iTheatre review

The moment Apple announced an App Store for the iPhone I'm fairly sure your first thought was not "Wow, they can make a dedicated theatre app!", but then again niche doesn't necessarily mean bad.

That's certainly the case with 'iTheatre' - the first specialist guide to London's West End. It comes courtesy of official ticket agent BestofTheatre (surely a perfectly fine name in itself?) and aims not just to help you choose the right evening's entertainment, but also save you a few quid too.

In practice iTheatre is much better at the former than the latter with a detailed 'What's On?' main page that categorises Best Sellers, Family Shows, Musicals, Plays, Special Offers and a complete A to Z Show List. When you find what you want then each show has matinee and evening performance times, venue information and a description along with reviews, images and occasionally video footage. For the most part this is very well done though the text layout is a little cramped and reviews are limited to excerpts rather than the full critique.

As for the booking process, this is rather more limited. For some reason BestofTheatre has chosen to detail the 'Book' section for tickets solely by how much it can save you on the full ticket price. Without any sense of context however this is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. After all, are you about to save £20 on a basic ticket normally costing £35 or a box seat priced in excess of £100? The only way iTheatre lets you know is by calling its booking office or ordering via Safari online. By some way of consolation, iTheatre is only at version 1.0 and has confirmed it is looking to fix this problem with a future update.

Other concerns are relatively minor: it isn't the prettiest app in the world and it can be a little slow to load on the iPhone and iPhone 3G but if you're an avid theatre goer then there's little to touch it from the more general entertainment apps out there. So yes, iTheatre may be niche and a little rough around the edges but it is a nice first try that can only improve. So next time relatives come to visit this is the app you'll need.

iTheatre info

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Overall

Platform: iPhone/iPod touch

Price: Free

Developer: Ubinow Solutions

Website/Demo: iTheatre website

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