I won the Cabaret ticket lottery! Here is how I got cheap Cabaret tickets
Updated: Jul 25
Wondering how to get cheap Cabaret tickets? This article will tell you all you need to know about Cabaret lottery tickets.
What is the Cabaret theatre ticket lottery?
TodayTix offers an app lottery for Cabaret (the musical) which has been very popular in London and other cities around the world. Specifically, on the TodayTix app, for each performance of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, playing at the Playhouse Theatre, you can enter yourself into a lottery for free any time before 10:00 on the same day as the show (usually at 19:30). If you win, you get the chance to buy two tickets for £25 each. A winner will be drawn for these amazing tickets every weekday that the show is playing. These seats are promised to be 'exceptional' seats and are given out to 3 lucky people (2 seats each). And the bee won after months of trying!
Yes, I got to book two £25 tickets to Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Playhouse Theatre, London
Autopilot daily routine. Enter the draw for the Cabaret lottery on TodayTix before 10:00. Wait for better-luck-next-time email to arrive between 15:00 and 16:00. The bee did it every day for the last 6 months, and won yesterday. The bee is amazed at its luck. It is also so, so grateful because it could never, ever, ever afford to watch Cabaret paying full price for tickets.
What do we know about the Cabaret lottery? Not much, it turns out.
The bee wonders why it is so hard to find something online about people who have won before. Are they forbidden from sharing their experience or is the bee not looking in the right places? The bee also could not find out how many people were entering the lottery everyday so it had no sense of the odds, not even a ballpark. The bee only knew that 6 ‘exceptional’ seats are given out each day to 3 lottery winners (2 seats each). Now that the bee has finally gotten lucky, the bee answers your questions about this mysterious lottery. Any other questions? Leave a comment.
What seats can you win from the Cabaret lottery?
The bee got slip seats B9 and B10. They are amazing seats. The stage is the circular, 360-degree kind, in which the actors do not face any specific direction and keep changing their orientation throughout the play, so it does not matter which angle you look in on the stage from.
Do you get to choose your Cabaret lottery seats if you win the lottery?
No, you do not get to see which seats you won, nor do you get to choose your own. You will find out your seats only when you arrive at the box office to collect your tickets. But the lottery for this musical assures every lottery participant that the seats are going to be 'exceptionally' good so I would not worry about ending up with a subpar seat.
So you had to pay for your tickets without knowing your seat numbers?
Yes, the bee paid £50 for 2 seats but did not see the seat numbers before booking. In fact, the bee only found out its seat number when it arrived at the box office 30 minutes before the show to pick up its tickets.
Does the Cabaret lottery on TodayTix get you good seats?
They are among the best in the theatre, and cost over £300 for the table (2 seats) if you book last minute full price tickets. Among the closest tables to the stage, no obstructions in the way, less than five feet away from the actors.
Can you share a picture of the view of the Cabaret stage / Kit Kat club venue from your seat?
No. Unfortunately, the theatre does not allow any cameras anywhere inside the venue (not even in the lobby or bar area). They stick a piece of paper on your phone's camera lens so you cannot take any pictures or videos while inside. That sticker has ruined the back cover of the bee's iPhone. As you know, the bees are hardworking, rule-abiding creatures so the bee did not take any pictures, but the bee did notice that some of the more daredevil audience members have posted pictures on the seating plan page for the Playhouse Theatre at Seatplan.com, so you may want to check out the seat views there.
Does the Cabaret theatre lottery let you buy more or less than 2 tickets if you wish?
No, the lottery awards you exactly two tickets.
When did you find out you won the Cabaret lottery?
The bee got an email, a text, and a notification on the TodayTix app between 15:30 and 15:35.
How much time did you have to claim the tickets?
Exactly 30 minutes, to be claimed on the TodayTix app by making a payment for £50 for 2 seats.
So can anyone win the Cabaret theatre ticket lottery? It is winnable?
The bee does not know how many people enter the ticket lottery each time, so it cannot estimate the likelihood of winning. The bee did not win even once in 6 months of trying nearly every day. So clearly it is not easy to win, but probably not as hard to win as the national lotteries or slot machines or some such.
TodayTix asks me to share my Cabaret lottery entry on social media. Is that necessary / useful?
You can enter the lottery without this social media nuisance if you want to. Just that if you do post on social media, for each social media platform you post on, you get one extra entry for the lottery. Mathematically, the probability of winning increases fourfold if you share on all platforms (one original entry plus three from sharing on the three platforms).
But wouldn’t my friends / followers on social media get annoyed at seeing my TodayTix lottery post for Cabaret every single day?
Yes. Maybe you could post and remove the post sometime later, but the bee wouldn’t know if that works because the bee has never shared the lottery on social media like that.
What, you won the lottery with just one entry? For Cabaret?!
That is correct.
Wow, I’m starting to get hopeful about this lottery now.
The bee encourages to enter as many times as you can because it is free to enter anyway, and it saves you just so much money if you win (as opposed to paying out of pocket for a great seat). But the bee also strongly advises you not to be too hopeful. Cabaret is a very popular musical, and has perhaps become even more so now that it has won seven Olivier awards in 2022. The bee is certain that hundreds, if not thousands, of people enter the ticket lottery every day. It is best that you calibrate your expectations accordingly so that you avoid disappointment. Hope for the best but do not despair if you don't win. The bee wishes you the best of luck.
Are there other shows in London that have theatre lotteries like this?
Why, yes! The bee has a whole article on lotteries and how winnable or otherwise they are.
I enter the Cabaret lottery every day and I never win.
The bee is so sorry to hear that. Consider making yourself and others laugh about your losing streak with some cute merchandise from Theatre Bee? How about a coffee mug or a t-shirt or a tote bag from Theatre Bee's exclusive line of theatre-themed gifts, lovingly made for you, theatre-lover? Check out the Theatre Bee Store here.