$150-200 Priced Tickets

150 - will be top ticket price in less than five years.

I think they will probably continue to quietly expand premium seating while gradually raising standard ticket prices as well. Top ticket price for shows this fall is already 110. I think a 5-10 dollar hike every year or so is totally forseeable.

I got tickets to [title of show] for 60 bucks. It was worth it, but come on. Off-Broadway for 60 bucks? In '90 it was $50 bucks to see Broadway.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just find these prices.. insane.

Then standing room will be $50!

I disagree Feng. The reason Broadway prices keep going up is the same reason premium seating has taken off: people are willing to pay. Supply and demand.

And I don't think the analogy to Vegas is really a good one: the reason most of the shows haven't done well there is that it's not a traditional musical theatre kind of town and even people who love Broadway tend to want to spend their time there doing other things or seeing the big shows like "O" and Cirque.

The only thing that will keep Broadway prices from hitting 150 dollars is if there is some kind of recession or the industry falls into the doldrums like it did in the 80s. Broadway is booming at the moment and producers are fighting to produce new productions.

Higher ticket prices are simply the price to be paid for having a successful - in demand - industry.

Historically, there have always been more flop shows in any given season than hits. Thats just the way it works. The difference is that today, the flops try to stick around - draining money - whereas thirty years ago, producers would close a production almost immediately and move on to the next one.

Anyone who is interested in the mechanics behind hits/flops and ticket prices should read William Goldman's THE SEASON. The book is almost 40 years old, but fairly little has changed in basic terms of how the industry works.

We go a lot & most discounted but there is no way we would pay $ 150.

As much as we love Broadway, we both think $ 150 is looney tunes & if we can not see a show because we will not pay it, than so be it. We will somehow survive.

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Well increased gas prices will eventually work their way into standard cost of living increases in the U.S. salary scale infrastructure, though I think you will see more people forced to car pool or take public transportation and demand will increase those industries as well.

Theatre has always been a "luxury item." And people have been bitching about the cost of theatre prices since the Old Globe. You and I may not be able to pay 150 or 200 dollars for ticket prices but there apparently are people who can: how can people afford to go to Vegas and pay 200 to see Celine Dion? They save and plan. Most of the full price tickets are being purchased by tourists anyway. It's too bad for us the dollar is so weak in the global economy right now.

But, and nobody is really talking about this, one reason why Broadway ticket prices continue to rise is that most people do no buy full price tickets. Half the shows on Broadway sell the majority of their seats to group sales and TKTS. All you have to do is look at weekly Broadway grosses to see that the top ticket price may be 100, but the average ticket price for most shows is about 60-70 dollars. Producers have to take their profit after discounts into consideration when setting full price ticket prices.

Updated On: 8/10/06 at 09:12 PM