Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
So, time for a quiz.
Your show is closing on Friday, you are only selling 50% of you tickets per week, you have a student with 30 bucks who wants to buy a rush ticket and its 2 minutes to curtain? why do you not sell him the ticket?
This happened to me today.
(any reasonable answers are appreciated)
Updated On: 12/26/11 at 03:21 PM
When I rushed the matinee on friday, I got there half an hour before the show started and the guy in the box office made it seem like it was ridiculous I was even inquiring about them. Then he pulls up two tickets front row center. And the house wasn't even half full.
Updated On: 12/26/11 at 03:31 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
And you wonder why the shows closing, bad management and producer decisions....
A lot of productions have had policies like this. It doesn't make much sense to me, especially so close to curtain. Once a seat goes dead, that potential revenue is lost forever.
A lot of productions have had policies like this. It doesn't make much sense to me, especially so close to curtain. Once a seat goes dead, that potential revenue is lost forever.
Because he is not "obliged" to sell you the ticket at that price.
And his paycheck does not depend on your 30 bucks.
But I agree it is pretty stupid.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
I could not have been the only person, If i was a producer I would want those hypothetical 20 sales at 30 a piece as opposed to 0 sales at 0 dollars a piece, especially when you know your closing, take the money and run!
He gets paid whether you get that ticket or not. But I'm sure you're not the first person to put in this request, and the last thing they need is a bunch of people showing up trying to buy $140 seats on a pay-what-you-can basis. It's not art, it's business.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
If they started selling tickets for $30 just before curtain, then people would start showing up just before curtain to buy them. Your hypothetical garners only $600. What the hell are producers going to do with $600? It isn't worth the hassle of last minute logistics.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
but when you have so many empty seats so close to curtain that excuse does not work.
My point is more the fact they are closing so why does it matter at this point?
Updated On: 12/26/11 at 03:47 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
It isn't an "excuse". It's the way the business works. Your plan isn't practical, and just because you want something doesn't mean you should simply have it for less simply because they have empty seats. In any case, the box office employee has no control over policy.
Updated On: 12/26/11 at 03:52 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
the excuse comment was aimed at taboo ghostlight.....
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
Taboo and ghostlight are correct. I'm not saying your feelings aren't valid but the fact that the show is closing and there are empty seats does not entitle you to a $30 ticket minutes before curtain.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
then when you do a rush state a cut off time, as in what they are doing with Hugh Jackmans show
Maybe they have a set number of tickets or specific seats set aside for rush but there's no time limit, it's just when they sell out they sell out, hence the "subject to availability" part of rush policies. No one is obligated to sell you a $30 ticket, no matter how poorly the show is doing.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/28/09
I'm a student, too, and I have benefitted many times from student rush policies. There have certainly been times where I have been frustrated and confused by the policies. A good recent example is Hugh Jackman's show, where the student policy Hugh supposedly insisted on has been somewhat inconsistently sold, if posters on here are to be believed.
However, in the case of the OP's situation with Bonnie and Clyde, that doesn't seem to be the case. I think that producers of this show and the others who offer such policies are (rather generously) setting aside a limited amount of seats to be sold for a cheap price. $30 to see Bonnie and Clyde, where top tickets are going for well over $100 is a generous offer. But that doesn't mean that if a seat is unsold by curtain, a student is entitled to it for the price of $30. The policies obviously vary from show to show (and, often, performance to performance), but with few exceptions, only a limited amount of rush seats are set aside. In the case of a show like Seminar, I believe you would be able to walk up to the box office 2 minutes before curtain and get a ticket for student rush prices if it's not sold. Bonnie and Clyde is closing a flop, and the person behind you could be wanting to purchase a seat at full price. In the end, the $30 for rush is, as posters on this thread have said, not going to ultimately affect gross that much. They offer the policies generously not because they feel that it will majorly affect their revenue, but to give students and others opportunities to see the show for free. But, most of the time, this is only if that student or other person is able to make it to the box office early enough to get a ticket.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
Just a added piece of info for the topic, turns out my friend rushed it this morning and texted me this:
"me & a group of my friends are here now.. 2nd row center... they gave out like 30 tix or so this morning. They were cool & gave everyone on line the entire first few rows."
so your telling me your going to sell you prime seats for 30 dollar rush but if there are empty seats in the mezz 2 minutes to curtain it doesn't matter....
Updated On: 12/26/11 at 04:21 PM
You still don't get it. What you'd like them to do prevents them from having those who pay full price do so.
If someone puts up on social media that you can get $30 tickets, 5 minutes before the show, and there are guaranteed seats, then no one will pay full price tickets. Their loss will be greater. Not selling you that ticket 5 min. before is in hopes that there will be patrons who will pay full price from now until it closes.
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/11
again when you have 200 (hypothetical) empty seats 2 minutes to curtain your not going to magically sell all 200 of those seats in 2 minutes.
No, it's not that they will sell them or not. It's that if those who are willing to pay full price knew that you can get tickets for a third of the price (or less) just by showing up, then no one in their right mind will buy full price tickets.
This not only happens to Bonnie & Clyde, most long running shows have guaranteed empty seats every night. They won't give them away for cheap and at the last minute, because that will mean a bigger loss.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
Re-read bway7000's post. Producers are under no obligation at all to provide cheap seats - and you want them to provide more? Your friends got there early, and so they got tickets. What you don't understand is that, practically speaking, they have to limit the amount of cheap seats. There has to be a cut-off point.
Also, for most theater-goers, front row tickets are not at all prime seats - they're far too close to the stage, and you miss the big picture. In fact, most rush tickets are front row, or side seats.
You started this conversation saying you'd accept any reasonable response, and you've gotten them - but it's clear you don't want to hear it.
Bottom line, to the producers it is more profitable to have a quarter of the house paying full price, than a full house paying $30 per seat.
I wish I could get $30 tickets to all Broadway shows right before curtain.
Yes it's nice that producers have rush set in place. But, as others have stated, there is a need for a limit of some kind. Most shows that offer rush of any kind generally have a set number of tickets put aside for each performance. And when they are sold, then thats it and they are done.
Most (if not all) Broadway theatres have a policy that they will stop selling tickets a half hour prior to showtime. Now, I have been in situations where the person at the box office doesn't always adhear to that rule, but that's neither here nor there.
The point is, if the people want to sell a ticket after half hour, then it's up to them. But that doesn't mean that they should do it at whatever price you want. If there are a particular number of rush tickets set aside for each show and they aren't sold by two minuets prior to the show, then that's one
thing to ask for them. But if they are nice enough to sell you a ticket that late in the game doesn't mean that you can dictate the price. They don't have to sell it to you that late in the game. And as others have said, if everyone could get a rush price ticket ten seconds prior to the start of the show, then
who would buy it?
And I am sure that the producers is a show wouldn't want to make cheap seats so easily available and they would rather loose money rather then make cheap seats available left and right.
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