Balcony at the Apollo Theatre

150 seats, rows A to F, and 80 steps up from street level. The fourth and cheapest level, and the one you should read properly before booking.

The climb

80 steps, no lift, and no way round it. It is the single fact that should decide whether this level is for you. If stairs are a question at all, the Dress Circle is 12 steps and the answer is there instead.

Shaftesbury Avenue's theatres are known for steep upper levels, and the Apollo's is among the steepest of them. You are high, and you feel high.

Where to sit

Row B, away from the aisle, is the best seat on this level. Row A is the front, but B is the one to take.

Stay within about five seats of the central aisle, and within three in row F. The aisle runs at 15/16 through every row, so the seats either side of it are the centre of the level. Get much further out than that and the angle starts to work against you.

Row F is a short 14-seat row, seats 9 to 22, right at the back and the top.

What you actually get

A distant but complete view of the stage. The Apollo is small, which works in the Balcony's favour: you are high, but you are not far back in the way you would be in a 2,000-seat theatre, because there is no room to be. You see the whole stage picture, which is more than you can say for a side seat two levels down.

The seats are the cheapest in the building by a distance.

Who should not book this level

Anyone who is unsure about 80 steps. Anyone who does not like heights. And anyone booking a production where faces matter more than the stage picture, because from up here you are watching the staging rather than the performance.

The bar and the toilets for this level

There is a bar at Balcony level and Ladies' and Gentlemen's toilets, which matters more here than anywhere else in the building, because going down and coming back up in an interval is 160 steps.