Cheap theatre tickets and nights out
ShareGoing to the theatre or seeing a gig doesn’t have to be an indulgence, especially when you know all the tricks of the trade. With last-minute box office deals, standing tickets and amateur productions all up for grabs, you can enjoy nights out on the town without it costing an arm and a leg.
• If you’re dying to see a West End show, head to the official TKTs booth in Leicester Square where you’ll find top-price seats at half the regular price.
• If you prefer to book in advance, download the TodayTix app. There are regular deals and offers (with seats starting at £15) and you can enter daily ticket lotteries to win heavily discounted seats for same-day performances.
• Can’t get to the West End? Don’t fret – local theatres often show previews of major shows and produce adaptations of well-known plays, and are typically much cheaper to see than in some of the bigger cities’ popular venues. Some of these smaller community venues have intriguing stories, too.
• Bag some bargains by queuing up at individual theatre box offices on the morning of your desired performance – many tend to offer a small about of reduced-price day seats on a first-come-first-served basis (check which theatres offer this before travelling).
• Try your luck at snapping up £25 seats for The Lion King, Frozen and Beauty and the Beast with Disney Tickets Magical Mondays, with tickets released on Mondays at noon for that week’s performances.
• Experience an exciting programme of free lunchtime music, ballet and opera performances at the Royal Opera House’s Live at Lunch concerts.
• See the best blues this side of the Atlantic at Ain’t Nothin But…with free admission between Sunday and Tuesday.
• Catch free weekly DJ sets and candlelit vocal performances at Hootananny Brixton – on selected dates.
• Treat your ears to free lunchtime classical concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London.
• Nab yourself £5 standing tickets in the open-air yard for all of the Bard’s plays – from Julius Caesar to Much Ado About Nothing – at the iconic Shakespeare’s Globe.
• Enjoy a variety of free events, from sports screenings to live music, at The Scoop on Southbank, as part of the London Bridge City Summer Festival.
• See up-and-coming comedians and circuit regulars (previous acts have included the likes of James Acaster and Aisling Bea) at The Bill Murray in Islington, which hosts free shows several nights a week.
• Pay what you decide at the brand-new Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot. Tickets start at £3 and can be bought for all productions.
• Watch your favourite comedians test out their new jokes or discover a new beloved comic at Up the Creek in Greenwich. Tickets start from just £10.
• Get cosy in The Room Above Theatre in Bristol for a vast range of comedy, improv, stand-up and new writing, with tickets ranging from free to £10.
• Discover the wonderfully intimate fringe theatre space above The Town and Gown Pub in Cambridge and watch touring musicals, cabaret and home-produced productions for as little as £12. The pub even does a pre-theatre two-course set menu for under twenty quid.