UK Theatres Disrupted by Microsoft Bug, Affecting Box Office Systems

Multiple prominent UK theatres, including the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), National Theatre, and Old Vic, have been affected by a widespread Microsoft glitch that disrupted IT systems globally.

The National Theatre, RSC, Young Vic, Almeida Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, Old Vic, and Jermyn Street Theatre are among the venues experiencing significant disruption to their box office services due to the glitch.

As of this afternoon, some theatres have managed to partially restore their services. At 12:15 PM, the Mayflower Theatre tweeted: “We are pleased to say that ticket sales are now back up and running on our website. We are still unable to sell tickets through our phone lines or in-person due to the global mass IT outage. Please bear with us as we work to resolve the issue.”

While some theatres have not reported issues through their social media channels, their websites continue to display error messages.

The root cause of the disruption was traced back to cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, which issued a software update across the Microsoft Windows network. Crowdstrike has since apologized and confirmed that the issue has been resolved.

Theatres are not the only organizations impacted by the glitch. Hospitals, airlines, and schools are also among those affected by the outage.

Customers looking to book theatre tickets are advised to check for updates regarding any ongoing issues with their point of sale systems.

In a statement echoing many other venues, the Birmingham Hippodrome announced today: “Due to technical issues, our booking platform and e-tickets in the Account section are not available online tonight. Confirmation emails, or pre-visit emails with seat numbers on for entry will be accepted. Please leave plenty of time for your visit this evening.”

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