The Duke of York's Theatre — Attraction in London

I am not a regular theatre go-er but would describe my experience at the Duke of York's Theatre as average and as expected. The theatre is relatively small and narrow, spanning mulitple floors. It's a bit of a maze finding the toilets and they aren't big enough considering how many people are admitted at any one time.

I entered the theatre 50 minutes before the show as I had a backback and didn't want to cause any issues on entry. This meant I spent some time in their bar, and paid £9.60 (!!!) for a bottled Camden Hells lager that's usually sold for £3 anywhere else. My advice is to stay in a nearby pub until 10-20 mins before your show starts and go straight to your seats.

I watched Stereophonic here, and thought the set was great. The music and acting was brilliant, too. I would say, though, the play dragged on and definitely doesn't need to be 3-hours long. I would also say that the 'failed attempts' at perfecting the songs in the show reduced the impact and enjoyment of when the songs were played in full, albeit not a reflection of the theatre itself.

Lastly, I got the impression that there are lots of restricted view seats in this theatre. I sat in the ground floor stalls central to the stage so I had no issues, but I saw lots of people leaning over the edges of the upper levels as they weren't able to see the stage, and I'm sure this had knock-on affects to people behind them. So, pay that little bit extra for good seats and enjoy the show, or risk being...

The play we saw was great, however they have a ridiculous policy whereby you can’t bring leftovers in, to quote the 3 people we spoke to “we don’t accept food to come if it’s heated or if it once was heated” this is absolutely ridiculous, if I pay for a meal prior to coming and cannot finish it and I don’t intend to eat it why do I need to argue my case 3 times?? They expect us to eat it throw it away, perfectly good food because they cannot provide a place for us to leave it, or don’t trust they I won’t eat the food despite me having paid good money to give my full attention to the play I wanted to see. Jesse I believe her name was quite rude to us, as well as the bag check guy - honestly have had such a bad experience with a theatre before. If they are willing to enforce this then should financially compensate for the food they want us to throw away if you can’t not finish it 🤷🏽‍♀️ They did let us in with the food eventually but you sure as hell have to fight your case, which is simply wasted energy and ruined our overall experience on the evening...

Overall, the stalls seating is decent, but there are some drawbacks to note. From Row J onwards, the overhang begins to noticeably obstruct the view of the full stage—this worsens the further back you go. Seats were comfortable with good leg room in H row stalls.

Fortunately, the support poles are placed at the sides near the start and end of rows, so they don’t significantly block sightlines (unlike the more intrusive poles at the Harold Pinter Theatre).

During the performance, the volume levels in the musical sections were uncomfortably loud at times. Additionally, there is frequent rumbling from the Underground, which disrupts quieter scenes and breaks the immersion.

The stalls bar becomes very crowded during the intermission, which is odd as you can order by QR and it is delivered to your seat!

The queues for the toilets are long during intermission: something to keep in mind for comfort during...