Oklahoma! - Young Vic / Wyndham’s

[FrontroverPaul]

This is currently on sale to Friends only, though the website allows anyone to start a booking adding the £50 membership to the basket total.  I just tried and removing that membership fee cleared the basket. Public sale starts on Monday at noon. Already very limited availability for many performances.

I wonder if seat allocation for bookings made under the original "choose price "system will be issued before the general sale starts ? I had assumed that would happen but beginning to wonder now.

[Being Alive]

Painless booking process, two sets of lucky dip tickets booked - last preview and last show

[FrontroverPaul]

Very short queue at midday. I also booked two sets of two tickets, one £10 lucky dips and the other row C stalls £20 seats as this is one of our favourite shows and we both love Marisha Wallace!

I haven't had a seat notification from my previous booking in January which was all lucky dip but various prices - has anybody ?

[fossil]

On the subject of ticket pricing. I have just been looking at matinee tickets. Prices later in the run seem to be £10 higher. Those I checked up to 8th June are £58. Later matinees are £68. The main show page continues to show prices up to £58.

[stevemar]

Mar 19, 2022 22:15:28 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

This is currently on sale to Friends only, though the website allows anyone to start a booking adding the £50 membership to the basket total.  I just tried and removing that membership fee cleared the basket. Public sale starts on Monday at noon. Already very limited availability for many performances.

I wonder if seat allocation for bookings made under the original "choose price "system will be issued before the general sale starts ? I had assumed that would happen but beginning to wonder now.

How odd - I am not a member and booked in Jan. Maybe they’ve changed something.
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[FrontroverPaul]

Mar 21, 2022 16:33:57 GMT stevemar said:

Mar 19, 2022 22:15:28 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

This is currently on sale to Friends only, though the website allows anyone to start a booking adding the £50 membership to the basket total.  I just tried and removing that membership fee cleared the basket. Public sale starts on Monday at noon. Already very limited availability for many performances.

I wonder if seat allocation for bookings made under the original "choose price "system will be issued before the general sale starts ? I had assumed that would happen but beginning to wonder now.

How odd - I am not a member and booked in Jan. Maybe they’ve changed something.

Also top priced tickets WERE £52 - ah, must be inflation! 🙄

I also booked in January and am also not a member  but at that time all I did was choose a date and a price - which was £20 in zone C at the end of April.. I got a code (a letter and three numbers) to identify my seat  I've heard no more from that booking as of now so no idea where that seat is located.

On Saturday full seat choice was available but only Friends could book, with the option of paying the £50 Friends membership to complete the booking which I declined. Then from midday today public booking opened including the £10 Lucky Dip tickets and the £20 seats in stalls row C which on the face of it are the best deal compared with other pricing.  I grabbed the first two I found plus two Lucky Dips for an earlier performance

[mrnutz]

I also booked in Jan. I'd hope they had allocated these seats before they put the rest back on sale?

[mkb]

I went for a £40 seat and have been allocated the fourth row on the side in a "high seat" which the Young Vic Box Office tell me "have a full back and a foot rest, so no dangling legs. There are no arm rests as it is a long bench, which is padded and very comfortable."

They also say there are no plans to abandon their policy of putting seats on sale before seating configurations have been agreed, which is disappointing. If there were good management in place, they would prioritise discussions on set layout during the initial dialogue with the director and set designer. If they had any regard for the needs of paying theatregoers, they would hold off sales until such discussions had concluded. If they are not capable of doing that in a timely manner, they shouldn't be in the business.

Of course, some other theatres are also guilty of making late changes to configurations, and having to move people who have already booked, but, with wise, experienced people in charge, these things should not happen.

[danb]

How can I find out what I’ve been allocated?

[Dave B]

Apr 11, 2022 11:09:00 GMT danb said:

How can I find out what I’ve been allocated?

I'm pretty sure you can just contact them and ask.

I've just had a look at my emails, I booked 'best available' I have not received my tickets yet so I don't know either.

It does frustrate me that while the YV have an account section on their website for me to log in to, it never displays orders, tickets, confirmation or even any useful information.

[mkb]

I sent an email to [e-mail] to find out my allocated tickets and received a reply from [e-mail]

That's another bête noire for me: organisations that send emails with a corporate, generic signature; in this case "Best wishes, Welcome Team" was the sign-off at the bottom. If you are writing a personal email, have the courtesy to put your name on it!

[couldileaveyou]

[FrontroverPaul]

I still haven't received my seat allocation from the January prebooking so not impressed by this tweet.

