HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO launches ticket initiative

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 11:04am

Help us build momentum to reach 50,000 audience members by the end of 2023! For a limited time, every day, any unsold seat for that day’s performance will be sold at only $50 at the box office. This deal is first come first serve and applies to any unsold seat in the house!

Tickets are available the day of the performance only when the box office opens 10am until 1pm on Tues – Sat and Sun 12pm – 2pm. A maximum of 6 tickets can be purchased. The amount of tickets daily will vary based on availability.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 11:07am

How is this different than a $50 rush?  Unless they're going to let you choose your seat based on what's available on the telecharge site?

 

 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 11:48am

Ah, the old “We’re gonna announce a new deal but not actually change the existing thing” trick.

[OhHiii]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 11:54am

You all think you're the only people these shows are trying to speak to with things like this. The vast majority of people have no idea what any previous offers or pricing has been out there. For a struggling show, sometimes they have to try things for survival. At least they aren't shying away from the reality of the situation.

Meanwhile shows will hemorrhage millions of dollars and ya'll will praise them for keeping the show open. Make it make sense.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 12:38pm

"Applies to any unsold seat in the house" sounds like you'd be able to pick your own seat, as opposed to the more traditionally take what you get rush. 

Otherwise, $50 for a rush ticket is a lot for a show already selling poorly without a star in it. 

I'm also wondering if this promotion is going to impact the quality of the seats offered to lottery winners. I just won the lottery to see HTDIO tomorrow afternoon and the seat is Left Mezzanine Row C. Given the low demand, I was a little surprised it's not an orchestra seat. 

[OhHiii]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 12:43pm

It's always hilarious when lottery winners complain about their seats when they paid less than anyone else in the house in most cases. You won the lottery for a performance they have critics in for, so the available seats were probably more limited. 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 1:05pm

OhHiii said: "It's always hilariouswhen lottery winners complain about their seats when they paid less than anyone else in the house in most cases. You won the lottery for a performance they have critics in for, so the available seats were probably more limited."

Glad I can entertain. That is a good point about critics still seeing the show, I knew they already froze the show and was conflating that with assuming previews had finished.    

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 1:32pm

Also this allows you to purchase up to 6 tickets while traditional rush is usually only 2.  It can be nice for people who want to go with larger groups to just have one ticket buyer (and yeah being able to choose seats would be a plus)

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 1:46pm

This is not a bad strategy for a show that isn't selling.

They want to fill up the house, and they probably don't care much about the average price at this point -- a sale's a sale.

If there's any price-sensitivity for this show, it should be a little nudge for potential buyers.

That being said, it's probably still not going to yield a sellout every show...that would require a lower price point.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 1:55pm

Having more affordable tickets is always a good thing, and could potentially be a way to build good word of mouth - Shucked is a recent example of that strategy. But this seems a little late for them to be doing this to get ahead of potentially less than positive reviews. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 2:07pm

Kad said: "Having more affordable tickets is always a good thing, and could potentially be a way to build good word of mouth - Shucked is a recent example of that strategy. But this seems a little late for them to be doing this to get ahead of potentially less than positive reviews."

Yes and what we've seen in the past is that the promotions that really work have a lower price range (like $25-39). This show has no shortage of tickets in the $45-60 range. If the producers wanted to move large volumes of tickets (while diluting avg price), this price would be lower. This is in some ways a symbolic gesture, or a "let's try it and see if it moves anything" gesture. Either way, it doesn't hurt this show.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 4:34pm

This will be gone by the new year freeing up the Belasco for the spring.

 

[whatever2]

Posted: 12/8/23 at 8:22pm

> You all think you're the only people these shows are trying to speak to with things like this. The vast majority of people have no idea what any previous offers or pricing has been out there. For a struggling show, sometimes they have to try things for survival. At least they aren't shying away from the reality of the situation.

Meanwhile shows will hemorrhage millions of dollars and ya'll will praise them for keeping the show open. Make it make sense.

I'll give it a shot:

Mostly what you've wrote makes sense to me. I think (?) the problem is $50 isn't enough to move the needle. From a marketing perspective, even $49 might have changed the tone of the skeptics/cynics on the thread.

From the little i know about this show, it sounds like the sort of thing i'd want to succeed. but all of their efforts to build buzz have been like 10 degrees off.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 12/9/23 at 1:49pm

On another site someone claimed that no, all seats are NOT being sold for 50 bucks.  According to this person, only side orchestra was offered for 50, and center orch were 75.

 

 

Update: re-reading the above, it does seem like the hours of that offer are limited - no idea what time the other person was at the box office.   

Updated On: 12/9/23 at 01:49 PM

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/9/23 at 9:04pm

On Twitter, someone complained to Ben Holtzman, a lead producer on the show, that there were two different tiers of same day rush, $50 and $75, and it doesn't apply to every seat in the house. Holtzman replied he'll look into it. 

Today was day one and it sounds like the How To Dance In Ohio team isn't entirely on the same page yet on what their rush policy is yet. 

 

[Jakeevan942]

Posted: 12/10/23 at 1:34am

I was at the Belasco this morning, with the two-price point issue. I grabbed a $50 side orchestra ticket, and planned to tell Ben, who had popped over around 9:45 to say hi to the 2 of us at the theater, when I came back for the matinee, but Twitter/X, Reddit and here managed to get the message across before that. I assume that this will be fixed, and a $50 prime seat to a Broadway show is a good deal, considering that some shows are charing 2-3 times that for the last row of their theater. I'll add that the Shuberts are not great at doing anything other than their standard workflows. An article about the show said it took ten meetings to get the soap in the bathrooms backstage switched to an unscented product. A novel ticket pricing scheme, in conjunction with the antiquated Telecharge STAR system that drives the box office led to some kinks.

 

[mattmarkowski99]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 1:25pm

As anyone else done the $50 ticket initiative? I'm interested in doing it, but would like to know where the seats are located first.