Posted: 4/11/23 at 9:47pm
I will say it’s a huge misnomer to call the floor seats SRO. They are by far the best way to fully experience the show are you are able to stand and move around for 90 minutes. If I recall, floor tickets were around $100 in 2013 for the open ended production at the Public and that stayed open for months, so I don’t think the prices they are asking are that crazy.
Also, the ratio of sitting to standing tickets is much higher for this production than the Public one. There were very few seated seats at the Public and almost all of them were reserved for people with mobility issues. That’s to say that this production definitely recognizes it needed to have more seats for less adventurous audience members.
This is also likely why it went into a bigger house like the Broadway, so it could have more actual seats. On the other hand it probably needed a decently big house to make the economy of scale work. Based on what people have said here it looks like they have essentially slashed the Broadway’s capacity in half, taking it from one of the largest capacity houses on Broadway to one of the smallest. Remember, at the Public, it was performed in a highly modifiable black box theater where they could use almost the entire space. Even at its biggest configuration, the Circle in the Square theater probably has less usable space than the Public did.
All this is to say that, while certainly ambitious, I don’t think that this production is DOA. People are willing to pay a premium for an immersive experience, and this will appeal to a broader audience than a traditional Broadway show (especially at the relatively short time investment of 90 minutes). I mean American Utopia managed to do pretty well at the Hudson (which I think might have more capacity than the Broadway in the HLL configuration), despite the Hudson’s always high ticket costs and the fact that its main audience was hardcore David Byrne fans. I loved AU, but HLL is a much more immersive and fun experience that has a broader appeal if people give it a chance. Also, HLL is more fun music than most of AU. The one caveat is that while it’s definitely not pro-Marcos family and it does acknowledge her complicity in the regime, the overall experience does humanize Imelda Marcos to an extent I’m not sure she deserves.
Finally, while I agree with those who think the floor capacity is ambitious, it also provides an opportunity for them to get creative with making the show more accessible to audiences that don’t always come to Broadway. The show works best when the floor is full so it would be worth it to so targeted discounting, maybe giving a block of tickets to various community groups each night or something like the “Black Out” nights at Slave Play. In other words, making the effort to get the discounted tickets in the hands of people who aren’t just holding out for a last minute discount they know they will get. They probably won’t, but it would be a missed opportunity if they didn’t.
Anyways Tl;Dr: I think HLL has potential to succeed despite many reasons to think otherwise. It’s certainly not a traditional Broadway show, but it’s also more than just the gimmick that most “immersive experiences” are.
Updated On: 4/11/23 at 09:47 PM
