The gift of an evening of London theater — even a luxury version with a glass of Champagne or a dollop of West End glamour — is easier to give than ever thanks to gift vouchers, online booking and perhaps some help from a hotel concierge.
A recent video conversation with Emma De Souza, the executive director (audiences and commercial) at the Society of London Theatre, the official nonprofit theater organization in the West End and beyond, offered some insights and tips, as well as a preview of 2025. The interview was edited and condensed.
How easy is it for people to give London theater tickets as gifts?
We run a scheme — now in its 40th year — and it’s better than ever because you can now buy theater vouchers from 10 pounds to 500 pounds [$13 to $648], and there is no expiry date. It’s an easy, convenient way to give the gift of theater to the theater lover in your life, but also give the gift of choice.
By “choice,” you mean the giver can designate a particular show?
Yes, and you can choose a specific date or not, and designate it for “Matilda” or “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” or something less high-profile.
Speaking of hot shows, can vouchers be used for a hot show or a limited-run show with a movie-star cast?
“Oedipus” is playing right now in the West End with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville, and it’s very popular, but it is possible to score seats. But for the smaller theaters with big-name stars, if you want to give those tickets as a gift, you need to be signed up to the priority booking schemes of those theaters because those shows sell out immediately.
But there must be a trick or two as the concierges at the top hotels can famously score impossible-to-get tickets, right?
OK, so you have this token that you’ve been given, and you can either redeem it on the website or go to the box office. But another tip is that you can often get “returns” on the day of the performance. All theaters have house seats, which are the best seats in the house, and they are held for V.I.P.s. But if nobody claims them, the tickets are released to the public that day.
Some of these even get released to the TKTS discount-ticket booth in Leicester Square, but not always at a discount.
Just to play devil’s advocate: Are returns like airlines offering a certain number of seats for frequent-flier redemption? But only if the seats can’t be sold at a higher price?
Vouchers can be used across the board because we’re in this unique position of having all of London’s West End theaters as members. There is no limit to how many seats can be voucher seats. This also applies to the Royal Opera, the English National Opera, the National Theater, the Royal Shakespeare Company, plus these incredible theaters doing incredible work in smaller venues.
Do these vouchers eliminate the potential for drama at the box office if someone has bought tickets using their credit card and then given them to me?
Theater vouchers are available either as a physical gift card or an e-gift. Each voucher has a code that allows it to be redeemed at the box office, online and/or over the phone, depending on the venue, by any recipient, without needing to provide proof of identification of the voucher purchaser.
You can find out which theaters accept theater vouchers and how they can be redeemed at each venue at theatretokens.com.
What shows are on your radar in London or elsewhere in Britain?
The director Jamie Lloyd, who currently has “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway, will have a season of Shakespeare at the Theater Royal Drury Lane. Sigourney Weaver is opening as Prospero in “The Tempest” on Dec. 7 and then Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell will open in “Much Ado About Nothing” after that. We now have Steve Coogan in “Dr. Strangelove” and Jodie Whittaker in “The Duchess (of Malfi).” We will have “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kingsley Ben-Adir next month, and then Cate Blanchett in “The Seagull” in February.
There is so much history inherent in a West End outing, but how can a gift-giver make the experience even better?
On our website, we offer bespoke events if you’re looking to elevate your experience, from having a glass of Champagne before the show or attending a Q&A with the cast. The Royal Opera House in the heart of Covent Garden has the most amazing restaurant with fabulous views in the massive glass atrium. It’s about looking beyond just what’s on our stages.
And speaking of the Theater Royal Drury Lane, it’s been recently refurbished and does a wonderful theatrically themed afternoon tea on one of the tiers that’s been done up like a high-end hotel. They’ve really opened that space. You can give vouchers for that.
And there’s always “The Mousetrap” for anyone who hasn’t made it since it opened in 1952.
I think there’s a real place for long-running shows, but I think to really appreciate theater, you need to see different things. You can use the vouchers in Stratford-upon-Avon to experience Shakespeare in his hometown, or when the Royal Shakespeare Company comes to the Barbican for its London season. But we also have new venues like the Bridge Theater, which currently has “Guys & Dolls” and will then have “Richard II” with Jonathan Bailey in February.
Giving the gift of theater is so important because I think people don’t want things — they want experiences. I think since the pandemic we’ve lost that connectivity to the theater. There’s something special about the live experience of theater.
The post In London, Vouchers Take the Risk Out of Giving Theater Tickets appeared first on New York Times.
