THE 39 STEPS At The Cort - No Balcony

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 6:11am

Telecharge is only selling seats in the Orchestra and Mezzanine for THE 39 STEPS at the Cort.

On the ticket pricing page, it says,

"Note: The Balcony is not in use for this production."

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 10:45am

That's kinda weird. It sold well at AA. If they know they're not going to fill the mezz, EVER, I can understand. But why throw away those seats?

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 11:09am

One guess is that even the first row of the balcony at the Cort (I sat there for Little Dog and Barefoot) is still awfully high up above the stage. With an intimate show like 39 Steps you'd probably miss things. I sat near the back of the American Airlines when I saw it, and it was OK. It probably would've been much better if I was closer, and that theatre is pretty small to begin with.

But the more obvious answer is probably that it's an easier way to make more money by not selling the cheap seats at all. Bad business practice if you ask me.

[winston89]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 11:54am

I mean its hard to figure out how well the show really did at the American Airlines. This is only because it's a non profit theatre and has subscription membership. Subscription membership always makes it hard for people who are not members to get tickets. Sure, this production did well in a subscription base setting but I do wonder how well it will do in an open run setting.

As far as the no balcony at the cort. I think it may be because this is a small show as far as sets and cast are concerned. And, they might have thought that they would get complaints from unhappy theatre goers who sat there. They might not want to deal with people who were going to complain that they couldn't see the show at all because of where they were sitting. So, they decided to cut this out all together.

Another reason could be more simply that they realized that it would be stupid to sell tickets in the balcony of the court for this show because if it is hard to see from the American Airlines how would it be any easier to see it from there. Forget about the potential angry theatre goer who would complain.

And, If it is for money and that they just want to sell the more expensive tickets to get money. Then All I can say to that is this. That your blocking out a whole potential market by not selling the cheap seats. But, after checking the shows website they are offering 39 seats for 39 bucks for every performance. So, that could make up for the fact they aren't selling balcony.

But, I do find it hard to believe that with Roundabout being involved in the transfer that it wouldn't have some sort of student rush or something. Only because Roundabout does offer those.

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 12:07pm

I assume that they're not anticipating full houses, and it would just be easier/cheaper to close the balcony.

When I saw The Homecoming on Thursday, the amount of people in the mezz would fill less than 1 entire row..and they still opened the balcony. IS HE DEAD? closed the balcony at the Lyceum and moved the people down. Made sense.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 3/30/08 at 12:11pm

It's probably cheaper for them- they don't have to pay ushers to stand up there.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:04pm

Thanks for the analysis, Winston. I'm sure they've thought this through, interesting to see how the numbers work out.

Apparently they won't have discounted student seats at the Cort (at least not discounted like Hiptix, maybe half off orchestra seats) so maybe the $39 will be a decent deal. Or we should wait and see if it can fill the Cort before going. If not they might add some promotions.

Sat in the mezz for Homecoming last week and it was about half full, but I have a strong feeling most of it was papered. Excellent view, however. (hated the show, but that's for another thread)

[winston89]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:15pm

I would not be surprised to hear that they aren't offering Hiptix for the production at the court. They seem to only offer Hiptix to shows that roundabout is the sole producer on. I wouldn't be surprised either to find out that Roundabout is producing this along with some other people.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 1:19pm

FWIW, the Roundabout rep said that the transfer is "no longer a Roundabout production." Not sure how much of a hand, if any, they'll have in a commercial endeavor.

[winston89]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 2:34pm

I realized that they really can't have much of a hand because they are a non profit.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/31/08 at 2:36pm

They can definitely have a hand in the transfer - there are plenty of shows that are billed "in conjunction with...." They just aren't handling the ticket sales or pricing.