Rush tickets (student or otherwise) have been around for decades (I remember using them frequently as a student in the 80s).
"Rent" was one of the first to institute a lottery -- which came about because the producers began to be concerned about the dozens of kids sleeping out every night on 41st Street to be first in line for the cheap rush seats that went on sale when the box office opened at 10am (and let's be very clear that lawyers and liability issues were the primary motivations behind starting the lottery -- not some altruistic notions of providing cheap seats to the youth of America ...... they frankly could have given a damn that kids were spending the night on the sidewalk, but they realized it was cheaper to start a lottery than continuing to pay for a security guard to make sure nobody got mugged and sue the theatre and the producers).
There's an old saying on Broadway -- "You can't make a living doing theatre, but you CAN make a killing." 90% of Broadway shows never recoup their initial investment, but of that 10% that do are shows that earn profits in the millions. Broadway producers and theatre owners are in a tough business. On some level many of them (not all) invest in Broadway because they believe in theatre and the arts and for whatever reason enjoy being part of that process, whether they make money or not (if you JUST wanted to make money, there are THOUSANDS of far better and more promising investments out there than putting money into a Broadway show).
But even with all of that nobility of purpose, these are very wealthy folks who want to see everything possible done to maximize their chance at turning a profit -- that's how you end up with millions of dollars in the first place and old habits die hard. The notion of giving away even a row of seats at $20 a pop for some higher purpose of providing the "less fortunate" with an opportunity to see theatre and encouraging future generations to take up the theatregoing habit is very difficult for many of them to comprehend.
There's a reason that when you get to your seat in most Broadway theatres today, that, if you are taller than 5'0" you feel cramped and have a problem finding any leg room -- the theatre owners renovated every Broadway theatre several years ago to cram in every possible seat they could into that confined location in order to maximize profits (there are 80 year old theatres today that have 100+ more seats, pressed into the exact same space, than they did a generation ago).
I won't get into the whole per-seat financial analysis that has been done for every single theatre on Broadway, but understand that, after all that effort to cram in all those extra seats, it is anathema to producers to "give away" a row -- 20+ seats (160+ per week) -- for $20 when they could at least get $50 or $60 for each of those seats even selling them through TKTS or discounts.
I KNOW "why not allow those seats to be sold for $20, 5 minutes before curtain, if no one has shown up to buy them at a higher price?" Good point, but these are multi-million dollar corporations we're talking about, not "mom-and-pop stores" that can think (or care) about the individual ticket buyer. As anyone who has ever worked in one knows, large corporations (which is what each Broadway show is or is part of) set broad rules and guidelines to govern every business decision. From a pure business perspective, the lawyers and accountants wouldn't understand the purpose of implementing such a policy, and bottom line, selling a few extra tickets at $20 would be considered "de minimus" revenue not worth going after -- of course, as Matt and the rest of us know, the amazing goodwill such a policy would be enormous.
By the way --
I can remember back in 1993, before "Angels In America" opened on Broadway (but had been incredibly acclaimed in London and San Francisco), it was the hottest property in the theatre world. Every single producer was absolutely dying to get even a small piece of it, just for the "cache" of being associated with the greatest play in a generation. Knowing all this, Tony Kushner, a true disciple of downtown, not-for-profit theatre (and an old school socialist to-boot), used his very strong bargaining position with all of these powerful producers to negotiate something that I seem to recall being controversial and perhaps, unheard of at the time in the world of commercial Broadway (and please someone correct me if I am wrong) -- he demanded that for every single performance a row of seats would be set aside for general rush at $25 a ticket. The producers gagged at first, but ultimately agreed (they didn't have a choice thanks to Kushner). After that, I remember seeing more Broadway shows (off-Broadway ALWAYS had rush) willing to designate an entire row for discount seating.
Unfortunately, Broadway doesn't have very many artists that have the power that Kushner had at the particular moment in time. We must rely on the goodwill of that desperate breed of Broadway producers who are scrouging for every dime that they can in order to make weekly running costs. Issues of general rush and other such policies are simply not at the top of their agenda as they try to maneuver the minefield of recouping $10+ million advances. Perhaps, at some point they will be willing to entertain the concept of a row of $20 general rush seats industry-wide -- clearly, though, at this point it is not at the top of their agenda.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 1/6/05 at 01:15 AM
