How to get many playbills in a theatre?

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 5:24pm

I'm going to the first preview of SpongeBob, and I will need to get many playbills (20+) for friends and family. How should I go about getting them, would intermission work by going on the ground? I'm fairly tall and I'll be in the front mezzanine, and I'd rather not do the ushers stack trick.

Updated On: 10/18/17 at 05:24 PM

[Rainah]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 5:32pm

the best way to grab extra playbills is to wait till the show ends and pick up the ones that people leave because they don't want them. 20+ is a big ask though, if I were you I would be advising some of those people that you can't accommodate their requests. 

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 6:43pm

I’d wait until the end of the show for the audience to file out I’m sire there will be many left behind. 

[TheatreRocks]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 7:42pm

At intermission, walk around the back of the theater on any level. They have stacks of playbills just sitting there. I have yet to go to a show where this is not true. Easy 20.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 9:13pm

I've always waited until after the show and grabbed from the usher pile...but not sure about 20+.

Just out of curiosity, why are so many friends/family asking? Are they big SpongeBob fans/collectors? Playbill collecting is so interesting to me as I only care to have one from each show/performance I see. 

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 9:23pm

I have lots of little cousins, and even some cousins who watched it in the 2000's like SpongeBob. I think they just want something that says SpongeBob to throwback to childhood with.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 9:46pm

You can always pick directly from the usher piles  around the back row of every seating section during intermission or after the show. Easy to get a slew of them.  

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 10:06pm

20+!?! You'd have to do a lot of scrounging around to find that many on the ground. And I wouldn't do it at intermission because a person might still want their Playbill and just be leaving it there while they go to the bathroom, etc.

I'm with Rainah. Tell these people you can't get them all Playbills and they should see the show themselves. That's a ridiculous request. If they don't know the musical, there's PLENTY of Spongebob merchandise they can purchase.

If it was just one or two Playbills, you could go back another day and the guard outside will usually get you one if you ask nicely. 

[Just_John]

Posted: 10/18/17 at 10:53pm

Ask any usher for 20 playbills and they will probably get it for you, and if they don't go ask another usher.  It will literally be no issue for you to get the 20 playbills and anyone telling you otherwise is blatantly lying.  

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/19/17 at 2:17am

Buy 19 cheap tickets?

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 10/19/17 at 2:50am

Pick up a couple of playbills off the ground and have your family members fight to the death over them.

Updated On: 10/19/17 at 02:50 AM

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 10/19/17 at 9:09am

As someone who's ushered a couple of times at the Place, what they tend to do (and why they do it this way is beyond me) is to give playbills out as you walk into the theatre, not as your being seated like every other Broadway theatre I've been in or worked at.  Like I said, can't tell you the reasoning or why it's the way that it is. But, regardless that may get in the way of getting the extra playbills specially since they aren't going to give you twenty while people are entering. Just throwing that out there.

[irishgator1]

Posted: 10/19/17 at 9:33am

GeorgeandDot said: "Pick up a couple of playbills off the ground and have your family members fight to the death over them."

Broadway Hunger Games?  I'm sorry, OP, but GeorgeandDot's response made me laugh.

In all seriousness, I didn't know ushers would tend to be accommodating of requests for extra Playbills. I always wondered how people acquired so many.