Old Vic artistic director and American actor Kevin Spacey says that tickets prices in the West End mean theatre is becoming an "exclusive club" and turning off the next generation of theatre-goers.

It's not just the young Mr Spacey. How many people can really afford to pay £50 plus for a single ticket - and I'm holding off saying a decent ticket because you can pay that amount and more for a seat in Row U in some theatres? It makes West End theatre a rare luxury not just for the young, but everyone else who is normally-waged and London theatre regulars like myself.

However it is not just the steadily skyward creeping prices we should worry about, it is also the reducing numbers of day seats. Just last year the Theatre Royal Haymarket decided to cash in on the star pulling power of Ralph Fiennes in its production of  The Tempest and cut the number of day seats from 20 to 9. 

It could be worse, at least TRH offers day seats. I recently asked the Duke of York's theatre, via Facebook, if they were offering day seats for All New People and their feigned misunderstanding of the question spoke volumes, a big fat 'no', screamed the subtext.

The West End theatres have to make money but surely a few days seats isn't make or break. And the camaraderie as played out on social media and reports of queues in the press (Jerusalem) can only be good marketing for a play.

Incidentally I'm predicting that the Mark Rylance Richard III/Twelfth Night (the latter with added Stephen Fry effect) will have the longest day seat queues, if they have day seats, of any West End play this year. You read it here first. (Unless of course David Tennant announces he is treading the boards again this year.)