Are they actually expecting people to just turn up on the day with a reference number and be allocated a seat .... or to send the Young Vic an email to ask ? They must (?) know which seats have been booked so why can't they just send out emails with that info ?

[nottobe]

Apr 14, 2022 9:48:07 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

I still haven't received my seat allocation from the January prebooking so not impressed by this tweet.

Are they actually expecting people to just turn up on the day with a reference number and be allocated a seat .... or to send the Young Vic an email to ask ? They must (?) know which seats have been booked so why can't they just send out emails with that info ?

I emailed asking for my seat allocation. Was very happy to see a seat I got for £20 in the prebook is in the stalls and near ones that are now £58. Assume everyone who prebooked will have a similar bargain. 

[latefortheoverture]

I emailed and got a response with 4 minutes!

I only paid £10 a ticket so thought I’d be given a seat in the gallery or a restricted view seat, but I’m chuffed with my allocation! Row D, seats along from mine are on sale for £62!! A steal in my eyes!

Can’t wait for this.

[FrontroverPaul]

Thanks for replies. I will also email. I still think it's a strange set up if there's a need to send a message to get a seat allocation

[princeton]

They normally send an email about a week before the performance which will include the exact seat allocation (the old booking system used to allow you to log in and see where your tickets were but as noted above now your account doesn't include anything about your bookings).

I agree that it's bonkers that they claim not to know the auditorium configuration until near the start of the production, particularly one like this which has been around in one incarnation or another for several years. I'd rather they opening booking later than this slightly pot luck approach. If places like Hampstead, the Dorfman and Southwark Playhouse which are equally flexible spaces can get their acts together before booking opens I'm not quite sure why the Young Vic can't.

[theplaymirrorslife]

It's always been like this at the Young Vic. The main house, in particular, is a fully flexible space - perhaps unlike some of the other spaces which do have flexibility - which is a 'stretched' octagon with corridors running around it. There are possible entrances all round from these corridors, which are sometimes FOH and sometime backstage. There are no 'standard formats' which might be tweaked for a particular show. The seating is modular benches - or sometimes completely different seating - which can be put together absolutely anywhere. I have been there many times, and its one of the magical things about seeing the space and how you enter it so transformed that you often feel you are visiting a new venue. That's the flexibility they give the director and designer, and its one of the few venues where the audience seating is an integral part of the design process.

The downside of this of course is that 'exact' layouts cannot be finalised until much nearer the show, and obviously much later than the lead in time for putting shows on sale. Its easy to say surely they should know earlier, but it's all the finite details like how many seats in a particular row, what are the aisle seats, is there enough clearance here or there in gangways to satisfy licencing, what spaces are accessible / flat etc that are only known much deeper in the design process.

That said, I'm sure that there are improvements they can make, such as how and when they communicate with bookers once the seat plans are signed off, given the comments on here.........

[mkb]

Apr 14, 2022 12:23:41 GMT theplaymirrorslife said:

It's always been like this at the Young Vic. The main house, in particular, is a fully flexible space - perhaps unlike some of the other spaces which do have flexibility - which is a 'stretched' octagon with corridors running around it. There are possible entrances all round from these corridors, which are sometimes FOH and sometime backstage. There are no 'standard formats' which might be tweaked for a particular show. The seating is modular benches - or sometimes completely different seating - which can be put together absolutely anywhere. I have been there many times, and its one of the magical things about seeing the space and how you enter it so transformed that you often feel you are visiting a new venue. That's the flexibility they give the director and designer, and its one of the few venues where the audience seating is an integral part of the design process.

The downside of this of course is that 'exact' layouts cannot be finalised until much nearer the show, and obviously much later than the lead in time for putting shows on sale. Its easy to say surely they should know earlier, but it's all the finite details like how many seats in a particular row, what are the aisle seats, is there enough clearance here or there in gangways to satisfy licencing, what spaces are accessible / flat etc that are only known much deeper in the design process.

That said, I'm sure that there are improvements they can make, such as how and when they communicate with bookers once the seat plans are signed off, given the comments on here.........

Complete nonsense. It's inept management and a contemptuous disregard for the paying punter. Plenty of other venues have fully flexible spaces and manage to have the necessary discussions with set designer and director in a timely fashion before tickets go on sale.

Strange how they always seem to find time to prioritise publicity photoshots for the marketing department. It's about the management having a mindset that places the needs of theatregoers first.

[BurlyBeaR]

Hope mill started by having different layouts for different productions but eventually switched to the same layout with minor tweaks for everything. And that allowed them to move from unallocated seating to specified seats. Not as much artistic freedom for creatives but at least punters know where they’re sitting when they buy.

