"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".
That's for sure... but God, I love it. What's my option? BRANSON?
It's supply and demand. As long as people are going to pay the asking price, they're going to keep charging it. Costs go up each year with salaries, theatre rental, taxes, etc. so ticket prices are not going to be immune to those influences. Yes, most theatres now have premium seating but also most shows now have some sort of discount tickets available, whether it's through a rush policy, standing room, or availability on the discount websites via codes. If it's too much trouble to punch in a simple code in order to get a discount when you're ordering tickets, then, franky, you don't have much to complain about. Rush policies that use lotteries do not involve 'standing in line all day'. You're there for maybe 15 minutes or a half hour, at most.
Most cities have rush policies now at their theatres, or a night where it's pay-what-you-can. If Dallas doesn't do this, then it's time to talk to the people who run the theatres there and find out why not. I know that they do it for touring shows because I have friends in tours who have talked about the rush lines.
What it comes down to is how much you love theatre, and what you're willing to do in order to see the shows you want.
"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!"
SCARY! Okay.. but only ORCHESTRA seats.. and they have to be in the first few rows! I want to see Avenue Q! The very thought of waking up next to someone and saying Happy Birthday at the same time that they are saying the same to ME is AWESOM!!!
"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".
Which is rediculous considering there are NO costumes, NO sets. God, though... could I sell a nut for a good seat? I can sing every line to every song from A Chorus Line. Heck, I should get in FREE! YES! There should be a TEST! The better you KNOW the show, the better your seat! I know A Chorus Line so well that I should, after the curtain call, eat dinner and SLEEP with the entire cast!! Where's the JUSTICE??
"My favourite dream ever was one I had where Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, and Jerry Orbach were all on "Celebrity Survivor" (the weird thing was that everyone was dressed up in evening gowns) and Patti and Glenn made an alliance and voted Jerry out of the tribe. Once voted off, Jerry high kick Glenn in the face".
Since I'm a college student I mostly rely on student rush to see shows in New York, and I also use TKTS. So I don't think it's impossible for the average, middle class person to find seats at affordable prices. Like others have said, you just have to know where to look, and most tourists probably are not gonna make the extra effort to find discounted seats.
But I mostly rely on tours for my Broadway fix and since those tickets are slightly cheaper (most of the time), I hardly ever have to pay over $50 to see a show. In fact, I saw both Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Spamalot on tour for around $30. And the seats were not bad (mid-balcony).
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
"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".
My 3 month in advance search for tickets to WICKED put me in the toilet, STALL 4. I had even LESS luck with the touring company that's strolling through DALLAS in the next month. I'd have better seats from a HELLICOPTER (of course there's that whole ceiling issue).
In my first year of college on the east coast i've seen quite a few shows in NY. all in the orchestra and the most expensive ticket was Company for $36,50 or something like that. granted I am a student but still in NYC i think if you're decently smart about it than you should have no trouble getting affordable tickets. Off Broadway as well. Tours I understand are a whole 'nother game but in NY it's pretty easy to get good cheap seats
RIP Natasha Richardson. ~You were a light on this earth ~
There was a time - before mine and well before yours - when average middle class New Yorkers and tourists made theatergoing a regular part of their lives.
MTA workers and Alexander's employees could get great tickets to popular plays and musicals for 4 to 7 dollars. That may have been a significant amount of money during the mid sixties, but in no way did it approach, even with inflation, $110 today, let alone premium seating at $250.
And don't blame producers. They are faced with a business model that demands expensive tickets for the well heeled and business trade to make sure that weekly grosses remain profitable. For all of the true theater lovers on this board who scour every possible means of securing discount tickets, you serve an important purpose that has nothing to do with the bottom line.
You help fill empty seats to shows not selling out. You are by and large enthusiastic audience members who help raise the heat during performances. But discounted seats chip away at the weekly nut and create a law of diminishing returns. And the full price and premium sales do in fact supplement discount tickets for unsold seats.
For modestly produced shows with manageable expenses, discounted seats can prolong the run of border line shows indefinitely. But a musical capitalized in excess of 10 million dollars has no chance of a run dependant on a finite group of theater lovers scampering down from the balcony to the back of an empty orchestra section after intermission.
Just as the American auto industry is being decimated by the costs of healthcare and union agreements that make profitability difficult to achieve, Broadway production costs have made affordable theatergoing impossible.
As a result big budget shows hope for a windfall and a decade long run.....Wicked with 95% of sales being full price or premium. An Avenue Q or Spelling Bee can continue on a split of full price and discounted tickets due to low running costs.
It does all boil down to economics. Broadway is an industry that has backstage, front of house and producer salaries that make it impossible to survive without a couple of thousand people spending between $110 and $250 to break even each week.
