Theatre Royal Brighton — Attraction in Great Britain

ATG Management are you taking NOTE! Having noted there is a common reviewers complaint. Please do something about the complaint.

I wanted to purchase tickets to see 'The Father' at Theatre Royal Brighton. Not based in Brighton and only able to purchase tickets over the phone / or on line - I was told over the phone - that I would pay a surcharge of £8.50 (I was informed this is to cover the cost of upkeep of theatre and management of ticket website when I asked what this amount is for) plus £2.50 printing of tickets in addition to the ticket price - £24.40 each. What's this all about?

Either a ticket covers all the aspects of putting on a show, including the cost of hiring the venue or it doesn't . To be given a break down - makes me what to know how much the understudies are getting paid, the producers and owners of the theatre - and the exact amount for the young woman taking my booking. (yes ridiculous) I was told, if I were to buy the ticket at the box office I would not be charged the extra £8.50 fee. This additional fee discriminates against people who don't live in the vicinity of the theatre or in Brighton. The cost of the ticket should be the same for all. If you live in the vicinity of the theatre it seems the ticket buyer isn't apparently paying for the upkeep of the theatre - upkeep being acccommodated in the £8.50! I was aso told by the young lady at ATG, taking my transaction from a call centre in Sunderland, that it's Law the surcharge - but wasn't able to tell me which law. Perhaps this could be better stated upfront on the website . I asked to speak to her manager to log my observations and complaint and was kept hanging for over five minutes. I don't think my call was passed through - so hung up.

I've been to the Theatre Royal Brighton, lovely theatre, some great productions, on a number of occassions and the purchasing of tickets every time has been woefully thought through. Theatre producers and managers of old victorian theatres can ill afford to annoy their patrons in what is already an expensive night out. I didn't get the tickets even though I really wanted to see the show. Loyalty to a theatre is important but the management don't seem to understand how to develop customer loyalty - I will choose a film on this occassion over...

I attended Les Misérables: at the Theatre Royal Brighton, and I feel compelled to share my concerns regarding the experience.

The auditorium was extremely hot — close to 35°C — and there appeared to be no air conditioning or adequate cooling in place. Considering the audience included elderly and disabled individuals, this created genuinely uncomfortable and potentially unsafe conditions. If anyone had suffered health issues due to the heat, the responsibility would have been very serious.

After raising this issue with the theatre manager, I was told that there is no air conditioning because of the age of the building. While I appreciate the historic nature of the venue, I find this response unsatisfactory — especially when modern technology offers simple, non-invasive solutions such as portable air conditioning units or industrial coolers. It is deeply disappointing that audiences, who have often waited months to see a major production, are left to watch it in such an airless environment when these options are available.

Unfortunately, due to the extreme heat, we were unable to stay for the second half of the performance. This was both a loss of time and money for us. Additionally, from what I observed, the atmosphere inside felt less like a cultural and artistic space and more like a commercial venue, which makes it difficult to truly feel the richness of the theatre experience.

Brighton is proud to have such an important historic venue, but it is disheartening to see it operating under such limitations during major productions. On this and previous visits, I have also noticed audience members being admitted well after the performance has started. This is disruptive to both the performers and the audience, and significantly impacts concentration and enjoyment.

I hope these points will be taken seriously, both for the comfort and safety of your guests and out of respect for the performers and the reputation of this beautiful venue. I also hope that greater care and attention will be given to providing these services...

I booked two tickets for Madama Butterfly at Theatre Royal Brighton (Order No: 35021109) as a special occasion for my wife and me. The seats were labelled “restricted view” and the seat preview (Seat View) only showed a slim pillar, which we were happy to accept. What wasn’t made clear was that we would be completely unable to see any of the surtitles, making a foreign-language opera impossible to follow.

We spent the first act confused and unable to understand what was happening. During the interval, we noticed that other audience members, notably two of them were an elderly couple) had physically repositioned themselves on the floor just to try and see the surtitles — that’s when we realised that the issue was only affecting certain seats. We spoke to staff immediately but were told nothing could be done, and we left during Act 2 having been unable to enjoy or understand the performance.

I later found out from the theatre manager that ATG relies on a vague pop-up message during booking which states that “captions may not be visible from certain seats.” But it doesn’t say which seats, doesn’t mention that the surtitles are projected above the stage (completely out of view from some seats), and this warning isn’t clear or prominent enough. It says ‘MAY’ and ‘CERTAIN SEATS’.

ATG has refused to refund the £82.69 I paid, despite the fact that the show was essentially unusable to us and that I reported the issue immediately and reasonably. This was not a case of a minor inconvenience — we couldn’t follow the performance at all.

I’m sharing this publicly because I believe other customers deserve to know that this could happen to them too. If I had known we wouldn’t be able to see the surtitles at all, I absolutely would not have booked these seats.

This experience has left me extremely disappointed, not just by the night itself, but by the customer service and lack of empathy that followed from the...