Former Apprentice star Ryan Mark Parsons left fans gobsmacked after he weighed in on the calls to slash ticket prices in West End theatres.
It comes as actor Andrew Scott urged the West End to slash the price of their tickets or risk alienating young people or poorer people.
The average cost of a West End ticket is £150 and Scott recently told BBC Radio 4: “No matter how zeitgeisty or how modern you think your play is, if you are having to spend £150, no person between the age of 16-25 or beyond is going to be able to afford that. That is frustrating to me.
“Hopefully, there is some night or two nights a week when you can get something like a sale rack, you have to be prepared to rummage a little bit. It is important that it doesn’t remain an elitist art form."
Fleabag actor Andrew Scott has recently hit out at the cost of West End theatre tickets
PA
In a heated debate over the cost of tickets on GB News, Parsons said: "If you're 16 to 25 and you can't afford the ticket prices, then there are lots of options to get cheap tickets.
"I don't think what he was saying to have two sale days per week is a good idea commercially for the theatres because they are so expensive to run.
"If you can't afford to go to the theatre, you should watch Netflix. I don't think you should lower ticket prices just because some people can't afford to go.
"Actors aren't being paid enough and it could cause theatres to shut down. They suffered so much during the pandemic that the West End is being starved of money.
Former Apprentice star Ryan Mark Parsons argued that the ticket price is "reasonable"
GB News
"So you're suggesting you lower prices. How would they survive?"
However, Entertainment journalist Hayley Palmer argued that the tickets are just too "unaffordable."
She explained: "I think it's really important that we support theatre.
"But for a family of four to go to the theatre it costs a couple of hundred pounds when they could just go on holiday. I don't think it's okay.
Hailey Palmer argued that they were just too "unaffordable"
GB News
"What difference does it make if I say I'm not gonna go in the West End, but I'll go to the theatre in Milton Keynes, or I'll go to Woking, Belfast or wherever?
"So it's a shame because I think we should support the arts. I do. And I don't think we should just go, oh no, I can't afford it.
"Because those actors, a lot of them have trained so hard at theatre school. Their parents have put them through theatre school.
"They're coming out, they're getting jobs, they're not getting the money. It's the big stars and the theatre owners that are getting the money."
