ticket into the basket. Tried various fiddles of opening pages, looking at my details etc, to try and get a buy button up. After 20 minutes my basket should have emptied, but for some reason, after some more fiddling, the buy button appeared and it slowly ground through payment and gave me an order confirmation number. As yet, though, no email confirmation - but I'm guessing it's OK as one of the seats I have isn't shown on the plan any more, while the rest of the row is. Shockingly bad system indeed. My confirmation email took a couple of hours. Lucky I didn't panic because it's easy to assume the booking hasn't gone through. |
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181 posts
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Post by caa on Sept 2, 2016 14:27:15 GMT
Seems to be two levels of pricing which I can't work out without going through every date - I am in early March after the press night and tickets are £48, £34, £20 and £10 but I picked a random date later in the run and that's £38, £30, 18 and £10. Probably Friday/Saturday premium pricing. The 'behind pillar' seats in stalls all appear to be a tenner, along with the rear sides of the Circle. Row AA is the front row for ''tis show but couldn't find any row AA or A on sale - 'aubergine I was too late but more likely they are in a later release or day seats. 7pm nightly with some Weds and Saturday matinees at 1.30. When I rang the box office I gave them my choice of dates in the middle of the run for weekdays and one was peek and the other wasn't and the box office person didn't know why! |
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Post by AddisonMizner on Sept 7, 2016 6:12:57 GMT
I'm going to try my luck for this when public booking opens tomorrow. I studied HAMLET for A-Level English, but have never seen a production of it. I wasn't overly enamoured by the play when I read it back then, but seeing it onstage might just bring it alive for me.
I've never been to the Almeida. What is it like as a venue? There seems to be no seating plan for it on TheatreMonkey.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2016 7:08:22 GMT
I'm going to try my luck for this when public booking opens tomorrow. I studied HAMLET for A-Level English, but have never seen a production of it. I wasn't overly enamoured by the play when I read it back then, but seeing it onstage might just bring it alive for me. I've never been to the Almeida. What is it like as a venue? There seems to be no seating plan for it on TheatreMonkey. Gorgeous venue, but the configuration is versatile and will depend on the production's design. Hence, no accurate seating plan. |
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