***BEWARE** Scalpers taking over Jersey Boys rush!!!!- Page 2

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 1:11am

they are called partial view so that people can't complain about it. but really, the view isn't bad.

[billynj]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 7:43am

a big huge stamp over the tickets SAYING PARTIAL VIEW, and a decent wristband and hand stamp problem solved ...a tourist is not going to take the ticket if they need a stamp job like they waited on line and a wristband from waiting on line...they will think twice about it otherwise they are just buying a ticket...without the feeling that they cut the line process to get it

[winston89]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 8:17am

You can only sell a ticket above face value if your somewhere between 200-300 yards from the venue. If your like right in front of the venue you can sell them but only for face value.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 9:51am

You just caught wind of this? It's been happening since the early days of RENT (before the lottery system was begun), CHICAGO and THE PRODUCERS. Scalpers put out their people to camp-out to be the first ones in line for when the box office opens. The lottery system ruined it for them.

[musicalsFan]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 11:00am

If the producers of Jersey Boys actually cared about this, they would switch to the more equitable lottery system.

[winston89]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 11:10am

Also, the big reason that ticketmaster and telecharge switched to the bar code system instead of tearing a ticket is to stop this sort of thing. It is set up to work so that the bar code would only recgonize thier barcode and not a fake one that comes with tickets you buy off the street.

I don't know if its helping any but I know that was what they intedend to do when they did the change

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 11:21am

Those barcoded 'paper tickets' still hasn't stopped scammers from selling 'fake' tickets. Those sheets can be printed a million times from any printer. Unfortunately, the barcode only can be scanned once so all those using reprinted 'paper tickets' get screwed when they get to the theatre and their tickets don't scan because the barcode was already scanned earlier. This becomes a case of 'first-come; first-served'.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 11:36am

The partial view seats aren't that bad.

The box office at Jersey Boys does have a policy where they are supposed to scan your ID, though that rarely happens. I believe they should enforce this policy if the problem persists.

I don't believe there was as much a problem with scalpers when the tickets were given out at 4:30, was there? They should change the policy back to the way it was.

I'm a big fan of the rush policy and I don't want it to change to lottery. I hope it won't have to resort to that.

[Becky]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 12:46pm

The "stamp" or lottery system could work....or they could let the people pay for their rush tickets on time, but not allow them to pick up the actual tickets until 20 minutes before the show starts with their ID.

[lucydee]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:00pm

I agree with Becky!
Its a good idea to have these tickets picked up at least 1/2 hour before the show starts to avoid this from happening again and they should ask for I.D.

Hey I'm a little confused, can someone please clarify Rush.
Aren't these tickets for students only who can't afford the 111.00 ticket price? If this type of thing is going on, someone should bring it to the attention of the Manager at the August Wilson. This is completely discraceful! If they are nice enough to leave some tickets for those students who can't afford full price, someone should defintely do something about the scalping thing going on.

I have seen Jersey Boys many many times and paid the 111.00 cost of the ticket, I would never even imagine pulling something like what happened yesterday. Boy,there lucky I wasn't there to witness this happening, I would have brought it up to the attention of the person running the August Wilson.

Its just not fare to those kids who want to really see the show and stood on line for so long ang got nothing.

What is Broadway coming to!

[iheartamc10]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:13pm

Thanks for the warning, Broadwayguy2. That is really horrible. There should be some way to prevent that, but really, what are they going to do... start racial profiling at the box office?

I feel bad for the tourist couples that they paid all of that for partial view seats. ugh

[winston89]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:27pm

BrodeFosse<


They do have the tickets that you can print out a million times. But, this is also the case with an actual ticket. Telecharg pretty much JUST started offering the option of you being able to print out your tickets whereas ticketmaster has had it for a while.

Also, there is a difference between a fake barcode and one that is made offical by ticketmaster or telecharge and the barcode machine can tell the difference between the two.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:45pm

Like I said.. just spreading the word. When it was mentioned at theatre, it was met with a "not much we can do" attitude, so I figured I'd mention on here. My best friend and I waited 7 hours for tickets.. we got there at 5 am for ticket sales at noon.. while we were the first people, the scalper girls arrived 15 minutes after us. They only offer 12 tickets and these girls purachsed 4 of them.


