A Chorus Line Lotto Rigged- Page 5

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:07pm

I guess I am kinda dumb.

If they don't have time to go through a house seat request, they should get a ticket a different way. Who cares how?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:07pm

I've had full priced house seats before.. and it took time to get it submitted, approved, and then procesed. Smetimes, that just isn't feasable. This doesn't apply to ACL as much, but if a show is sold out, then that is their only option... or arranging ahead of time for standing room...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:08pm

"but why go through the motions of pretending that it's random when it's not? It seems kind of silly and unnecessary."

For this exact reason. This thread is a perfect example. If on a given night, they were to come out and say "Tonight we only have 10 seats available" as opposed the 20 some ususal seats, people would bitch and moan. "Oh, well there go our chances. This isn't fair, they advertise 20 seats." Basically they can't win either way because people always have to bitch about something. So just get over it.

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:08pm

But no one is debating them getting tickets. Just the auspices of them calling it a lottery when it ain't. Semantics.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:09pm

Who cares how? Apparently you do.....
Or do you not care as long as it isn't preventing you from getting a seat? But even if they purchased a full price seat, that would be one less that you have the option to buy.. so....

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:09pm

It IS a lottery as long as they give away seats by drawing. Which they do.. even IF cast members or crew take a few. There is still a lottery for avalable seats.

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:10pm

You're missing the point of the thread. I don't care at all how they get the ticket. I care that (if I was going to buy a seat), the people in charge of the lottery are claiming these people are winning randomly.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:11pm

Also, just for the sake of argument, how do you know that particular cast member's family didn't just get lucky and win? It's not hard to get all the tickets you need if you have multiple people entering the lotto and its not that crowded (like A Chorus Line.)

It doesn't necessarily have to be rigged, you know. They could have...won.

[ben4]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:12pm

"Does anyone not realize that if you guys continue to bitch and moan about this ACL can just pull the Lotto. Then you will have to go back to paying full price (or TDF tickets)--"

Lol, I kinda doubt anyone from A Chorus Line who has that kind of power is reading any of this... I can just imagine them being all "Sooo those broadway.com members think the lottos unfair.... Wellll I'll SHOW THEM!!!"

Besides, I've heard Chorus Line is a cookie-cutter revival anyway. If they suspended the lotto, you wouldn't see any tears from my eyes.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:12pm

You either care, or yo don't. You can't have it both ways.
And people were accusing ME of double take here? Really now.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:15pm

"Lol, I kinda doubt anyone from A Chorus Line who has that kind of power is reading any of this..."

You'd be very surprised at who reads these. I imagine that the Company Manager of A Chorus Line makes the decision whether or not to continue the lottery. If Marc Shaiman, a Tony Award winning composer, reads AND posts here, it isn't impossible to think that a show's company manager reads these posts.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:15pm

I was just about to say that Kelly. The original poster never said how many people actually won. It was probably 2 people for 4 seats total and they are just bitter.

"the people in charge of the lottery are claiming these people are winning randomly."
Uh, sometimes they do win randomly. One of the times I went to the lottery (the one time I lost because it was super crowded) Joey Dudding was standing outside with the crowd. It was during his run as Paul while Jason was out filming stuff. Guess what folks, Joey didn't win either. He was like "Oh well, guess I have to buy full price seats then. Bummer." I felt so bad. If I had won I would have given him my tickets, lol. Anyway, my point is that they don't ALWAYS win.

[Calvin]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:15pm

For this exact reason. This thread is a perfect example. If on a given night, they were to come out and say "Tonight we only have 10 seats available" as opposed the 20 some ususal seats, people would bitch and moan. "Oh, well there go our chances. This isn't fair, they advertise 20 seats." Basically they can't win either way because people always have to bitch about something. So just get over it.

And I would imagine your average even semi-regular theatre-goer wouldn't know whether Alisan Porter was standing in the crowd. Hell, I saw the show and couldn't guarantee that I would correctly pick her out of a lineup. In other words, most people wouldn't even notice that it was her friends getting in. So I'd agree that the pretense is silly, but if it's the way they want to handle it, it's their prerogative.

And Kelly also has a point. They usually don't shuffle the entries too well in lottos, so it's not out of the question for several people who entered in a row to win. It happened all the time in Drowsy, and that one was done out in the open.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:18pm

Yes, I have watched people from shows lose lottery at their own shows as well.... I mean really..

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:20pm

The woman running the ACL lotto is actually really nice, so the fact that she's being accused of foul play when I've seen her go out of her way to make sure those that lost the lotto are the first in line for SRO seats is disappointing. How many of you have actually tried the ACL lotto and how many are just denouncing it based on ava's hearsay?