[theplaymirrorslife]

Apr 14, 2022 12:45:44 GMT mkb said:

Apr 14, 2022 12:23:41 GMT theplaymirrorslife said:

It's always been like this at the Young Vic. The main house, in particular, is a fully flexible space - perhaps unlike some of the other spaces which do have flexibility - which is a 'stretched' octagon with corridors running around it. There are possible entrances all round from these corridors, which are sometimes FOH and sometime backstage. There are no 'standard formats' which might be tweaked for a particular show. The seating is modular benches - or sometimes completely different seating - which can be put together absolutely anywhere. I have been there many times, and its one of the magical things about seeing the space and how you enter it so transformed that you often feel you are visiting a new venue. That's the flexibility they give the director and designer, and its one of the few venues where the audience seating is an integral part of the design process.

The downside of this of course is that 'exact' layouts cannot be finalised until much nearer the show, and obviously much later than the lead in time for putting shows on sale. Its easy to say surely they should know earlier, but it's all the finite details like how many seats in a particular row, what are the aisle seats, is there enough clearance here or there in gangways to satisfy licencing, what spaces are accessible / flat etc that are only known much deeper in the design process.

That said, I'm sure that there are improvements they can make, such as how and when they communicate with bookers once the seat plans are signed off, given the comments on here.........

Complete nonsense. It's inept management and a contemptuous disregard for the paying punter. Plenty of other venues have fully flexible spaces and manage to have the necessary discussions with set designer and director in a timely fashion before tickets go on sale.

Strange how they always seem to find time to prioritise publicity photoshots for the marketing department. It's about the management having a mindset that places the needs of theatregoers first.

Whilst I completely agree there is more they can do, I don't think it's as simple as them having the contemptuous disregard for the paying punter that you suggest. It's more like the opposite - they have too much regard to 'get it 100% right' that the reality is that the delay in finalising seating plans becomes in itself problematic.... I'm not sure if you have worked in venues, but I have, and believe me it is not a simple job to get these things right - even in the seemingly straightfoward pros arch receiving venues there can be probs with sightlines, sound / speakers, high stages etc, which if not dealt with in the hope the ticketholders won't complain - now that's contemptuous disregard....

[BurlyBeaR]

But while space might be infinitely configurable, how many options are there really? Every show doesn’t merit a new and unique seating layout, enough productions have been staged for them to have learned the ins and outs of a thrust versus a traverse or round. Everything beyond that is fiddling with a row of on stage chairs or cabaret tables all of which can be added as ticket options later. If they’re going in to every production with a blank piece of paper then they must be wasting a great deal of time and costly resources which no doubt end up on the price of the tickets. Sounds potentially like a lot of creative “faffing” and ultimately too much choice becomes a prison in the end.

[marob]

I love the adaptability of the Young Box. I’ve only been there maybe half a dozen times, but each time it does genuinely seem to have had a unique seating/stage configuration. Nora: A Doll’s House was thrust, Streetcar was in-the-round with that large revolving apartment, Fun Home and The Inheritance were both end-on, but still had different ways of going about it.

Oddest of all was Blue/Orange. You entered the theatre by walking through a hospital corridor then going upstairs. The stage was a square platform, with a sort of pit around it, and then the seating was on four sides around that. The pit had windows that you could see through into the hospital corridor downstairs, and when he wasn’t in a scene Daniel Kaluuya would either be down in this pit or I think in the corridor at one point.

They really shouldn’t be selling tickets for things without a proper seating plan in place, but I think it would be a huge shame if they started limiting themselves.

[FrontroverPaul]

Apr 11, 2022 10:14:13 GMT mkb said:

I went for a £40 seat and have been allocated the fourth row on the side in a "high seat" which the Young Vic Box Office tell me "have a full back and a foot rest, so no dangling legs. There are no arm rests as it is a long bench, which is padded and very comfortable."

They also say there are no plans to abandon their policy of putting seats on sale before seating configurations have been agreed, which is disappointing. If there were good management in place, they would prioritise discussions on set layout during the initial dialogue with the director and set designer. If they had any regard for the needs of paying theatregoers, they would hold off sales until such discussions had concluded. If they are not capable of doing that in a timely manner, they shouldn't be in the business.

Of course, some other theatres are also guilty of making late changes to configurations, and having to move people who have already booked, but, with wise, experienced people in charge, these things should not happen.

I paid £20 and have also been allocated a high seat on the side, possibly same row as you. From other posts on this thread the seats allocated don't appear to directly link to price paid.

[fiyero]

My £10 is is in the second row of the balcony, far down the side. Row in front seems a lot more so I'm not disappointed at that!