The best seat in the house is… where?

Illustrations by Grace McKenna

Choosing a seat when buying theatre tickets can become a deliberation that lasts many hours. Do I splash out for the front row of the dress circle and guarantee a good view? Do I save money and sit in the gods, knowing I’ll at least be able to hear the show wherever I am? Or do I want to be at the front row of the stalls, almost on the performers’ laps? I have spent hours scrolling through aviewfrommyseat.com trying to make up my mind while squinting at poor quality, blurry photos that members of the public have uploaded. 

It is true that your seat in the theatre sets you up for a unique viewing experience, and if price is anything to go by, some of these experiences are deemed more valuable than others. As a shorter person, it is nice to attend a show knowing you will have a clear view of the stage, hence why the raked seating on the balcony levels is so appealing. Unlike the stalls, there is less of a risk of someone’s six-foot-three dad entirely blocking your view. 

But the balconies can feel distant from the stage – particularly at the highest level, or far round the sides. This is why many seasoned theatre goers prefer to get up close and personal with a seat in the front row of the stalls. These seats provide a level of audience interaction that some theatre super-fans love, especially those who come to see a specific performer. 

But let’s get real for a second. Front row seats on any level of the theatre are crazy expensive. If you’re attending on a budget (which, as a student, I usually am), towards the back or around to the sides of the balconies are the more financially accessible seats. That’s not to say that these seats are at all bad – I had a fantastic time watching Moulin Rouge from the very highest balcony far round to the right-hand side of the stage, even if my back did hurt after a while from leaning forwards to see. 

And yet, everything you think you know about traditional theatre seating is flipped on its head when you consider more unorthodox theatres. Take Cabaret, for example, which is staged in the round as if you were in the Kit Kat club. The first few rows of stalls are set up in tables, and this show relies heavily on performers weaving between them to interact with the audience. Cabaret also has balconies overlooking the stage on both sides - since it is performed in the round, there are fewer traditionally ‘bad’ seats. 

We can’t discuss interesting staging without talking about the new Hunger Games: On Stage performance that has recently opened in a new, custom-built theatre in London. Like Cabaret, the show will be performed in the round, and from what I have heard online (while also trying to avoid any major spoilers before I see it for myself) the action takes place all around you. I have even heard talk that some seating sections move during the show. With some new shows completely disrupting what we think of as the traditional theatre set up, the ‘best’ seat becomes even harder to define.

So, where is the best seat in the house? You may get a better view and more performance interaction from right at the front, but is it really worth it if you’re sat with a £300 hole in your pocket? 

Ultimately, I believe the theatre is what you make of it. You can still absorb the unique atmosphere of a performance from anywhere in the theatre. We need to interrogate why we automatically conflate cheap seats with bad seats, as this mentality feeds a culture of elitism surrounding theatre-going. The best seat in the house does not have to be the most expensive.