If cast members did get discounted tickets for family members, people would be crying about how unfair that is as well. I somehow have the feeling every single person claiming how "unfair" this is wouldn't hesitate to take a cast member up on the offer to rig the lotto in their own favor.

[nygrl23]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:20pm

Well, nepotism and rigging are a fact of life. But there is such a thing as...i dunno. Finesse? Decorum?

Sigh.

I don't think anyone has a problem with performers getting tix, but if I'd witnessed what Ava did, I'd be mad, too. Updated On: 6/27/07 at 03:20 PM

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:21pm

broadwayguy, either ACL members are allowed to rig lotto or not. You can't have it both ways.

[JRybka]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:21pm

I am soooo sorry that i was not clearer. We just be thankful they have lottery for any of the shows. They can just pull them if they want... I was not being specific about ACL but you would be suprised WHO reads these. I know for a fact that Jaqueline Piro from Witches reads we talked about it when I met her after Witches.....

[JRybka]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:21pm

I am soooo sorry that i was not clearer. We just be thankful they have lottery for any of the shows. They can just pull them if they want... I was not being specific about ACL but you would be suprised WHO reads these. I know for a fact that Jaqueline Piro from Witches reads we talked about it when I met her after Witches.....

[ben4]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:25pm

"The original poster never said how many people actually won. It was probably 2 people for 4 seats total and they are just bitter."- bjh

Did you like actually read their post???

"As we were waiting for the names to be drawn, we noticed Alisan Porter and Heather Parcells hanging out outside the theater, each with a group of family/friends. As they began drawing the lotto winners, we understood why. Every person from their groups of family/friends got in. They took half of the 20 available lotto seats."

Parcells and Porter's friends in all took 10 of the 20 tickets (50% of what was offered that night).

And again, no one's arguing that they shouldnt've been entitled to that. All anyone is saying is that if ten tickets were only being offered that night, then the people running the lotto should've made that known beforehand.

It's also important to note that it's a statistical impossibility that Porter/Parcells group were all legitimately picked. Since 2 tickets are offered per person, that would mean that 5 of the usual 10 names called (assuming everyone was getting 2) would've been from their group.

When I was there (in january) the lottery consisted of 40-50 people, all placing one entry. The odds are impossible.

Updated On: 6/27/07 at 03:25 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:27pm

I challenge you to find me a Broadway lottery that isn't rigged. Whether or not it's a regular basis remains to be seen, but all of the biggies have had their moments. Updated On: 6/27/07 at 03:27 PM

[folkyboy]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:29pm

i love people are talking about betting $100 about people's feelings about the lottery for a show and how it's dealt but they aren't willing to spend $100 on a ticket to the show. so so funny

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:32pm

ben4, my bad. I did read the original post, but that was like 40 minutes ago, so I forgot. But your last post about statistics makes no sense. First of all, how do you know Ava wasn't exaggerating and they won 7 seats or 8 seats. Do we know for a fact it was 10. No. But, let's assume they did win 10 tickets. If there are 20 seats, why would there be 16 names called? If we are assuming, as you said, that everyone was taking 2 tickets, that would be 10 names called, not 16. And if there were 10 of them, then only 5 names needed to be called, not 8. Also, many many times people ask for only 1 ticket. It's not that uncommon. I go alone all the time. This whole thing is not that impossible. I've seen weirder things. Plus, the lotto hasn't been 40-50 people like in January. It's been like 20-25. Don't comment based on hearsay.
Updated On: 6/27/07 at 03:32 PM

[ben4]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:37pm

"Plus, the lotto hasn't been 40-50 people like in January. It's been like 20-25. Don't comment based on hearsay."

Lol, sorry sorrry. This is all my fault. I posted some fuzzy math in my original post and I have no idea why I said 8 out of 16 instead of 5 out of 10. I guess I was thinking about ounces and pounds and whatever... (I haven't eaten in awhile)

But anyway, I still feel that 5 of the ten names being called (Remember they call out ten first and then wait for people to say if they are getting one or two) is still a statistical impossibility.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/27/07 at 3:41pm

Ben, what I am saying though is that more than 10 names may have been called and probably were called because a few only wanted one ticket. It was probably 5 names of theirs called out of a total of 13 or 14 or even 15 names. Plus there could have been as few as 20 people there and Ava might have been the only one or one of the few that didn't win. It's really quite possible. We have no idea about the true probability because we werent' there. And as I've said, I have seen other things happen that were even more statistically improbable.