Something Rotten Ushers and House Manager

Thank you for posting this. It's always nice to hear such a positive story like this instead of something negative. Glad you enjoyed the show!

What a great story, glad you enjoyed the show. I just wanted to add my experience with the St James ushers too. I saw the show on Sunday night and the view from my seat was obstructed by the bar at the front of the mezz. It was driving me nuts, so I asked the usher if there was anywhere I could move to (I was happy to move further back if it meant I didn't have to keep moving my head round the bar to see) and she offered me a centre aisle seat further back and a booster cushion. LOL! I felt like a little kid as my feet were dangling now, but I had a perfect view. Great show and GREAT ushers.

I had the same experience. My friend and I were standing in line to buy tickets when the house manager came up to us, outside, asked if we were looking for tickets for that afternoon's performance and handed us two house seat tickets for free. Nicest staff ever.

Happened to me at Pippin. The usher scanning tickets noticed my box seat and said "Go in and see Jim." (I don't remember his name, but Jim works), and so I got to my seat and said "I was told to see you." And he moved me to a great Center Mezz seat. The other people in my box weren't so lucky as they didn't move? So I guess it pays to be nice? I dunno haa.

How nice. All these stories. When I see SR in September, I'll be sure to make a mention to our usher how their reputation as having some of the nicest staff is true. (Assuming it is)

Updated On: 5/4/15 at 11:53 AM

I do agree that there are some theatre companies that have great ushers, and others not so much. Truth be told, it makes for a better theatre experience, at least in my opinion when the theatre staff is easy to deal with.

For example, I was at a performance of Hair where there was a group of friends moving round, some, like me won the lotto and were in the boxes others weren't. It was clearly driving the usher there up a wall and was bothering me. When I mentioned that to him, he said that I should go tell the house manager of what's going on. So, I did. The house manager told me to wait a moment in the lobby while he went upstairs to check on the situation himself. Once he saw what was going on he said that he was going to allow me to move. He had me follow him to my new seat. Turned out being front row center. Can't complain at all.

The only negative one I have isn't with house staff per se but more the box office. I was at the Lunt box office to buy a standing room ticket sometime between Beauty and the Beast announcing its closure and it actually closing. The woman behind the window took one look at me and refused to sell me one. Not because those were sold out (they weren't.) But, she refused to sell it to me because she was convinced that the wall was going to be too tall for me to see. Now, I am five foot seven, not super tall but not insanely short either. I had told her that even if it was, it's my money and if I wanted to spend it on that risk, why is she to stop me. Her co worker turned to her and told her to sell it to me. She eventually did, but she wasn't happy about it.

I had seen American Idiot far more than I would care to admit, but after it closed, the next time I returned to the St. James (for On A Clear Day), the house manager actually remembered me and welcomed me back.

Also, back when How To Succeed was still playing, I had bought tickets from Givenik (which is ran by Jujamcyn). I was excited and tweeted to them that it was for my birthday (it was still with Daniel so decent tickets were kinda hard to come by). When my family & I got to the theatre and our seats, a theatre representative came to our seats to wish me a happy birthday and gave us drink/food vouchers. It was really sweet.

All of these experiences with the Jujamcyn theatres have made them above the others. Glad to hear others' stories.

I find that the Jujamcyn Theatre group is the best. I've had many issues with other theatre groups but Jujamcyn was the best at fixing my problem with them. I had recently won the online lottery for Something Rotten and because my train arrived into Penn to late I ended up losing my tickets! The next day I emailed Jujamcyn and got a quick response apologizing and offering to set up a pair of rush tickets for me for a performance of my choice. They really are a great place.

Wow, I had no idea theatre companies browsed BWW. Cool.

The house staff at the St. James has always been one of my favorites. Same for the Music Box. A friend and I were there last week and sitting across the theatre from each other. The ticket taker in the mezzanine saw that and said "Go ask the usher upstairs if you can sit together." We did, and they moved us to better seats.

Another voice into the positive echo chamber: I've almost always had excellent dealings with the house staff at Jujamcyn Theatres. The ones that weren't excellent were at least good!