The wait wasn't that bad after the first 2 or 3 hours.... but even then, we took turns sleeping for the first few hours.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:50pm

I understand the idea of rush but if it isn't really working, go to the next option- lottery.

Or, as someone said- if there is rush, get your hand stamped. Yes, the whole thing may be a bit more difficult but it would make things more fair.

Student rush can be a good thing- I am a poor college student after all *(although I can't really do rush because I don't live in NYC and if I'm going to see a show, I'm going to have the ticket in hand)* However, other people have "money issues" so why should only students get the benefit?

People are sleeping out and fighting over how many friends came to join the friend in line before...etc.
Lotto is 2 hrs before the show, you get there within the half hour time slot to fill out your slip, you are there when the names are called, you win or don't and it's over. No arguing, fighting or sleeping out waiting in lines.


Did any of that make sense?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 2:57pm

Or when you win, you go to the box office and you show them you're ID. They make a list of the names who got student rush and the amount of tickets they bought. They then tell you to return 30 minutes before curtain with your same ID to pick up the tickets. It's simple. Problem solved.

[kaibranch]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 6:51pm

I kind of figured the scalpers would take over rush sooner or later. It's pretty terrible that it's happening. My only chance to see JB last summer was to do rush. I sat there for hours and was really happy to get my tickets. It would've sucked if I didn't get my seats because of scalpers.

Lotto would definitely be an easier process and would prevent scalpers. I just don't like lottos

I think munk's idea is best. I'm just not sure if they would want to spend the time checking IDs and names. It's simple, but it still takes more time than just letting you in. I think if this becomes a huge problem they should start doing that, though. The manager needs to be notified, or just that guy who comes out and counts people doing rush.

Didn't anybody get suspicious when a bunch of tourists came and not students?

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 6:58pm

There should be some way to prevent that, but really, what are they going to do... start racial profiling at the box office?

Umm...just because these scalpers happened to be Hispanic doesn't mean the scalping issue has anything to do with race. There are plenty of ways to prevent or crack down on this without resorting to racial profiling because people of all races scalp tickets.

It's just frustrating that the people working the house had that defeatist attitude when it's really not an impossible battle for them to win. It would be one thing if the scalpers were doing something that was merely unfair, but since they were clearly violating the law you'd think the August Wilson people would care a little more about what's going on.

[iheartamc10]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 8:03pm

SDav... totally a joke, i'm sorry. I was referring to how the first guy described the people behind him.

But sadly, Broadway didn't get its nickname "The Great White Way" for nothing.

[Phantom2]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 8:09pm

broadwayguy2- This whole plot could have been uncovered sooner if you'd just taken Spanish in High School.

Updated On: 10/16/06 at 08:09 PM

[Anna_Elizabeth]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 8:12pm

If someone wanted to do some old fashioned investigative reporting, you could contact the manager of the hotel and ask if he was aware of what was going on in his hotel. Find out if the desk clerk/concierge on duty was lining his pockets by hiring these girls to wait in line or if this is standard practice. Either way, it would be interesting to hear what the story is, and I doubt the hotel would want bad press or the state coming after them.

[WickedOne2]

Posted: 10/16/06 at 8:25pm

I encountered a lotto scalper the first saw Wicked a couple of years ago. My fiance and I had made friends with another couple and agreed that if we both got called, or they both got called we would help each other out so we could all see the show. Neither my fiance or I got called but the guy (of the couple) got called. He started talking to another guy in line and motioned for us to stay put. The guy then came over with the tickets and said he would sell them to us for $100 bucks a piece because his girlfriend was the first one called(they cost $25 each). I probably would have paid it but I was so disgusted with it I told him off. No one would buy the tickets and by this time everyone had cleared out of the lotto area in front of the Gershwin. He then came back and said are we sure we didn't want to buy them. I told him again how wrong it was that he was trying to sell them for more than face value in front of the box office. I told him I would give him $50 and not a penny more. He handed me the two tickets and I handed him $50. He said "Each" and I said here's $25 more and get out of here before I report you. It worked. We were front row center and he was the dumb ass because he took his girlfriend's seats and they were on the far end.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/17/06 at 12:22am

The lottery system doesnt prevent scalping, it just makes it less predictable. Especially with a hotel involved, tickets obtained two hours before showtime could still be resold. The hotel would merely have to advise people to check back with the concierge at 6 oclock for their best availability.

