U.K. and Ireland - Musical Tickets for 11 March

Due to a change of plans we find ourselves in London on Saturday, 11 March.

My wife has her heart set on seeing Billy Elliott, but it appears to be sold out that evening (we arrive too late for the afternoon show).

I am not familiar with the London theatre, and was wondering if there are other outlets to obtain tickets. Any information is appreciated.

Also, we are staying at the Trafalgar, do you think they can assist?

Thanks much.

Same day tickets are sold in Leicester Square at TKTS.
Look for the little house in the middle of the park, it's the only official box office in Leicester Square (there are plenty of unofficial ones as well).

Generally speaking it might be difficult to obtain tickets for a Saturday evening show.
Friday and Saturday evenings are normally sold out many days in advance, but of course there might be cancellations so it's always worth a try.
At TKTS they sell tickets for all musicals/shows so in case it is still sold out there might be something else available.

Do not waste your time at Leister Square. This is perhaps the hottest show in town, and is seriously sold out for Sat nites between now and April.

If you are prepared to pay a premium price of probably £100 per ticket, you can search the sleeze shops through internet, or for best results, call the concierge at the trafalger immediately(they should speak understandable english) and request tickets and prices from them. If anyone can get them, that will be the person.

You can stand around the show box office about 1 hr before show time to see if any tickets are returned. However, I recall plowing through the waiting crowd at Lion King, and Mamma Mia when they were the hot show.

Billy Elliott, Saturday night - you are wasting your time. It is possible that you might find a pair on ebay, but be very careful about being ripped off - that said, it is not illegal in the UK to sell tickets with a high mark-up, so many ticket touts operate openly through ebay.

Personally, I would go down to Canary Wharf at 10am in the morning and get yourself a couple of half-price tickets for something else. We saw Woman In White last month and got excellent top-price seats for half-price on the day.

http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/tkts/today

However, to be honest, I try to totally avoid London theatres on a Saturday night. They are full of tourists who have no idea how to behave - when we saw Woman In White, a pair of Germans in front of us talked through the entire show, and the woman next to me returned from the interval with a big bag of crisps (chips) which she spent the second half devouring.

Tuesday night is good. Always very quiet (so excellent choice of half-price tickets at TKTS) and an audience that is primarily Londoners who know how to behave.

You can stand around the show box office about 1 hr before show time to see if any tickets are returned.
Another option is to check with the theatre earlier in the day to see if they have "early" returned tix. I have used this approach successfully in the past, altho it didn't hurt that I was looking only for a single seat....Good luck!
Best wishes, Dave

Checking with the theatre as early that day is an excellent idea. When we were in London in late November 2005, we wanted to see Ewan McGregor in Guys and Dolls. We went directly to the theatre that morning and found a line of people. We stood in line and the man in front of us explained that because tickets were so in demand, the theatre did wanted scalpers to get as few tickets as possible. They sold a limited number of seats every morning for that day's performance(s) and required that the ticket be paid with a credit card. The tickets were not released until just before the performance.

We missed out on getting regular seats but did get the last two standing room only spots. We paid 15 pounds or so; the cheapest seats were around 20 pounds so we did get a bargain. We arrived for the performance (dressed nicely, we did not speak, nor did we eat crisps during the performance). The head usher was assigned to keep us in-line. He told us that we had to stand and could not touch the seats in front of us; he also forbade us from moving except during intermission. We stood directly behind the last rows of the stalls; we got the center spots.

I thought that standing for almost three hours would be difficult but the show was so great that we had no difficulty. Really, standing was wonderful because we had perfect views of the stage with no heads blocking.

The performance, and especially Mr. McGregor, was one of the best productions I have ever seen. We also saw Ewan in a drama at the West End four or five years ago; I preferred this performance.

When I saw Billy Elliot last summer, there were a limited number of same day tickets available at the box office. I believe they went on sale at noon or 1 pm. You might check with the theater to see if those tickets are still offered.

When I saw Billy Elliot last summer, there were a limited number of same day tickets available at the box office. I believe they went on sale at noon or 1 pm. You might check with the theater to see if those tickets are still offered.

Bear in mind that the UK has lots of people with too much time and too little money. I would serious expect to be queuing for 3-4 hours to be in with a chance of getting one of these on a Saturday.

Good luck.... Let me know if you get tickets. I have been trying every time that I have been in London with no luck yet...