Is THEATRE Only for the Rich?

[Sleeth1]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:04pm

It's truly starting to feel to me that theatre is only for the rich. I used to think that only OPERA was only for the rich (and nothing about that has changed). Honestly.... how many people can afford to see a Broadway play for $110 ?? Me, but barely... and only every few years. Apparently there is no lack of ticket sales, though... because what aggravates me the most is where these $110 ticket seats ARE! In Dallas we have the Dallas Summer Musicals, at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Tickets tange from $15 (if you don't mind a nose bleed) to around $95. The theatre is HUGE, and it's kind of like seeing a play in a sports arena. Even if you get online the second the tickets go on sale, all of the good seats are taken. Between season ticket holders (honestly, who can afford or even WANTS to see ALL of them?) and the AGENCIES that have bought up all the good seats (to sell at twice the face value) there's really very little left. I desperately wanted to buy tickets to a touring company of SPAMALOT in July... but the tickets left were horendous! I wouldn't pay $10 to sit in the seats that they have left! I'm running into the same problem with Broadway tickets, where I'll be in June of this year. Got $220 each for tickets to WICKED? Then you might have an orchestra seat (either to the rear or VERY far to either side). Other than that? FORGET ABOUT IT! Turns out that nearly ALL of the theatres are charging 2 times the actual TICKET price for all the really good seats. Hell, I can't even get good seats to TARZAN. It's as if EVERYONE going to plays/musicals these days are flying FIRST CLASS! And they've got the money to do it! I'm going to Broadway - and I'm going to do what I can. In the future, though... I'm going to support all of the local (and smaller) theatres in Dallas/Fort Worth, because they're trying to make theatre possible for the masses (not that the masses care). I know, I know.... costumes, sets, etc. It's not like I expect to pay the same price as I do when I go to a movie! When the cost is over 200 bucks for my partner and I to go to a musical, I start to question if theatre these days has become the OPERAS of yesterday. We're fairly well off... but, well... I don't have to tell you how much $200+ can buy (and that's for LOUSY seats). I'd rather see a great play than go to Disneyworld... but they charge $60 to spend all DAY!
Now don't send me little pictures of myself playing a little violin... I'm only just saying... LOTS of people don't have as much money as I do.... and those people (and ME, dam*it) are being denied theatre as something to be enjoyed on a regular basis.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:08pm

I used to think that only OPERA was only for the rich (and nothing about that has changed).

You can go to the Met for a little as $15 a ticket. They even have rush now, which allows you to see the opera from an orchestra seat for $20. You might want to amend that in your thoughts.

[misschung]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:10pm

I definetly agree with you. They talked about this on Broadway: The Golden Age, but the dilemma is nothing new. Its almost paradoxical that as theater is becoming more and more friendly to younger audiences, the prices are skyrocketing. I have no idea how audiences - particularly young people, can afford to see shows so many times. Yes, the lotteries are great, but I live an hour north of NYC now and I don't really want to take the chance of not being able to see a show if my name isn't drawn....

So yeah, I hear what you're saying. Hopefully the pendulum will swing the other way soon..

[ashbash1990]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:11pm

I NEVER pay full price for tickets (OK, once for Pirate Queen)... you just have to know where to look... ANd be willing to stand in line/ wait for rush seats/Lotteries respectivly... besides, theatre has ALWAYS been for the rich...

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:15pm

Yes, Broadway theater, and most theater in New York is for the rich. There is no theater for people who usually go to the movies.

Im only 30, but even when I was a kid, I could see shows for $15. I even saw Grand Hotel for $7.50 and that was the listed price for the last row of the balcony. I saw it 15 times.

The Met, however, is adressing this. Their lowest ticket prices are going DOWN and the highest ticket prices are going UP, making the rich pay more for their tickets and the poor pay less, which makes more sense, doesn't it?

The Met is also going to make some of their operas available via broadband now as well, imagine if a Broadway production did that? NO F'in way, is what you will hear, but why not? Because Broadway theater is build around the paradigm where only the rich can enjoy it. Well I say that's the wrong paradigm. The Met used to use it, but they are realizing that in order to survive they are going to have to go after a larger audience share, and that means catering to the middle and lower middle classes, which far from being ignorant, have a large interest in arts and fine arts, but have been priced out of it.

