I Found My Horn at Hampstead Theatre

[ejwrank]

Just got following email from SFF:


We regret to tell you that our ticket availability at the Hampstead Theatre has been cancelled due to unexpected additional sales. I am sorry for any inconvenience but your voucher will not be accepted at the theatre.




We had booked tickets for Friday, Nov 13 but I wonder if this means that Thursday free tickets are also cancelled. It would be better if Hampstead only offered their tickets late in the day once they knew how they were selling. Disappointing.....

[superhero]

Wow thats really bad! If the theatre has given tickets to SFF then at least they should stick to those plans.

[moondance]

Yes Thursday also cancelled - have posted on the Free tickets thread but if this is wrong please excuse

[superhero]

I know we are there to fill seats and make the theatre look good, but still.......

[ejwrank]

Moondance, I was also wondering if it should be posted on the Free Tickets threads.


Glad you did as it would be very annoying to turn up at Hampstead Theatre and find your tickets are no good. Maybe someone could clarify what the right procedure is on notifying FMUKers when there is a cancellation.

[Blinks]

Highly annoyed with SFF. Either they are allocated free tickets or not. I don't see a grey area on this. A surprise uptick in the sale of tickets, while extra revenue for the theatre, shouldn't allow them to reneg on any prior agreements with us. Its disgraceful.

[Beate]

If you have a ticket and it gets cancelled you should get an email from them so no real need to post on Free Films as everybody who had tickets will know anyway. A discussion thread is fine.

But yes, it's disgraceful. It basically treats SFF vouchers as second class tickets. I wonder why SFF is not protesting against this!

[Ms Thrifty]

I said in an earlier post elsewhere that this is what I think is dodgy about the free theatre/concert tickets, i.e. that they differ from cinema tickets because the former are for pa*d performances whereas at the latter, everyone goes free. At least with film previews the only issue is whether you can book in the first place (and, I gather, very occasionally, if you turn up late, whether you can get in if it's very poplular), but to be told, as in this case, that you have a ticket, and later that you haven't, is unacceptable.

[howyoudoin]

I think the problem here is that the play got a couple of really good reviews in London papers on the day <i>after</i> the free tickets were handed out. Therefore, I presume, they would have received an upsurge in demand for tickets from the p*ying public which was an offer they just couldn't refuse.

I agree that it's not great PR for the theatre or SFF but at the end of the day, the tickets were FREE, so no-one can have any real gripes.

Plus the fact that most of the screenings I go to through SFF are only half full anyway. How annoyed would you have been as the Theatre promoter if you turned away 200 people who wanted to p*y for their tickets and then half of the 200 people you gave FREE tickets to didn't show up?

Just my 2p.

HYD

PS Interestingly i'm a member of a Theatre Club and this show is still on the list of 'freebies'. The difference is you get a rollocking if you don't show up!

[Ms Thrifty]

I didn't check the original offer, but I would say it would have been fine it had been clear that the tickets might be cancelled, as indeed they were. But I would be surprised if that had been stipulated and I would certainly not have booked on that basis. I agree that it would be hard on the theatre if they turned down business, only to find the free tickets went unused, but there must be a better way round it than this. Surely that's exactly what the SOLT booths (e.g. the one in Leicester Square) are for? And the advantages of the booths are that the theatre can wait until the day of the performance to offer tickets (if at all) and they are not free, but half-price, so the theatre still makes some money.