u/redditpeopledisgustm

I promised to post about my experience with the standing tickets at Jesus Christ Superstar, so here it is. I was there for the first performance, if you saw a guy with glasses and curly hair that could do with a cut — that was me!

Please note that this was my subjective experience at one early performance and stuff might change. Your experience might be different to mine so please don't take the more subjective stuff here as gospel.

The seats themselves: The seats are divided evenly across the bases of the three structures at the back of the stage that the staff called "towers". One stage left, one stage right and one in the middle. The tower you get is decided by your place in the queue as you enter backstage: if you're in the front third of the queue, you go to the stage right tower, the middle of the queue goes to the middle tower, and the back goes to the stage left tower.

The space where you stand is divided by a step. The idea is that everybody gets a good view whether they're lower down at the front or behind on the step. I'm average height and was stood behind someone for both acts and had no problems, but it isn't difficult to imagine a tall person at the front causing problems. I have no idea if the chaperones would step in to stop that, but tonight our positions were just wherever we ended up when they let us walk in.

Also — you are not guaranteed to get the same tower or position for Act 1 and Act 2. In the interval, everybody leaves the stage to go back into a corridor. If you leave to go to the toilet or visit the bar, you will lose your place in the queue and probably end up in the back with the stage left tower. Apparently they will split up groups if one person leaves the queue and another stays. I went on my own, and left the queue and ended up changing towers. This isn't inherently a bad thing: I can honestly say that I preferred stage left to my original space stage right. The difference probably isn't worth trying to manipulate which tower you get, though.

Sightlines: The view of the main stage is perfect. You will miss some things when actors sing on the towers directly above you but generally nothing massive. The biggest thing for me was not seeing Judas for a lot of Damned For All Time in Act 1, which he sang directly above me on the stage right tower. On a more obvious note: yeah, there's some staring at the back of heads. Not as much as I expected, actually, but you don't have to be Andrew Lloyd Webber to guess that Jesus is going to go downstage to sing Gethsemane. I would hope that isn't a surprise to people who booked.

Volume and heat: A big part of the standing agreement warns you it will be loud and hot. I was actually worried about the sound and got the optional ear plugs when they were offered round. I didn't use them. The volume was never a problem for me and it stays at about the same level throughout. The ride back home on the tube was ten times worse. I imagine this disclaimer is mostly for people with sensory issues or other conditions which I can't speak to. If you're still worried then you can take the ear buds when offered and put them in your pockets like I did.

It is hot, but it could be worse. Personally, it felt like spending a low thirties British summer day indoors. A bit sticky, but manageable. Take the free water bottle just in case.

Miscellaneous: The workers were all great, both front of house and backstage. Letting a bunch of randoms onstage could easily get stressful and I half-expected a little sternness because of that. I didn't see any. Everybody was very helpful and welcoming, I have no complaints.

During The Temple, some performers walked through the standing space from behind me and walked to the front. I didn't know it was going to happen, and I feel like I might have been a little slow on the uptake to let someone through from behind me. It was only a couple of seconds, but I would have rather known it was coming. Still, I would rather that little awkwardness than not having this moment.

There are 75 onstage tickets per show, 8 shows a week, for a run thats over 2 months long. At some point in the run, someone's probably going to faint or have a medical episode. I wondered about this before I saw the setup, and seeing it in person, I think the show will probably be able to keep running in most cases. It's easy to enter and exit the areas and the stage chaperone is always present in case something happens.

To subjectively review the experience: it was one of the best nights at the theatre I've ever had. Some of that might be first performance hype (maybe Gethsemane isn't going to get a prolonged standing ovation in the stalls *every* night of the run) and I'm not a critic, but I really loved the show, and being so close only elevated it. I'm praying to Sam Ryder that some onstage tickets get freed up in returns. If you have an onstage ticket and your experience is like mine, you'll have a great time.

I got an impulse standing ticket for Jesus Christ Superstar's opening night tomorrow. I was wondering if anyone has any info about the positioning, sightlines etc? Checked on Instagram and the main website and couldn't find much.

I know all the details from the website: hot, long, sightlines won't be perfect. Just wondered if anyone got any extra nuggets from inquiries?