Broadway shows are out for tourists with a lot of disposable income and the rich that live here, this is why we have the jukebox and kiddy/teen shows we have now, that many say are the death of broadway. Well, imagine if the ticket prices were to go down for the cheapest seats and up for the most expensive, I say in about 30 years we'd have a crop of incredible well written, excellent musicals and plays on Broadway, but until someone decides, it's not going to happen.

So, in short, yes. Theater is only for the rich.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:16pm

If you're a person that needs to sit in a certain section on a certain night - it's only for the rich. Meanwhile, I can get two shows, lunch and dinner for about $100. You need to know how to get around and stuff like that - so it's really not just for the rich.

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:23pm

Of course not! I can have an evening out, complete with dinner and a Broadway show for well under $40. Most times for $30 or less and that includes transportation! Honestly, there are ways to see a show that's less expensive than two movies.
Updated On: 3/31/07 at 12:23 PM

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:24pm

Between rush tickets & discounts at places like BroadwayBox.com, I can't remember the last time I paid the full $100+ price for a ticket.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:25pm

Ask this question in about 5 years

Better still, if there were no discounts or TDF & everyone always had to pay full price, I think you would get a much different answer from some

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:28pm

^ Exactly! The point is that there are rush and discounted tickets which allow more people to see NY theater.

[Mark_E]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:28pm

You dont HAVE to pay full price for tickets. Get cheaper tickets in the Upper Circle if you have to, thats what we do. Upper Circle is around £25-£35 for most shows in the Westend ($50-$70) and I know that tickets can be gotton for just as cheap on Broadway.

So the answer to the question in my opinion is No, you just need to get the cheaper seats.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:38pm

I guess it depends on your definition of inexpensive.

$50 per person (and who goes to the theater alone except a huge fan, and that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about your average joe/jane) is WAAAY too much for a typical evening out. A special evening like a birthday or anniversary, yes. But otherwise, your average person is going to go to the movies, or imagine it, perhaps the opera. All the young people I talk to today both on and off campus that I meet in my travels these days are talking more about the opera and the Met especially, it's becoming one of the hipster things to do. Opera is making its image accessible to a younger generation, many of them students.

Broadway is not, it's clear. Even with the student rush policies. They are steering their market to the tourists and the rich, it's their prime audience. They are not all that interested in marketing to the average person. it's VERY clear.

If a person could EASILY AND RELIABLY get inexpensive tickets -and by easily I dont meaning druding through a slew of websites and discount codes and getting to a theater at a certain time and putting your name into a hat and hoping you get picked- and by inexpensively I mean for the same price or slighter higher, $15-$20 - then you would see more and more of that audience going to the theater.

And guess what, those people will be there because they WANT to be. Not because their senior group got a group rate, or the Southern Family Robinson all had to go together during their trip to New York. They will be more attentive, will make less noise, take less pictures, be more appreciative, and more discerning. And in 20 years time, or less even, you would see a totally different Broadway, that is thriving through cheaper ticket prices, but MORE full houses, and a greater variety of content and a dearth of sticky, sweet, cheesy shows (Disney can have 42nd street, they already own most of it).

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:43pm

A cheaper Broadway will happen when they revive Lestat, In My Life, DOTV & Dracula in the same season

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:53pm

There ARE great discounts to be had, for sure, but the average person or family coming into the city from out of town isn't going to want to chance TKTS or rush lines or lottos to see what they want to see, especially if it's a popular show. While they would more often than not be fine buying day-of-performance tickets, things happen and it's nice to have your tickets in hand ahead of time. When you're paying hundreds of dollars for a hotel stay, you'd like to pretty well know what you have lined up for the evening.

Taking a trip to NYC in general is so, so expensive. My mother and I are planning a trip up in August, and even on a tight budget and doing rush for the shows we want to see, it's still going to cost over $1000 for travel and a few day stay. As vacation spots go, it's not very easy to plan a cheap trip to New York. Updated On: 3/31/07 at 12:53 PM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 12:58pm

I don't really mind the high prices for the orchestra SO much. As long as people keep shelling out for "premium" tickets, producers will keep selling them.

What DOES bother me is when even the rear mezz seats are expensive. For example, A Chorus Line's rear mezz. seats are $90 dollars without fees and such. I would love to see the show, but that is just too expenxive. I think there has to be a good mix of the "premium" seats and cheap tickets for those who can't afford them.

