A Christmas Carol - Is this a joke?

[It's A Fine Life]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 9:29am

Each Broadway season, I try my best to see each production. Tonight I thought I'd try to see A Christmas Carol. I heard good things and was also going to cross it off my list... but then I saw the ticket prices. 

$142.50 to sit in the last row of the Nederlander?! Is this a glitch on Ticketmaster, or is this the price they'd give me at the box office? It's one thing to charge that if you're a smash hit, but it makes me cringe to see that the theatre is maybe 8-11% sold. What's the point of that? 

So I guess I'm making this post to ask: A) Is there a discount code floating around? B) What gives? 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 9:41am

The lottery is $35 and is one of the easier ones to win. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 9:45am

Since you asked - that's the price with fees. Price without fees is $129, which is still a lot for the last row. 

I'm thinking it's some combination of:

(1) a miscalculated carryover over the holiday surge pricing; I think they've been selling quite well leading up to Christmas, and maybe they expected the demand to carry over into this week more than it has. 

(2) maybe the hiked up the price because they're banking on day-of TKTS sales - in which case they'll sell those seats for 50% off, while still making a respectable $65 off the ticket.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 10:28am

I thought the same thing when I checked the prices for Back To The Future. Those prices are insane as well! 

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 1:28pm

As a seasoned theatergoer, I’m surprised anyone on this board is shocked by astronomical prices this week. Mix this historically surge-priced holiday week with general ticket price inflation, this does not surprise me in the slightest. This show in particular is probably also banking on the fact that it’s a limited-run, holiday title and thinks it can sell the tickets at this price. Looking at their availability… however… not so much 

Updated On: 12/27/22 at 01:28 PM

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 2:13pm

It is funny (and perhaps miscalculated) that A Christmas Carol is continuing with surge pricing after Christmas, but I'd argue that this week is going to be "the big week"

With Weekend Christmas and New Years, a lot of schools chose to start their first week of Winter Break with Christmas weekend. I go to NYU and we always start break around December 22nd. My sister's high school in California often starts their break around the 17th or 18th and then goes back right after New Years, but also didn't start until the 22nd this year and doesn't go back until the 10th.

I don't know what percentage of schools ended their semesters when, but I do know that this week is the one week where EVERYBODY is off.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/27/22 at 4:47pm

Regarding Christmas Carol I just read this on the TKTS website... In-person rush tickets will only be offered through Sunday, December 18.

Also, I would have thought that the current high percentage of flight cancellations would have affected attendance. Is attendance still strong?