The 2 part Harry Potter play was fantastic. Great special effects. Experience was affected by freezing cold. It may have been where I was seated in upper dress circle, but other guests were also all bundled up to stay warm. Even a few wearing toques inside the theatre.
I bought my tickets in February 2017 to see the Harry Potter play part 1 and 2 on Sunday 1st April 2018.
As it was difficult to plan my agenda this far ahead I thought it would be best to schedule the play during the Easter weekend for which I was sure to be able to travel for 3 days to London. I planned the two parts consecutively on the same day as this would leave me completely free during my other days in London.
The 3 hour break between the two parts left me sufficient time to wander around the neighbourhood to grab a bite. But actually you only have 2 hours time, as you are kindly requested to return to the theatre 1 hour in advance for the security check.
In fact I made sure to arrive to the theatre 1h15min in advance. The queue was not too long at that time and once in the theatre I had sufficient time to browse through the Harry Potter merchandise.
You are not allowed to bring any food or drinks which is purchased outside the theatre. Once in the theatre for the 1st part, regrettably, I noticed that the bar does not offer any vegan and glutenfree snacks.
As I spotted that only bags were checked upon entering, I have bought vegan bars outside the theatre right before the second part which I put into the big pockets of my coat.
I had a great view on the stage from my seat H19 in the Dress Circle. This seat is at the beginning of row H just next to the middle stairs which gave me plenty of room to stretch my long legs. Also, the seat is at the penultimate row which gave me sufficient time to be one of the firsts at the ladies toilets just around the corner outside of the dress circle during the breaks. If you are seated further away, you would have to queue a long time as there were only 4 ladies toilets on this entire floor !
The only issue were the theatre lights just behind me which were turned on during the entire play. This made the room not completely dark for the viewers in the back rows. Maybe the seat just in front of my H19 is better in this sense (G19).
All in all, a beautiful theatre and a wonderful play with fantastic magical tricks which I will remember for a long time.
Although the Palace theatre is very grand there is no lift to reach the balcony seats. Stairs to the seats in the grand balcony are uneven and I stumbled on an extra big drop and had I not been grabbed by a person behind me I would possibly have ended up over the balcony. The seat legroom was only good if you were below 5' 4" and not suffering with arthritis in your knees. Everyone was complaining about it. We even joked on leaving, How d you know who has been to see Harry Potter? They all walk like this!
We got very lucky and were able to score 4 dress circle tickets for consecutive performances just a month before our visit to London. We had checked when we initially booked our trip and everything was sold out. I tried again on the suggestion of a friend, and was sure glad I did. Tickets are available through two retailers, but it was through NIMAX that we were able to get the returned tickets.
The theater is beautiful, comfortable and an essential component to the play, which is quite simply the most brilliant staging of any production I have ever seen. Compared to my experiences in Broadway theaters and other US performance spaces, I found this theater to be far more organized and accommodating of the audience despite being and older and smaller facility. The concession workers even remembered my kids from the previous night's performance and were very helpful in dealing with their indecision.
Went to see Cursed Child by myself and managed to get seated in the middle of the stalls. Had a great view and throughoutly enjoyed the performance. Hermione was absolutely brilliant and sounded just like a grown-up version of Emma Watson's original portrayal, and Scorpius was a real star! When I left the first performance I longed for the next part. The staff is super nice and helpful and also fun. Stall seats were very comfortable and I could stretch my legs under the seat in front (I'm 5'7)
I booked tickets for HP 1&2 in January 2017 for March 2018. Tickets were just under £60 per person per show (multiplied by 3). We had the very last row of the stalls (row V) and I did feel as though they were priced right. We could not see everything up high as the overhang of the dress circle was in the way (this was noted when I booked the tickets). It was also a good location for getting out of the theatre quickly, be it to the toilets in the interval, or leaving for a taxi at the end).
My son said that the men's toilets were not clean on either of his visits. The women's, however, were both clean and had an attendant directing people to open stalls.
The bar staff were lovely.
The play itself...I'm not a HP fan but my son, a major HP fan, loved it (and thought the play worked well on stage and the way he had envisioned it when he read it) and my friend, also a big HP fan, really enjoyed it. I was called a Muggle for not really getting most of it and had to ask what that meant ;) Also, it's LONG. It really felt like it was made into two parts to get more money out of people. Both my friend and I felt that there were parts not really necessary and just put in to draw it out.