The half price tickets and discount offers help fill a house, but they don't ultimately pay the bills.
As someone who always pays full price or more for the plays and musicals I attend, I can say that I'm pretty philosophical about the situation. In my mind, paying to play is a way to guarantee that my ticket purchase is among those that have a relevant impact on a show's bottom line.
Any comparison to not for profit presenters like the MET are irrelevant. They not only sell tickets, but do an amazing amount of fundraising for operating costs and endowments from foundations, corporations and individual donors.
So the next time you go to a show where the actors are playing their own instruments, keep in mind that such a creative solution is the result of economic reality as much as creative integrity.
And if you are a discounted attendee, and exasperated at the corners cut to make a show profitable, think about paying full price next time. Then, the orchestra might be in the pit.
Live theater will always be relatively expensive because it not only costs a significant amount to create a show, but there are ongoing expenses associated with each performance. It really is not a problem of greedy producers - they put up their own money in the interests of producing a play and rarely recoup, much less profit, from their investment. Cheaper tickets might well lead to a decrease in the number of plays making it to opening night.
Does anyone know if current ticket prices represent the same relative percentage of average weekly income that they used to? I remember paying $4.95 for an orchestra seat in Lincoln Center in 1967 but I was only making $6900 a year - so it wasn't exactly cheap then either.
it is definitely not only for the rich! i definitely do not fall under that category, but go quite often [for living in another state] and with tkts, tdf, rushes, and standing rooms it is very easy to see a tony award winning show for less than 30 bucks. in great seats. so while it isn't cheap in some cases, you still don't have to be a multi-millionaire to enjoy the magic of broadway!
hear my song; it was made for the time when you don't know where to go, listen to the song that i sing, you'll be fine..
I've paid full price for exactly two shows within the past two years- $111.25 for center orch at LaChanze's last at THE COLOR PURPLE, and $111.25 for center orch at LES MIZ, which were both completely worth it to me, but way outside of my usual spending pattern: besides those two full price tix the next highest price I've paid in the past two years was $36.25 for a HipTix ticket to THE APPLE TREE.
And I don't even have a student id anymore, so I am limited to discounts, lottos, hiptix, and general rushes, no student rushes for me. If I didn't live in NYC I would probably want to have my tix purchased ahead of time, and not do rushes/lottos, but even then there's still discounts.
The last five tickets I've bought: SOME MEN, $20 SEALED FOR FRESHNESS, $20 SPELLING BEE, $25 HAIRSPRAY, $25 PIRATE QUEEN, $25.00 + TM fee ($34 total)
It's completely possible to see theatre when you're not rich. Yes it's a little bit of work sometimes, ie I didn't get in to SOME MEN one night and had to try again a second night, but in exchange for wanting to and getting to spend $20 to see it, that was worth it to me.
"I remember paying $4.95 for an orchestra seat in Lincoln Center in 1967 but I was only making $6900 a year - so it wasn't exactly cheap then either."
I don't have adjusted for inflation figures on hand, but given your scenario, your income as related to your theater seat 1967 versus 2007 with additional charges would would put your salary at $158,700. If you chose to buy a premium seat for a must see show at $250, your salary equivalent would be $345,000.
No, theater is not just for the rich. As others have mentioned, there are ways to get good seats for shows. You're using Wicked as your example which is maybe the 2nd or 3rd hardest ticket on Broadway to score. As for the touring company that is coming thru Dallas April 18th, those tickets have been on sale for quite awhile. Almost as soon as they announced the season and the second engagement. If you are now just getting around to looking for seats, of course availability is going to be bad. Have you tried checking on weekdays?
As for the Dallas Opera being that expensive, I just did a quick check and tickets are not yet on sale for the 07-08 season, but somehow I'm having a hard time with your "cheapest seat is $150" statement when you can suscribe for a full season for as low as $75 or 3 performances for $68. Yes, the better the seat, the more expensive, but I doubt the cheapest seat is $150.
In that PBS special they were talking about how theater used to be like going to the movies - but I cant even go to the movies that often either. It's like $10.50 now - add dinner to that and you've still got a pretty expensive night out.
I mean of course if you go out, you are going to spend money. Its just that you cant do it as often as you'd like, which sucks.
The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go --doesn't it?
I'm actually doing a whole project on how you can see at least 10 shows a year for like under $50 a ticket and I live in D.C. If you really want to see something, then you will do whatever it takes to see it right? Maybe that means standing in line for a long time or trying at lottery. Theater is defintly not just for the rich
Ahmelie, I wish I could see that! But it would be better seeing Patti kick Glenn in the face.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
