Do the Bullets producers not want money? (Rush Story)

I decided to see Bullets again last week. I'm not sure if this ineptitude was at the order of the producers, or a decision by the box office staff, but as an individual interested in the financial side of theater, I thought it would be interesting to share.

I went to the box office about 3 hours or so before the show, and asked if they had any rush tickets left - the gentleman at the box office window said no. I'm sure that the plethora of people who came in after me (it was a busy summer day, and people were streaming in and out of the box office) looking for rush seats were turned away as well - all of whom left and went off to rush different shows. Through an unofficial channel, I ended up snagging an even cheaper ticket than the rush one I had been looking for. When I got to the show that night, I was dumbfounded.

I know that they have designated the front row of the orchestra as rush seats, but those WEREN'T ACTUALLY SOLD OUT! I was blown away. Either they outright lied, or people who had bought those seats just decided to light their tickets on fire. In addition, the vast majority of the Mezz was still empty, even after they moved the folks from the balcony down a level. Even though I ended up snagging a heavily discounted seat, I couldn't help thinking about the significant revenue they had flushed down the toilet from the dozens and dozens of rush-seeking folks that had been turned away at the box office. Many other shows (especially in the hours right before the show starts) will designate remaining Mezz seats as rush seats, just to maximize their revenue for the night.

At first I wondered if they had closed certain sections of the Mezz as well, but given the smattering of people spread out throughout the different sections, it was clear that wasn't the case. Do the Bullets producers think that telling people there aren't any remaining rush seats will prompt them to buy full price tickets? Do they think that the tourists at TKTS are clamoring to see this show? If I were a producer of Bullets (or any show that's limping along at the box office) I'd never let this crap fly. Not only would I make sure that the designated rush seats were actually sold out before I started turning people away, I'd also offer rush-seeking patrons one of the hundreds of seats that went empty that night. Anyone with any financial or producing acumen will tell you that, given the choice between making *some* money for a seat (and getting people in to generate word of mouth) is far more preferable to making no money for a seat that goes empty.

I get that some shows will sell off remaining seats at rush prices, and some won't. Irrespective of that argument, the one thing that I think is absolutely inexcusable is that THEY HADN'T SOLD ALL OF THE REGULARLY DESIGNATED RUSH SEATS AND THEY WERE TELLING PEOPLE THEY WERE SOLD OUT! Talk about flushing money down the toilet.

Updated On: 7/8/14 at 11:54 AM

It's a double edged sword. If your rush policy is "everything that's left" gets sold as rush it is somewhat disincentivizing and people won't buy regular priced tickets or even tickets with a discount code if they know they can just get a rush ticket easily. However, if you have hundreds of tickets in inventory for that evening's performance, you should be loosening up your allocation just for the sake of having bodies in the theater and potentially creating positive word of mouth. To me that's a producing group that is not constantly monitoring its ticket inventory and figuring out how to best sell tickets on the day of a performance.

So they wouldn't sell you a rush ticket. They had their reasons. Get over it. I'm sure you think you know more about running a show than they do. You don't. Just be happy you were able to sneak in the stage door, uh I mean secure a ticket through your unofficial channel.

"THE ALLOCATED RUSH SEATS HADN'T ACTUALLY BEEN SOLD OUT."

You don't know that to be true. You only know that no one was in those seats.

This has always been a problem with Broadway. While I do agree that any policy that says all remaining seats will be sold at a discount 1 hour before curtain *might* discourage people from buying ahead of time, I think if there was a standard policy that if there were 100+ seats or so that were still available 1 hour before curtain, they could then be sold at a "rush" price.

You don't know the allocated rush seats weren't sold out. Are you positive that the entire first row is rush? And that they weren't sold? Maybe they were sold and people were sitting elsewhere, or maybe only some of the first row is rush.

This is also especially true now in the age of SYOS ticketing on Telecharge and Ticketmaster in which a somewhat knowledgeable ticket buyer can do a very quick assessment to see just how much inventory a particular performance has and make a decent guess on if rush tickets (should there be a free for all rush policy) will be available.

The end around on this would be SYOS suppression holds applied to each performance masking the true entirety of the ticket availability. I'm sure that this done to some extent now on Broadway and would end up requiring a lot of online inventory management on the part of the box office to apply and remove those SYOS suppression holds as needed.

Updated On: 7/8/14 at 01:17 PM

^^^^ This is true, and it's just what I was thinking. While I enjoyed the show from the first row, a couple of my fellow rushers found seats elsewhere in the theater.

That's true, I apologize. It's definitely possible that people had purchased those seats and simply moved back. Fisherman, the only thing I meant by "unofficial channel" was that I used a discount site.

I know that if a show made some sort of *official* policy of designating remaining seats as rush an hour before the show, that might have ramifications in terms of deterring full price purchases. But if they could quietly just increase the number of rush seats the closer they got to curtain - why not? Especially for a show like Bullets, which started sending out discount codes and promos months ago. Based on their grosses over the last few weeks, they should worry less about preserving their ability to charge full price for seats, and (EDIT - revised) stop sending potential rushers away to spend their money rushing other shows.

Updated On: 7/8/14 at 01:41 PM

A discount site is an official channel.

Should revise my statement, Fisherman. Wasn't suggesting a desperate "take everything you can get" type approach - that's the kind of policy that Holler should adopt. Just saying that the producers might want to consider making some sort of adjustment (if they deem it appropriate), so that they aren't sending potential rushers away to spend their money rushing other shows. No, it won't single-handedly secure the show's longevity. But hey, money is money, and if I were a producer I'd want it spent at my show.

=]

Updated On: 7/8/14 at 02:15 PM

I guess I'm confused by the fact that you are questioning their actions of not making rush available, as it is in their financial interest... and your proof point is that a lack of a rush ticket led you a discount site where one assumes you paid more to see the show.

So, based on you (as this whole case is), wouldn't they have made less money if they offered rush?

There have been, in the history of Broadway, rumors that box office personnel have been instructed not to sell tickets to a show, in an attempt to hasten the show's departure. Just rumors.