Playwrights Horizons sued over discount for POC- Page 2

[FLarnhill]

Posted: 12/23/25 at 12:27pm

quizking101 said: "I can’t imagine this holding any water, but in this America, where white grievance is a cottage industry, who knows?

Wanna know what's sad? America is more systemically class-based than race. Race issues were something invented by politicians and the most powerful so that the lower classes would fight each other.

[Ke3]

Posted: 12/23/25 at 3:17pm

Earlier this year the Nationals (DC MLB team) settled a 3 million dollar lawsuit that their age based discount was discriminatory and afterward ended the program. 

There are unimaginable losers out there but this one is of course far more sinister because of the person backing it. 

[pagereynolds]

Posted: 12/23/25 at 3:32pm

blaxx said: "Wouldn't any discount based on age, student status, etc be the same case? Why just race?"

Being a student is not a protected status the way that race and gender are. A discount code based on age would absolutely be illegal. That's why programs for people under 30 (or 35 or whatever) are programs and not discount codes.

The plaintiff here has a case if there was some sort of box where you had to check you were a person of color. If not, anyone could have used the code.

Updated On: 12/23/25 at 03:32 PM

[dexter3]

Posted: 12/24/25 at 3:21pm

Kevin Lynch has unintentionally made himself into a real world villain. The videos I saw of him on youtube were somewhat promising, talent-wise, but he's sealed his career coffin in ways that he won't fully realize for years. So unwise. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 12/29/25 at 8:09pm

The Oracle commented on the lawsuit.

 

May no one ever come for me as ferociously as Sweaty came for Kevin Lynch.

[blug]

Posted: 12/29/25 at 8:26pm

He's got that small features/huge head thing that seems to be the prerequisite for the white boy grievance brigade.  

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 12/29/25 at 11:22pm

He has a case.  It won't surprise if more pop up related to race, age and other preferential treatments.  Theater has gotten away with for some time - its time may be up.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 12/30/25 at 1:07am

CoffeeBreak said: "He has a case. It won't surprise if more pop up related to race, age and other preferential treatments. Theater has gotten away with for some time - its time may be up."

ohhhhhhhh blow yourself

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 12/30/25 at 9:28am

For better or worse.

And there are many "brigades" out there - "white boys" just happens to be one of the MANY.  Any group could be in the category of "grievance brigade" and we've been hearing from many over the last 5+ - 200 years.  It happens.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/30/25 at 11:26am

He’d have a real case if he, say, tried to use the discount code at the box office or tried to pick up tickets he ordered with the code and was told he couldn’t because he was white. That did not happen. PH intentionally made the code available to everybody but encouraged BIPOC audiences to use it. There were also other opportunities for him to get discounted tickets throughout the run which he did not take. Lynch being a racist who was butthurt that he paid $50 more than other audience members is not a case- all audiences are filled with ticket price variations, ranging from people who were comped to people who paid full price premium. 

[Kad]

Posted: 12/30/25 at 11:42am

And for the record, PH’s general rush tickets are even cheaper than this discount code. 
 

edit: to say nothing of the fact that it’s an incredible coincidence that the anti-DEI guy just so happened to buy tickets for the BIPOC-focused night, out of all the nights of the run. 

Updated On: 12/30/25 at 11:42 AM

[BeyondtheBoards]

Posted: 12/30/25 at 4:52pm

Morally, I’m super aligned with Playwrights Horizons here. That said, separate from intent or values, I do think there’s a real legal vulnerability here, and it’s worth naming it honestly.

The issue isn’t whether the discount was enforced (it wasn’t) or whether PH acted in bad faith (they didn’t). The issue is that race is a protected class, and offering a publicly advertised price benefit explicitly tied to race, even for one night and even on an honor system, is treated very differently under anti-discrimination law than discounts based on things like student status, email lists, or rush availability. Those are classifications tied to behavior or affiliation; race isn’t.

So while I hope this gets tossed for lack of damages or standing (which honestly it probably will for the former if that alone), I don’t think it’s frivolous in the technical legal sense, just the "oh my god are you kidding me" sense. Courts don’t evaluate these things based on how obviously unserious the plaintiff is. They evaluate whether a protected characteristic was used as a pricing criterion in a public accommodation. That’s the narrow, uncomfortable box this lives in.

None of that means PH was wrong to try, but it does mean we may need to get more sophisticated about how equity-driven access is structured going forward, because the legal landscape is clearly shifting and bad-faith actors are looking for test cases.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 12/31/25 at 9:04pm

Legally he has a case even if it is ridiculous to some. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 12/31/25 at 9:10pm

CoffeeBreak said: "Legally he has a case even if it is ridiculous to some."

