How to get free theatre tickets in London (a guide for bloggers)

Reviewing shows as a blogger can be an expensive business. When I started back in 2009, I was strictly told that I was allowed to spend no more than £20 on theatre tickets per month (considering my salary at the time, this was rather generous). This prompted me to look for ways that I could see theatre without paying, or at best, paying a relatively small amount. Since I have recently stopped reviewing shows, I thought I’d share the ways I’ve found to reduce the cost of shows.

However, there is a rather important caveat… You can’t be particularly picky about the shows you want to see, and you mustn’t expect to only see West End shows. Most of the shows I have seen in the past year haven’t been things I would’ve necessarily sought out on my own. However, it’s broadened my views and opened my eyes to the world of theatre beyond the West End and the majors.

Young and free

One of the first things I investigated when I got here was the A Night Less Ordinary scheme. While the scheme sadly ended in March due to budget cuts, there are a few theatres still offering under 26 schemes. The first one that I joined was Barbican Centre’s freeb program, which is done through a simple online form. This allows you to buy up to 2 tickets for a range of shows. The beauty is that the second person doesn’t need to be under 26 either (just don’t take them to the counter if they look too old). However, tickets do go quickly, so you need to get in there fast. The best bet is to ‘Like’ the freeb page on Facebook, as they’ll let you know when a new lot are on sale.

Another gem from A Night Less Ordinary is the National Theatre’s Entry Passprogram. While you need to fill in an archaic paper form and wait a few weeks for your card, your first show is free and any subsequent shows are £5. Apparently the Donmar have a similar scheme called Donmar Discovery, but it is nigh impossible to get tickets (as it is with most of their shows).

Use the Twitters

If you want free or cheap tickets, make sure you are using Twitter effectively. Follow the major theatres, as well as staff from the theatres (especially marketing and PR). Also, follow accounts like FreeLondon, who tweet when someone is offering free things. If you keep following these people and paying attention, you can pick up some great offers. For example, a theatre-bod I follow on Twitter recently tweeted that he had a bunch of free tickets toUmbrellas of Cherbourg. Hair were offering £20 for press night, due to unsold tickets.

If you already have a network of theatre tweeps who you follow and have some kind of relationship with, set up a list of theatre people (here’s mine as an example), add that list to Tweetdeck and filter the column with a few simple keywords like “‘free ticket’ OR ‘+1′ OR ‘spare ticket’.” You’ll be surprised how many people you know are looking for people to take spare tickets. While I’ve never gone to the effort of setting up a dedicated column in Tweetdeck, I’ve managed to see some fantastic (and dreadful) shows through this method. Through this I’ve also managed to make some fantastic friends out of people I had only spoken to a few times on Twitter, which brings me to my next point…

Network like a whore

Using a tool like Twitter is fantastic to network within the industry. Almost exclusively through Twitter, I have managed to build a great network of theatre people within the UK from scratch, and am lucky enough to now call a lot of those people friends. Events like Twespians (disclosure: I run this with the lovely Laura Tosney) then cement these relationships by bringing them offline over a few drinks.

The benefit of this is two-fold. Not only will you make friends with a new group of people who have similar interests to you, but you’ll also be building a network of industry contacts who, when you feel comfortable, may be able to help you get tickets. This isn’t using people, however, as when you have +1s for yourself, you’ll have a group of friends who you can offer tickets to.

Don’t be afraid to ask

Finally, once you build some credibility with your writing (committing to a time schedule for posting, cross posting to sites like Up The West End and building a network are good starting points), don’t be afraid to ask theatres and PR people for press tickets. It’s easy to find details online (A Google of ‘theatre name press officer’ sometimes does the trick, as does a LinkedIn search), and failing that @ the theatre on Twitter. Be honest about the level you blog at (installing Google Analytics is a good way to monitor how successful you are), talk about the network you have and ask if you can be added to the press list. Contacting agencies like AKA, Premier PR, Arthur Leone and The Corner Shop PR are a good idea as well. You won’t always get a yes, but sometimes you will.

If they do say no, it may not hurt to ask why (in a friendly way). Keep writing and ask again at a later point.

Also, contact existing sites like Fringe Review (contact me if you want to get involved with them and I’ll put you in touch) or Whatsonstage to see if they are looking for reviewers. The advantage of these is that they do a lot of the leg work for you in arranging tickets. However, once again don’t expect a yes straight away. Ask why, keep writing and ask again at a later point.

If you have any comments or want to hurl any abuse at me then feel free to leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter.