Disingenuous Discounts for Musicals

No different than buying a jumper in M&S, paying full price and 6 weeks later its in the sale, or buying anything for that matter that's later reduced.
It's the same with buying a flight or holiday and then find the price has gone down at a later point.
Just the way it is.

I've found TodayTix to be pretty dodgy recently, funnily. During London Theatre Week, they inflated the prices of the tickets prior to the discounts. If you looked at Book of Mormon, tickets were being advertised as being 30% reduced - the same tickets were £3 more expensive outside of the deal. Rebecca had the cheapest seats in the main auditorium upped by near £30 and then charged the same price as they normally were via the Charing Cross website (which wasn't offering a discount).

Personally, unless I think it's going to sell out, I'll just buy the tickets on the day, either via Rush or tkts.

It's the usual, you either buy early to secure a particular favourite seat (bearing in mind the show may sell out) or you take the risk and wait until nearer the time, where you may pay less but not get the seat you want.

This is no different to many other industries. Think of planes, where prices change based on demand, then a lot of airlines also charge you if you want to reserve a particular seat (as opposed to being stuck in a middle seat for an eight hour flight).

One thing I've noticed is that not all seats are released at the same time, or through the same channels. Often, there will be one set of seats released to agencies, sometimes where each agency applies different discounts. Then there will be seats that are only available through the theatre itself, and these can have dynamic pricing applied, so often an odd single can reduce dramatically in price for no obvious reason. Then there are house seats that get held back, then made available on the day if not needed, often in prime positions.

If you're going to a particular show and can book late, it often pays to check the pricing patterns a few days in advance so you can make a calculated risk about when/where to book.

The analogy to flying is also not correct: Most airlines will open a new "booking window" at very reasonable prices, then based on demand prices will creep upward until they are extortionate at short notice, because they know that people who MUST catch a plane on the very next day are desperate to go where they need to be going and pay these sums. If planes don't fill up, there may be "flash sales" along the way to encourage booking. But generally speaking, plane tickets start very low when you book a good time in advance, then creep upward, just as train tickets where the "super saver tariffs" are offered early and snapped up.

I would like to see something like a "super saver tariff" for more new shows that are unlikely to become sell-out smash hits, the way "Newsies" did when they initially offered all previews at a super low price. This will have enticed many to book early and then ideally spread the word how good the show was (well, if they liked it).

Virtually all bigger shows have a "presale" now for fans, why not make this more attractive with "book in the presale at 20% off for 48 hours only" or something like that? That would reward the proper musical fans who often book in blind faith for new shows and also theatre lovers who travel far distances for their shows and need to plan in advance accordingly.

Right now all those "flash sales" only reward spontaneous people who live nearby and who are very flexible.

Ever since Covid, people are more and more reluctant to book further ahead (the train strikes and all that isn't helping), making it harder for producers to anticipate box office takings. This will mostly hurt shows that aren't that well-received. Take everyone's present favourite whipping boy (girl) Rebecca: After all the negative feedback Charing X can't hope to shift many tickets at short notice, even if they did offer discounts (which, strangely, they haven't yet). Had they lured people in early with a discount, those seats would be sold now.

At least back in the old days (tm) smaller concert venues especially would add a supplement on tickets "bought at the door" to encourage people to book earlier (and ensure a decent crowd that didn't depend on people spontaneously making up their mind to go on the day of).

Can anyone explain why I've been sent an "exclusive presale" for Hadestown from TodayTix when I bought my tickets in March?!

Decent discounts now appearing - the £50 seats have been £27 every day for the past week or so on tkts.