Ridiculous Line At Newsies- Page 2

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 4:15pm

The lines were the same for Rent. I didn't understand why the Nederlander Theater would do this.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 6:27pm

Management treats their customers like cattle.Foxwoods is great. When I saw Daytime and Young Frankenstein they let people in about a half hour earlier.As a result their concession sales were better than if they let people cool their heels outside

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 6:46pm

The line around the block thing isn't just for Newsies, it's happened for every show I've seen at the Nederlander. I usually don't have a problem with getting in well before the show starts though.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 6:55pm

Foxwoods is also substantially larger than most Broadway theatres, with a large lobby space. Most of the older theatres simply don't have indoor space to accommodate people milling around killing time for a half hour.

You have a half-hour window to get into the theatre and you've got assigned seats. There's no reason to be there when doors open.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 7:08pm

They could at least let you in durin bouts of excessive heat cold or rain. Your could least sit inside instead of standing outside like cattle.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 7:27pm

The cast and crew has the theatre space until half hour before curtain. Not to mention, the house staff have their own preparations to make.

Opening a theatre that does not have adequate space for hundreds of guests to just hang out a half hour earlier would require everyone that works there to also come in earlier.

It's a bit of a hassle so the people that NEED to be there when the doors open aren't inconvenienced by inclement weather.

[musicalphd]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 7:40pm

I went on a stormy day in April. I arrived 30min before the show...and we waited in the rain

[loliveve]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 7:49pm

As Kad noted, the cast has the theatre until 30 minutes before curtain. With "Newsies", the cast is doing last-minute rehearsal/prep for the show. For example, they have "fight call" 45 minutes before the show and rehearse that to ensure everything goes smoothly and safely, which is especially important on days when a swing is in. So, it's not just that the Nederlander won't open up, but that it is being used.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 7:52pm

Didn't you bring an umbrella? It was raining. They cannot clear the house early because of inclement weather. There will always be someone that thinks they should open earlier -- they have to abide by their own guidelines. And its not going to change.

If they adjusted it, people would just begin to expect the theater to be opened an earlier and earlier -- and then they'd start bringing picnic lunches.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 8:26pm

I've worked for a few professional theatres, and all have been using the space up until the half-hour call. Whether it's the cast warming up, doing fight call, or running scenes or moments, or the crew working on any number of technical aspects, there has something been going on.

People don't sit quietly backstage waiting for the house to open.

[fallingawake]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 9:12pm

I don't know if it was because of the heat yesterday, but when I was at the matinee performance for Harvey, they actually had a ticket-taker walk down the line outside and start pretearing the audience's tickets and direct them where to go (ie, 'when you get inside, go up and to the left', etc). They still didn't start letting people in until 30 minutes prior but the line moved way faster when they did. When we got to the actual doors, we just had to show that the ticket was already torn.

I wonder if they usually do this, because they didn't use scanners on the tickets, or because of the heat, they just skipped them for that performance.

[dreaming]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 9:22pm

Frankly I prefer the old rip the ticket method. (I know why they use the scanners-to detect fraud tickets, but the old method is much faster.) I have found that this is a big reason it takes so long for them to get everyone into the theater.

[Owen22]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 12:31am

This is a trend that started with the producers of "The Producers". They purposefully only had one or two ticket takers so a line would form around the block to make the show look like its an Event, so people would stop and ask, 'What's this line for...?" Its not just Newsies, a handful of shows currently do the same thing.

[bk]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 3:35am

It's gotten completely ridiculous - it's only certain musicals. I saw The Best Man recently and it's what Broadway always was - a bunch of people milling outside the theater until they opened the doors, at which point we all went in - no line anywhere. And they opened the door a little before half hour, which was always the way. Now they don't open till twenty minutes before and they absolutely do it on purpose so those stupid lines can build - it's yet more of the movie business changing everything about Broadway to the way it works for movies.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 6:58am

No, Studio 54 does not usually do that. I was at Harvey's matinee on Saturday. And while I picked up my tix at Will Call, I was definitely scanned.

I'm going to guess something wasn't working right.

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 7:40am

Love that the term "treat there customers like cattle" has been used by 3 separate people. Folks, no one is forcing you to start and or stand in an unnecessary line.

[Patash]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 7:54am

"The only shows that start on time currently that I know of are Once and One Man Two Guvnors because their pre-shows can only last "so" long."

Actually I thought the music for One Man, Two Guvnors seemed to go on a little long and it was already past the hour. But then I noticed that the actual show started around 8 minutes after. So although there is only "so" much pre show music, they clearly start it to allow for a late start to the actual show. The end result was that I'd rather be listening to that pre-show than just sitting there waiting for a show to start.

[macnyc]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 10:02am

I remember a long line for Peter and the Starcatcher too (a couple of months ago, in previews).

[Marianne2]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 10:32am

This line happens at a lot of shows. At Chicago a couple of years ago it went down 49th around the corner to Broadway. I think the worst is on 45th street where you have the Booth, Schoenfeld, and Jacobs right after one another. The lines for the Booth and Schoenfeld were getting mixed up because they essentially were in opposite directions, but in the same area.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 11:23am

In the olden days when tickets were sold only at the box office, producers would make sure to only have ONE window open when they had a hit so that there would be a line out onto the sidewalk. Lines always make people think thy are going to miss out on something good. I bet you people walk by that huge line and say "That show MUST BE GOOD!"

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 11:34am

Tickets for the original production of "Sunset Boulevard" in London could only be purchased in person at the box office. This was back in the days when a Llyod Webber show wsa an big event so they created a great deal of publicity by showcasing the long, long line of people queued up to buy tickets they day they went on sale (months before the show actually started previews). Webber, to add to the publicity, sold the first batch of tickets himself.

Jerry Herman also tells a story about getting a phone call from David Merrick the morning after "Hello Dolly!" opened telling him to get to the St. James theatre. The line to buy tikets was around the block. Herman called it "once in a lifetime" and remembers that he and Merrick handed out coffee to patrons waiting in the cold.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 11:36am

Yep- Merrick usually had coffee and donuts for the folks waiting for his tickets.

Updated On: 7/9/12 at 11:36 AM

[NotAnotherSN]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 11:45am

The Nederlander also doesn't have much of a lobby. You kind of file in and then you find your seats. There not much space to stop and chat, and the line becomes long because it's more or less single file until you get into the theater itself.

[BwayEqs]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 12:28pm

I saw a Miley Cyrus concert once, and I waited in line for 2+ hrs.

[brettarnett]

Posted: 7/9/12 at 3:20pm

For some reason I thought shows started after 8pm because the 5 min call was at 8pm giving equity the allotted 30 mins before the show (7:30-8pm) for actors to get ready. Now as I type this out this logic seems illogical. I thought I read that on here but maybe I made it up. I'm wrong aren't I? Haha