Lastminute.com seats?

jemclajess

Hi everyone,
I'm being chucked out of the house for the day with my 3 daughters whilst we have heating/work done to the house and I have decided to take the kids to London for the day shopping as its only about 30 minutes on the train.
As a treat at half term I have decided to take them to see a show. They are 20, 15 and 13 and my 20 year old daughter has seen Dirty Dancing and Grease and myself and my 15 year old daughter have seen Grease too. My eldest is keen on Wicked or The Lion King and I have spent hours searching the web for reasonable, good view/seats to buy. I have also managed to add my 15 year old daughters best friend to the group and the best I can find is Wicked £50 a ticket for 'second price seats' or The Lion King' for 'top price stalls/royal circle seats' at £55.00 a ticket with Last Minute.com. I'm really confused by the Last minute terms for their seats and dont want to pay £250 total (for Wicked) or £275 for (The Lion King) to end up with not a particularly good view/seat as Lastminute.com don't tell you the seat numbers in advance. I think I've left it a bit late for good seats as we want to go on Thursday 28th October and less than 4 weeks away but as it is these tickets will cost me more money than I've got and I will have to pay train fares, Mcdonalds/meal too, not including 3 girls shopping!!
Please can someone help me and give me your views on which of the two shows will be good for us all?
Mant thanks in advance.

**curlywurly**

Wicked and Lion King are both suitable for you all. My personal preference is the Lion King because it is so visually stunning. Wicked is good, but the songs and plot are quite forgettable IMHO. Legally Blonde and Mamma Mia would also be good. If I were you I would consider turning up on the day at the Half Price Ticket Bureau in Leicester Square: see http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/tkts/whats_on_today/. However, as it's half term, there is a risk that you won't get a show you all want. I don't use Lastminute for tkts because they don't tell you the seat numbers and generally speaking the tickets are not cheaper, although their theatre & meal deals are usually good value. I usually use seetickets/ticketmaster or ebay, and I always use www.theatremonkey.co.uk to see if the seats I am buying are good value. Also check out http://www.showpairs.co.uk/offers.html they have an offer on for Sister Act at the moment (also recommended for all of you) but I don't know if the offer is valid over half term. I am assuming you are after an evening performance - there are not many matinees on Thursdays.

kt21

Legally blonde is a good choice. Lastminute.com have some good offers for it. Also ditto Sister Act

jemclajess

Thanks very much for your replies.
I really thought I might have had it sorted last night and now I'm not sure!!
I spoke to my daughters and one or two of them were not keen on seeing Lion King and Wicked so I decided to stop looking for tickets for them. I had forgotten about Mamma Mia and because my two elder daughters liked Grease and like Mamma Mia on DVD they all said they would be happy with Mamma Mia. I telephoned the Delfont Mackintosh theatres office yesterday after trying to book tickets for 5 of us at the second price level of £51.75 and was unable to do so and they said there were no tickets available together at this price but offered me seats S34-38 in the stalls for £36.75 each. They told me that the row in front was the £51.75 price ticket range and that the seats were all mostly good in this theatre.. This price sounded good to me. When trying to put in 5 tickets on their website for the £36.75 range it only comes up with row T30-34 which is the back row behind us and on theatre monkey is in the red area. I reserved the S row tickets but was unable to pay anyway because there was a problem with credit cards working yesterday and they will ring back on Monday or Tuesday. I'm now looking at it again and although I sat in row P of the stalls for Grease and had a reasonable view I'm worried 1 row from the back is a bit far back even though it is in the centre and tickets for the cricle at the same £36.75 price on the web come up with K17-21 which is white on theatre monkey too like the stalls tickets and one from the back aswell. I really would like to know what anyone else recommends as to the two different seats on levels?
Finally to make matters worse I have this morning looked on lastminute at the legally blonde tickets and seen a good package with a dinner at Smollensky's and second or third price tickets up to the value of £55 for £42.50 and this looks a good deal too although I won't know the seat numbers and it looks a big theatre!!
Any help anyone before I make my final decision and before I have to pay for my reserved tickets. Sorry for the long post. I've only ever seen two shows in my life and don't have much experience!!
Many thanks in advance...

**curlywurly**

The Savoy (Legally Blonde) is quite a small theatre. However, all seats in stalls til about Row K are good. Behind that, your view is obscured by the circle above you (if that makes sense). Can't comment on the circle. This is a loud and vibrant show, so it shouldn't matter too much if you are a few rows back. Smollensky's is recommended - they have a 2-course dinner (seated by 7pm I think it is) for £9.95, or three courses for £12.95. Only three choices of each, but good food, nice atmosphere and just a few metres from the theatre. Am guessing that is the menu you will be offered if booking through lastminute. I can thoroughly recommend this show. It is very very funny.

I can't comment on the Grease tickets because it's so long since I saw the show, I can't remember. On theatremonkey, rather than just looking to see if a seat is red, green or white, have a look at the commentary to see why they are that colour. For example a lot of red seats are limited legroom - that doesn't bother me as I am a bit short anyway!

jemclajess

Thanks Curlywurly,
I have yet again spoken to my daughters and they would prefer to see Mamma Mia at the Prince of Wales theatre over a meal and second or third price tickets for Legally Blonde (which I agree I think looks really good!!) Guess I am now trying to decide on whether to stick with the S34-38 in the stalls that Delfont Mackintosh have offered me and I've reserved but not paid for yet (which is one row from the back!!) or go for the K30-34 in the circle above which is also one row from the back above the stalls!! (and I can book on the Delfont Mackintosh website) I was looking at a clip of the Prince of Wales theatre and the seats look ok and no obvious bad restrictions and I know we aren't going to get a close view of the show but still not sure on which seats are the best?
Thanks again...

kt21

I saw mama mia from the back row of the circle and couldnt have had a better view.. Can't say what the back stalls tickets are like becuase ive always been fairly close in the stalls at that theatre. I do find back of a dress circle does offer slightly better option than back of stalls but that's just my opinion. hope it helps. I know you have discounted it but can reccomend the lm.com legally blonde dinner and show offer, i did it a couple of months ago and the meal was lovely and the tickets were good, we got back row of the circle and they were great seats, was even better when i tried to close the door behind me because there was a slight draft in the interval and the usher moved us further to the front of the circle into the top price seats

**curlywurly**

I agree. Go for the circle. The rake is steeper than in the stalls. Like LB, Mamma Mia is very raucous, so it's not necessary to be near the front in order to appreciate the action. I would struggle to choose between Mamma Mia and Legally Blonde. They are both excellent, and probably both in my top 5 musicals.