[Flaunt It]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:08pm

Is BROADWAY the only place to see theatre? I have seen better productions than their Broadway mountings in regional theatres, school productions and community theatres all over the place.

[Sleeth1]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:11pm

"You can go to the Met for a little as $15 a ticket. They even have rush now, which allows you to see the opera from an orchestra seat for $20. You might want to amend that in your thoughts".
In DALLAS (Texas) the CHEAP seats to the opera are $150. ORCHESTRA? They go for $300! I'd LOVE to go to the OPERA (I've only been to 2 in my life), but the cost makes it impossible. You think OPERA is not that popular (that was my thinking)? Think again. Apparently $300 a pop is nothing to many people. Honestly.. if I had all the money in the world... I'd go to the Opera every weekend! Broadway shows, too. I'd just get online and buy tickets, and a thousand bucks a show (for me and the people I want to take) would be "NO PROBLEM". Ah, the life!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:12pm

As they say in Dubai:

"Those who can, do".

[Sleeth1]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:18pm

" NEVER pay full price for tickets (OK, once for Pirate Queen)... you just have to know where to look... ANd be willing to stand in line/ wait for rush seats/Lotteries respectivly".

Well, they don't have that in DALLAS. I'm only going to be in NY for 5 days. I got a lot of SIGHTS to take in. I can't spend all day in line for tickets that are not even guaranteed. If I lived in NYC you and I could just be best buds. LOL You could stand in line with me and I'll go get you a hot dog every couple of hours! And then if you DON'T win the "lottery" tickets, I'll be all pissed off for about 5 minutes, and we'll settle for a movie... not that there ARE any in MANHATTAN anymore.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:25pm

Sleeth1, If that is you in that pic, then you can be my date any night for the theatre, my treat, problem solved! :) And we have the same birthday!

Was't it only a couple of years ago that full-priced B'way tix were like $80??

Even crappy road companies here in DC are charging an arm and a leg.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:26pm

The opera is very expensive here in Va too. And the fact is shows are selling out and Bway is having a financial boon so the producers have no need to make it any more affordable than it is. Whether or not this is good for the long term welfare of the industry is a much more important question.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:27pm

It is like any entertainment. Price rises will stop when people stop going

As long as people are willing to pay these prices, producers will be emboldened to keep pushing the envelope to see how far they can go

Many sports have priced themselves out of the family market with ticket,concession & parking prices continuing to escalate with no end in sight

Updated On: 3/31/07 at 01:27 PM

[fugazi]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:28pm

I'm a 24 year old un-employed college student, and I feel that theater is still relatively affordable. I'm only visiting NY for my first time this week, and I'm seeing as many shows as possible. Buying tickets a few months ahead of time put me in the first few rows for Drowsy, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening, and within the first fifteen rows for Wicked and Jersey Boys.

Having broadway near where you live is like having a variety of great musical groups performing everyday. Most of us around the country can justify a once every few years expenditure of $110 per ticket, even if it is somewhat pricey; who knows when we'll be back. Those that live around here, or visit here frequently probably can't see as many shows as they would like, due to the millions of visitors NYC has every month that are in direct competition for tickets (and also drive prices up).

[Sleeth1]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:32pm

"The Met, however, is adressing this. Their lowest ticket prices are going DOWN and the highest ticket prices are going UP, making the rich pay more for their tickets and the poor pay less, which makes more sense, doesn't it?"

Well, sort of. It's better than nothing at all. As a Democrat, that's certainly the way I feel about taxes (and I'm not poor by any stretch). But you know what? If your seat is so far to the back that the performers look like ANTS, what difference does it make? My theory has always been (because I have no choice)... go to FEWER shows and have GOOD seats. Heck, I can't even live by THAT theory anymore. Ticketmaster will put you in UPPER BALCONY for "best available" for WICKED... UNLESS you want to pay $220 to sit closer (does VASELINE come with that?)

[Sleeth1]

Posted: 3/31/07 at 1:39pm

"If a person could EASILY AND RELIABLY get inexpensive tickets -and by easily I dont meaning druding through a slew of websites and discount codes and getting to a theater at a certain time and putting your name into a hat and hoping you get picked- "

That was one heck of a post! THANK YOU! It left me breathless. I think you pretty much summed it up! Now... who do we need to CONTACT that might listen to you? LOL (Thanks).