I like rush, I cant spend the money but I can spend the time.

Jersey Boys takes Adult, Grad and Continuing Ed IDs so looking age-appropriate doesnt matter when they seat the students.

Also at 2 per ID, nothing prevents you from taking someone who isnt a student.

Its also common for people to join the line hours later & sit with a friend- who may just be the 2nd of the two tickets that person was claiming or they may be coming to purchase a third or fourth ticket throwing the whole line off.

And with 8 hours between sale and showtime, its incredibly easy for the tickets to change hands. The day we were there, it was only 3 hours and they still managed.

Some thoughts Ive had... Rush lines shouldnt be able to form until there are staff there to moniter them. (Impossible of course, since if theres no one there, they cant be sent away). Having Rush sold later might encourage this, but wouldnt guarantee it. I think there should be a sign-in sheet as you arrive where you show ID and number of tickets, show it again at purchase and I dont think you should be given your ticket(s) till just before showtime by reshowing the ID. Perhaps rush-ers could even be kept on a separate line and seated last.

Itd be tedious but fairer.

If this ever happened, Id be screwing one of my own tactics. BG2 has on occassion arrived for a rush before me when Im the one with the ID. But if you had to show an ID and sign-in upon arrival hed have to wait for me to get there before joining the line. If you needed four tickets, both of the ID carrying people would need to show up and wait.

[worrell4077]

Posted: 10/17/06 at 3:40pm

There was a situation similar to this when I went on 9/25. Me, my mother, and my sister went in to rush Jersey Boys, but we only had my id, my sister forgot hers and tried to blame me for not reminding her. So, basically what we were going to do to get my mother in was to ask if anyone was going to buy just one, so we got to the theatre at around 7am and there was three people ahead of us already and when I saw them I actually thought they were waiting for a ride or something cause the way they were dressed, gave the impression that they probably don't care too much for theatre. So, I ran to the bathroom at some deli nearby and my sister asked them how many tickets they were buying and they said that they were getting 5 and they she asked if they could get one for my mom and she would pay them back and the girl in the group(there was two guys and one girl) said to her nastily "No".

Fast-forward to about I wanna say 10 minutes before the show started and me and my sister were looking around to see if they would show up. Show starts, not there. Intermission, still not there. So, basically alot of the people who were on line for rush were talking about it too and we all came to the same conclusion that they scalped the tickets. When we were leaving, my sister said she saw the girl sitting outside the theatre, and she said she was tempted to go up to her and say, "Enjoy the show(in a sarcastic way)".

I really hate scalpers, and if more scalpers cause the August Wilson theatre to change to lottery, I'm not going to be happy about it cause I love rush. Rush shows dedication and determination and stuff like that for a show and even though both are different, Rush and Lottery are all about chance. So, in all honestly they should do something to stop it like step up the scalpers and have the "tourists" who are buying them be police officers.

[rent18]

Posted: 10/17/06 at 4:10pm

How early should you get to the Jersey Boys rush on a weekday??????

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/17/06 at 4:25pm

The only thing about picking up tickets a half-hour prior to showtime is that the box office is generally a zoo from half-hour up until curtain. In fact, every time I've had to pick up tickets from the box office, I've done it before half-hour to avoid that rush. The box office attendants are usually VERY happy to help, since it's one less person they have to worry about during that crazy time. I would assume that any way to cut down on the number of people lining up would be preferable. Those lobbies are tiny enough to begin with. Could you imagine if they had to squeeze 20 more people onto the line?