Avoid Balcony for Hello Dolly

I bought 39 dollar tickets to Hello Dolly from TodayTix. They were for the balcony. I was aware of that and ok with it.

However, upon arriving in the balcony it was stifling hot and a beam was in my way. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask to upgrade my ticket. The man at the box office was amazing-he switched my ticket and didn't charge me anything-I ended up center 5th row mezzanine.

Just be careful about the balcony. I was sad to see that basically both the right and left size of mid mezzanine was empty. Donna Murphy is fantastic as Dolly. I am sure the balcony would have been fine but I would never get another balcony seat in that theater.

Not wanting to sit behind a beam and not wanting to bake while at the theater is not exactly being picky. It is warm up there. I noticed it last week.

I was also in the balcony for the matinee today and had no issue with the temperature. And there were plenty of seats in the front side balcony away from the support poles to move into.

I'm with Sarah. I sat in the balcony for Matilda and that convinced me never to sit there again.

It's good to have different opinions. I was just sharing mine.

I'll deal with any inconveniences for the utter joy of seeing my beloved HELLO, DOLLY! yet another time.

Auggie, was anything lost in seeing Blithe Spirit from up there?

Thursday night I sat in the center section row H, and yes it was far away... but even from up there "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and the title number brought me to tears. I went home and bought tickets for Friday night and saw the show a third time this afternoon. I had never seen DOLLY on stage before and this production is absolutely gorgeous. Now... the question is do I see Bette? I may wait a bit and try for the partial view seats.

Interesting, I was in the orchestra for today's matinee and it was really cold down there. Unfortunately- there were a lot of empty seats, too.

Interesting sidebar: I accept the distance and angle more in a musical.

I don't find this surprising. Musicals (at least your average big Broadway musical) often draw the material out; as such, distance and angles feel less important. Most plays draw the audience in, which can be hard to do if you feel like you're a football field's length away. It might work for a broad comedy or a farce, but I don't think I'd want to see Long Day's Journey Into Night from the top row of the Shubert's balcony.

Sat in the second to last row in the balcony a few weeks ago and it was a great view. The beam was a small obstruction but I was far enough away that it wasn't too bad. Didn't miss a moment, though.

I found a pic of J20 in the balcony. I guess TodayTix doesn't consider that pole an obstruction, since they advertise that they never sell obstructed seats, although it appears that the Shubert makes that determination.

http://aviewfrommyseat.com/photo/73765/Shubert+Theatre/section-Balcony+Right/row-J/seat-20/

I got one of the $59 partial view Row K seats, and, because I stood the whole time, the view was excellent. However, I got the impression that a lot of people that were sitting in the rows beneath me had some trouble seeing the passerelle.