House seat question?

[tking001]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 4:37pm

I'm doing a report for school and am wondering what the difference is between House & Premium seats?

Also when are they released to the general public (time wise) I know they can be up till curtain but is their a general rule I.E. 3 days b4 the show is when they start releasing them?

Thanks for the help

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 4:41pm

You're writing a school report on this?

How is it possible to write more than a paragraph on this topic? The answer can almost be given in one breath.

Seriously.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 4:43pm

House seats are reserved as full price seats available to company members to purchase up until a pre-determined time before the performance (anything froma few days to an hour before). Any house seats unused by the company are then released for sale to the general public.

Premium seats are available to ANYONE to purchase.. at a highly inflated rate.. and they sometimes are notput onsale at the same time as the rest of the seats, but withheld for a little while to goad people into buying them.

Now, premium seating is a much wider spectrum than when The producers introduced the concept. Gypsy with LuPone sold aisle seats in the orchestra at a higher rate than other orchestra seats, so there is another form for them..

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 4:46pm

Premium seats are available for anyone to purchase. House seats are held by the production and are only available to producers, members of the creative team, friends, and whoever else is named in the agreement. I don't know if there is a difference price-wise, but house seats might be the non-premium orchestra price. Anyway, the purpose of house seats is to make sure that important people are able to get good seats even if the show is sold out. When a celebrity goes to see a sold-out Broadway show, they probably got house seats from the producer. Also, if Stephen Sondheim decides to see the new revival of West Side Story, he probably has guaranteed house seats that he can get, so he can go even if the show is sold out. House seats still have to be purchased; they just guarantee good seats to important people.

House seats are generally released for sale 2-3 days in advance of the performance, but it depends on the show. That's all part of the negotiation process.

Premium seats are released to the lower price level a couple hours before the performance.

ETA: Brody, the OP didn't say the entire report was on this topic. This might be one of many aspects of the theatrical business covered.

Updated On: 5/27/09 at 04:46 PM

[tking001]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 8:58pm

So Basically the different between House & Premium seats are that
House can only be purchased by producers,creative team (ppl involved with the show) till like an hour or 2 before curtain and are released if they are not picked up? May be non-premium price

& That Premium seats are available to anyone, but are sold are a premium price untill either the day or an hour or 2 before show time?

Thanks for all the help
& also the report of on how to make NYC afforable to students one tip that I talk about is Rush/lotto/SRO/
I'm also saying how a show is never really sold out.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 10:19pm

Where I come from (PM if you want to know) the house seats are either used as press/artist comps, sold at a discount to company members, or apart of an allotment that certain company members get for certain performances. Anything left over a day or two before curtain is either sent back into the general ticket pool (assuming there is any demand for those tickets) or they're used to dress the house.

[snowskittle]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 10:48pm

House seats don't necessarily go only to important people. They can be used for friends and family of cast members who may need a good ticket at the last minute. They will pay full price though.

[Tom's Cat]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 11:17pm

Exactly - but house seats do not carry an inflated, premium price. If you are able to get house seats (from a member of the company, a producer, or simply because they've been released by the house) you'll pay exactly the same as everybody else in the best seats. I remember one character who said he was involved with a show and who offered to get us house seats at an inflated price. Turned out he was a friend of someone with the show and he was skimming the profits for himself. (In other words he was scalping the tickets. His friend ended up being cut off from getting any more house seats. I don't know if anything else happened to him.)

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 11:20pm

House seats CAN be free. They aren't by definition, but they can be, depending on who you are or who you get them from. The short way to explain them is that they're seats held for people involved with the production, and generally considered (some of) the best seats in the house.

Updated On: 5/27/09 at 11:20 PM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 11:33pm

Hm....and I always thought that the actors (and others involved) got a certain number of tix (within a time frame, perhaps) for their use free of charge. But then again, the "scalping" of house seats does sound like a story I'd heard somewhere elee.

[lstbutifulgrl2]

Posted: 5/27/09 at 11:41pm

I think it depends on the production and the management company. I've been given house seats by performers in several productions, sometimes i paid full price, sometimes they were discounted and sometimes they were free. I also encountered all three with the same production.