The cheapest West End seats are up 25% year-on-year
The Stage’s 2025 ticketing survey reveals that the gap between the highest and lowest ticket prices in the West End is continuing to shrink.
TICKET prices – particularly West End ticket prices – have long been on an upward trajectory.
Now, high ticket prices are discouraging young people from attending plays in London. Theatre needs to become more accessible to them—especially in the West End, where costs are particularly prohibitive.
The Stage have revealed that the cheapest seats are up nearly 25% year-on-year, while the average top-priced ticket hits £162.61 — a 5.2% rise from 2024.
The Stage’s brilliant annual West End ticketing survey focused this year on evening performances taking place on Saturday, June 28, 2025. Data was collected in May, based on the cost of a single standard ticket—excluding any extras such as VIP lounge access or refreshments.
Mind you, compared to Broadway—where a star-studded production of Othello featuring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal commands up to $921 (over £680) per ticket—West End shows are still seen as mostly affordable.
However, top-price play tickets in London have risen 9.9% year-on-year, now averaging £155.66. Premium musical tickets also climbed, up 4.1% to an average of £175.50, from £168.68 in 2024.
For the fourth consecutive year, Cabaret topped the survey as the most expensive musical, with its priciest ticket at the Playhouse Theatre reaching £253.95. The production team declined to comment on the high cost.
Even so, the data is already out of date: thanks to our old friend dynamic pricing, hit play Giant is now charging up to £375 for a ticket.
Personally, I don’t think dynamic pricing belongs in live theatre at all.
Elsewhere, Jamie Lloyd’s Evita, starring Rachel Zegler, has now set a top price of £350 - it was £220 three days ago.
Anyway. According to SOLT’s report into West End box office figures for 2025, both Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre members across the country “have worked hard to shield audiences from rising costs”, with the findings claiming that average ticket prices remain “5% lower in real terms than in 2019.” Mmmmm.
Theatre is pricey because it’s expensive to make. Obviously, this is a direct response to the rising costs of production, underscoring the need for the theatre industry to operate sustainably. But is so short-sighted not to think about your future audiences.
While there have been legal changes in the UK whereby ticketing companies have to be fully transparent about precisely what extra costs – such as handling and transaction fees – are added to a ticket price, the business as a whole is not always transparent.
For the biggest shows, limits on venue capacity mean there is often far more demand than supply. Stating that eye watering prices offset cheaper tickets is a crock of shit.
More attention needs to be paid to median, not average prices. If the cheapest theatre tickets reflect the industry's health, a rise in their prices is worth watching closely.
Needless to say, more transparency and openness from producers on the costs may go some way to dispel the perception of unfairness.