Don’t Look Down

By Shayla Sturgis

As someone who attends as many shows whenever possible, I was ecstatic at the chance to see a show while visiting London, but there were quite a few differences I was not expecting when I arrived.

In the United States, I’ve seen three major professional contemporary musical productions along with one more local, but still professional, play, accompanied by a plethora of amateur productions of all kinds. As for the professional shows, many were performed in large cities such as Kansas City and Chicago, and being in the states, many theatres are built quite wide and tall. None of the musicals came cheap and hardly any seats could be purchased under $100 without having most of the stage obstructed, making tickets much pricey for a decent seat that was usually a booth seat behind most of the floor seating, allowing for most of the stage to be visible, a bit distant, but still comfortable. This high price point is one of the primary reasons that seeing shows in the United States is so difficult, accompanied by lack of availability, shows selling out early and seldom being performed in the same location for long, it’s incredibly the group performance, Romeo and Julie, a contemporary play that took a spin on the classic tale of Romeo and Juliette in the modern world where Romeo is a single teenage dad and Julie is studying for university exams when they cross paths.

When I first attended the show, the initial differences were already apparent. There was a bar on the first entrance where audience members could order a drink to take into the show with them as well as pre-order a drink for intermission, or interlude, something I had never seen in an American theatre before.

Then, as I took my seat, I realized another fundamental difference: size. The theatre was quite tall, probably about the same height as an American theatre, but the width was considerably smaller due to the lower availability of land in the country, causing a high price point. It makes sense that the buildings would be thinner, but because of this, the theatre felt much more intimate. This size difference made for some interesting views as well, some sitting above or almost at eye-level with the stage lights, though the stage was much closer than it would be in any difficult in comparison to the London experience when attending shows on top of the transportation issues that can come with it.

Many theatres don’t have places to park and with the lack-luster unreliable transportation system in the states and high price point for Ubers late at night when they’re in such high demand, even getting a ride to and from the show is much more difficult.

In London, the first show I attended was

American theatre in a major city. There were also captions on a digital sign that proved quite useful to those unfamiliar with the Welsh accent that I’ve never seen in the states before either. I enjoyed the show and all its surprises and a few of the big differences I noticed I brushed off as being onetime experiences as the show could have been a more local performance in a smaller theatre. It was the second show I saw that put most of these differences into perspective. The Great British Bake Off Musical was the first show I bought the tickets to myself and at just 19 pounds, about 24 USD, the show was incredibly cheap and the seats had a pretty good view as well.

The very top of the stage was a bit obstructed by the booths above us, but because of the type of show itself, it didn’t really hinder the experience.

The reason these tickets were so cheap was not only because of the priority of accessible shows in a city dedicated to theatrical arts, but also because of a system that’s in place due to those exact priorities. Tickets are often sold to shows the day of the performance at a discounted price, making it easy to check prices the morning of the show in-person or online and purchase a cheaper ticket to a show with relatively good seating options.

The theatre itself was a bit wider than the previous one, but also a bit shorter, but still considerably smaller than most American city theatres. The show itself was a comedy that was filled with jokes about the show, but also local references, timely political jokes, and lots of adult humor as well, and was obstructions whatsoever and a box seat view just above the floor level, extremely close to the stage, making this the best view of the trip. This theatre was much larger than the others, the widest by far, but still significantly smaller than any large production shows in the states, making this performance feel even more special. The trend of bars being present in theatres continued here as well, having quite the large modern bar filled with people through all stages of the performance. The final show of the trip on the final day was Six. Another skinny and tall theatre where our seats were high above the stage, so high that you could use coins to pay for binoculars to see the stage, although, it wasn’t that far of a seat that it was necessary, but once again we were above the stage lights.

The lowest priced tickets for this show were from 45 to 60 pounds, on the high end, being about 74 USD. The lowest price in the states for this show starts on the low end at $100 depending on which city you choose to see it in. Being a British show, I took it as another great opportunity to see a show at a better price. The lively show had the audience raving at the end about how wonderfully exciting it was, leaving everyone with smiles.

All in all, it seems that theatre in London is much more accessible delightfully surprising all around.

Next came the Book of Mormon, another day-of show that I purchased because of the price point and my desire to see what all the hype about the show was. Unlike most shows I had seen in the states, I went to this big-production musical completely blind with no ideas about the show whatsoever. The tickets were 57 pounds, about 70 USD, and though those who don’t usually attend Broadway shows may think that’s still quite a bit of money, for equivalent seats in the United States, the lowest price starts at 130 USD and the highest at 180 USD, making this the perfect opportunity for me to see a show I otherwise would have had to save almost double the money to see. These seats were fantastic with no overall than in the United States as there are more shows performing more often in the city at much lower prices than they are performed in the states. Though the seats may be a bit more cramped due to the high land costs in the country, the performances often end up feeling more personal despite the quality of the performance remaining the same, if not better, than most American performances due to the great importance put on theatre in the city in comparison to the states.