I think we can all agree
1) 301.25 is a lot for a ticket.
2) We're all mad its getting sold out quickly
3) The cheapest tickets is only 86.25, and the SRO tickets are very limited
*end thread*
A CHORUS LINE is not "getting sold out."
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
Far from sold out...three primo orchestra rows, 75% empty when I saw it.
Broadway Star Joined: 10/26/05
Though you may see empty seats in a theatre, do not assume the seats are not paid for.
>> How do we pay for it in the end?
You do understand how a corporation makes money, do you not?
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
Tasks of the Producer: Make money, no matter what method. To quote the great Max Bialystock, "I lied, cheated, stole....but I had to. I was a Broadway producer."
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
>>>The only thing that i can possibly feel towards your comments, besides the thought that you must be some sort of f-ing moron with zero taste, is the slight happiness i can take in the fact that you admit to saving your money for months on end to spend it on premium seats for the trainwreck glitzy disaster that was "The Boy From Oz."<<<
(Reply from FlauntIt)
Thanks for the judgment. I had a great time at the show. Not only because I was not expecting it to be anything earth moving, but because I was seeing friends who were in the show. And the hug from Hugh afterward made it all worth it.
*************************
Starting saving again, Flaunt It
Just in case Hugh brings back the arena version of the show to RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL ( there was some talk about it when he was winding up the show). I saw the show in Australia and paid premium seats ( US $375) and it was worth every cent - it was even more incredible than what you had seen at the Imperial. I have never been to a show where wide grins and happy faces were all too evident from people coming out of 10,000-seat capacity venues...And people going back to the ticket queues to see the show again.
In the days at the Imperial, it was kind ironic that the best seats in the house for TBFO (Row AA) were at regular prices of $ 101.25 until about the last week or so. I saw the show in the last week of August and had only paid that amount for my ticket then. They never changed it until the last week, even if people were going to ticket brokers just to get those front row tickets.
Of course, in the last evening performance, it cost over $1000 to get those tickets from brokers...and BC/EFA even ran an auction for a pair of those tickets for the closing show the following day ( if I remember right, they raised over $ 15,000 for that pair).
I don't believe these are just corporate drones or trust fund babies... there were some very solid fans of the show who had saved up for the closing performance( although while eavesdropping in that closing performance from a seat neighbor who sounded like a theatre bigwig, I had overheard that his wife and daughter threatened him with whatever, if he couldn't get those Row AA seats for them - LOL!).
I am also sad that costs of a New York holiday is getting closer to almost not-affordable : hotels, great dinners, Broadway shows, shopping - but such is life! As I come from halfway across the world, I have to factor in the cost of plane fare. It is even worse, if I cannot make the trip and I have already paid for the tickets ( I don't want to take the risk of arriving in NYC without tickets to good shows already assured) and have to forfeit the costs!... I guess it is a matter of assigning priorities now ( I would be glad though if there is some regulation of the ratio between premium and regular prices) - what I can afford or what I can forego. I guess choosing the shows becomes even more important and foregoing other things ( like shopping ).
Jo
Updated On: 10/9/06 at 10:05 PM
these tickets seem to be available 2 days prior at the box office for normal price, I guess they are having a hard time selling them
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
Unsold premium seats for every show are available at the box office a day or two before performance -- not just ACL. Given that its average ticket price is the second highest on Broadway (after JERSEY BOYS) at just under $100 a piece and that its attendance has been in the mid- to upper-90s since opening, clearly it must be selling A LOT of premium seats.
Say that after working in a show like that 6 nights a week with 7 performances. And then LIVE in NYC.
They deserve every penny that they make becausey they are working their butts off, doing it well, doing what they love, and producing what people want to see, and are willing to pay for.
i'm glad I paid 110 for row AA months ago!
What's even worse is there is no intermission to move up to a better seat!
as the others before me this is ridiculous..however, for the crazy who said on the first page that this is america and if you can't afford it then oh well....BOLOGNA!!!! Theatre is one of the very few things left on this planet that allows one to exit the wonderful corporate world of Capitalism and enter into real art, real work, and real people. Or at least it should be. No one should ever be told "if you can't than don't" in theatre, because that is not what it is about!! Besides, I live in Las Vegas, the land of wasted money from those who both can and can't afford it! And every night someone is paying a high price to see a show..but if those pricing got to 300 per person...FORGET IT!!! But these shows are still bringing in mucho bucks....
What you people don't seem to be willing to acknowledge is that the $301.25 is for PREMIUM seats. For those who can pay for those seats (because there clearly are those people), more power to them, and THANK YOU to them for supporting the theatre so strongly. For those that can't, there are other options.
Stop complaining.
I think the point of the original poster is that shows like ACL are reserving more and more rows as premium, and thus making it harder for people who don't have $301 to throw around to see theatre. That's all.
I decided to make a last minute trip to NYC (Dec 22-29) and wanted to see A Chorus Line. I was really surprised that premium tickets to this show were so much. I discovered that for some reason, Thursday night prices were somewhat less so I got a ticket. It was still more than I wanted to spend but at least not $301.25. I guess I would rather pay the producers the money than the scalpers.
By the way, Jersey Boys Premium Seats were $360.00 and were Left Center Orchestra, Seat 12. At least ACL's seats were Center Orchestra.
"Far from sold out...three primo orchestra rows, 75% empty when I saw it."
I guess you were seeing the show in your dreams only as - according to this site - it has NEVER done less than 89% capacity.
If you're disgusted, don't go to see it. There are plenty of regional productions of ACL that are as good which will cost you under $40.00.
It is disgusting if anyone pays it
The same people who pay it are the same people complaining about the cost of a gallon of gas. They do not mind paying exorbitant ticket prices or $ 4 for coffee or drinking nothing but bottled water but the "high" cost of gas shocks them. See what they have been paying in Europe for gas for years
Instead of buying it, get a regular seat like the riff raff & donate the difference to charity
"Far from sold out...three primo orchestra rows, 75% empty when I saw it."
I guess you were seeing the show in your dreams only as - according to this site - it has NEVER done less than 89% capacity.
Yes, but most or all of those empty orchestra seats were probably bought up by scalpers. If that's the case (which it likely is), those empty seats were paid for and would only add to the percent capacity you see in the BWW charts, even if no one sat there.
I love this thread soo many opinions here.
"Though you may see empty seats in a theatre, do not assume the seats are not paid for."
I keep telling my grandmother's ghost to stop seeing A Chorus Line! God, I thought she had enough the first 15 years . . .
Worse than that, she sits in front of MY grandmother's ghost and refuses to remove her hat.
To answer a much earlier post: it was not STARLIGHT EXPRESS which broke the $100 barrier for front mezzanine seats. It was MISS SAIGON in 1991. This price was a stunt and lasted only until Jonathan Price left the show.
When I started to go to the theater as a child in the 70's I remember my mother "splurging" and buying $9 seats in the front mezzanine. Orchestra seats were $10 (this was for a Saturday matinee) and the prices went down to $5 for the last row. The top ticket price was $15 for a Saturday evening. Every show had a scale of prices, different depending on the day of the week, and there were usually at least 5 different sets of ticket prices. Now almost every seat is top price.
And whoever paid $300 bucks for seat A12 is out of their mind. I'm sorry, but a seat that far over to the side is NOT premium.
Isn't it also possible that premium seats may be helping maintain cheaper seats - like a subsidy of sorts? If wealthy and corporate buyers can pay that much, and the theater benefits, it isn't a matter of fairness.
I love Broadway theater but it is a business and all the most heavenly art in the world is not going to keep a play open if the bills aren't paid.
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