That's possible. Legally also it might be questionable to offer discounts to younger people, when civil rights laws tend to protect older people from discrimination.

And yet, though I'm over 50 and very much feeling the effects of that, I'd never think of suing anyone about it.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 12:12am

True.  A lot of these policies regarding race, age etc. will be questioned it just took people to break the dams.   Theater has had the privilege to overlooked many of these policies for some time while other businesses have not.  Surprised it has not happened sooner.

Updated On: 1/1/26 at 12:12 AM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 12:48am

CoffeeBreak said: "True. A lot of these policies regarding race, age etc. will be questioned it just took people to break the dams. Theater has had the privilege to overlooked many of thesepolicies for some time while other businesses have not. Surprised it has not happened sooner."

again.....you are the woooooorst

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 1:15am

legal is legal.  it's fairly cut and dry.  so i'm truthful.  welcome

Updated On: 1/1/26 at 01:15 AM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 4:51am

CoffeeBreak said: "legal is legal. it's fairly cut and dry. so i'm truthful. welcome"

what do Trumps balls taste like since you constantly are sucking on them?

[Kad]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 9:13am

CoffeeBreak said: "Legally he has a case even if it is ridiculous to some."

You keep repeating he has a case without actually detailing how or why. Please, for once, actually back up your assertions. 

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 9:15am

CoffeeBreak said: "legal is legal. it's fairly cut and dry. so i'm truthful. welcome"

Actually, legal is not cut and dry. If it were, there wouldn’t be a need for statutory or constitutional litigation. 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 9:41am

Given the way Playhouse structured this, my hunch is they would likely prevail in any lawsuit. 

But if I was still a board member of a performing arts nonprofit, I would definitely want legal counsel to weigh in given the current climate and what the Supreme Court has done with race-based admissions.  Crafting the right offer and associated marketing language/explanation seems key.

Here's another example I found in Nonprofit Quarterly.  In this case, EventBrite, the ticketing platform, forced the changed in ticket pricing structure.

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 9:50am

FLarnhill said: "quizking101 said: "I can’t imagine this holding any water, but in this America, where white grievance is a cottage industry, who knows?

Wanna know what's sad? America is more systemically class-based than race. Race issues were something invented by politicians and the most powerful so that the lower classes would fight each other."

Oof, babes. Slavery and Jim Crow would love to have a word. Some of y’all just be sayin’ anything on this board. Please let’s leave this kinda stupidity in 2025. 

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 1/1/26 at 10:26am

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "CoffeeBreak said: "legal is legal. it's fairly cut and dry. so i'm truthful. welcome"

what do Trumps balls taste like since you constantly are sucking on them?"

It has nothing to do with "trump's balls" but that's a foolish way to brand something you dislike.  There is a precedent in other cases of similar issues with non profits just not theater.  Yet.  Depending on court bias, this could be seen.

[BeyondtheBoards]

Posted: 1/6/26 at 6:41pm

This is how they'll play it, I can almost promise you. This guy clearly didn't get hugged often enough by his mother and the morality (well, lack thereof) here is a totally separate issue. 

Courts and the law as written don't require “I was barred” or “they checked my race.”  The argument is simply that a publicly advertised price benefit was explicitly tied to race, which is a protected class under public accommodations law. That will likely get it filed and moved forward initially. 

Things like “it wasn’t enforced,” “anyone could’ve used it,” or “he could’ve gone another night” don’t really defeat that argument. Intent doesn’t matter much here, and neither does enforcement. Pricing criteria is the issue. For people bringing up age -- you'll note that in the few cases of lawsuits surrounding those, companies have changed their practices for the most part. You don't want that to go to court because it's a losing battle even with a liberal court. 

Student rush, email codes, TKTS, etc. aren’t good comparisons legally because those are based on status or access, not protected characteristics. Courts treat race differently, whether we like it or not. 

Where this likely dies is damages and standing. He wasn’t denied a ticket, wasn’t refused the code, and voluntarily paid a higher price in a room where everyone paid different prices. PH wasn’t wrong morally. This guy is acting in bad (horrid) faith. But the legal vulnerability isn’t imaginary, and that’s why it's getting the coverage it is. 

Again, to be clear. This is assholery at its finest. But perhaps non-profits should also learn that when you work to be a part of those communities rather than just using them for a cash-grab on the occasional show, you have contacts to send codes out through meant for members of that community rather than posting it online like a "HEY! SUE ME!" sign.