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#26

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/28/21 at 9:30am

This is self-serving but if you want to know more about the financial structure of professional theater, I recommend our book Stage Money Second Edition. We wrote it because although we'd been lifelong theater goers, we didn't understand the financial structure of professional theater. The second edition was in publication when the pandemic started and so doesn't have anything to say about that or the future, but it gives a good, quick general background to the jobs, sources of money, risks of investment, unions, ticket prices, etc.

#27

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/28/21 at 11:27am

Thanks Tim, love the cover and will read on Kindle soon. It seems like a lot of people can benefit from reading it.

#28

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/28/21 at 12:20pm

To the OP:

Hamilton has a digital rush lottery for the first 2 center orchestra rows priced at $10 each.

Harry Potter and the Cursed child had dynamic pricing where at times they had $40 tickets in different parts of the theater.

If the family of 4 isn't picky with the show and seating, it is possible for them to go to TKTS on the day of performance and get tickets priced at $50 each or less.

Off-Broadway shows may be a better deal. Back in 2016 I watched the off-bway show Spamilton for 10 cents by winning their in-person rush lottery! I think that's the best deal I ever won!

Broadway ticket pricing has always fascinated me. For soldout shows, I've noticed that if the original ticket price is too low or 'affordable' it's more likely scalpers will snatch those tickets and resell at a higher rate.

#29

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/29/21 at 8:41am

I've also noticed budgets ballooning in recent years. It feels like the average capitalization goes up by another million every few years. That means higher prices to recoup costs.

#30

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/29/21 at 3:50pm

Rainah said: "I've also noticed budgets ballooning in recent years. It feels like the average capitalization goes up by another million every few years. That means higher prices to recoup costs."

Is there a way to lower capitalization or operating costs? I absolutely think that people should be paid fairly for their work but there are always so many complaints about how the creatives barely changed anything after tryouts and sometimes how you can't see the money spent in the costumes and sets (though, of course there's also the opposite complaint that all the money went into costumes and sets and not making a good show). Is there anything that could be changed in the ways shows are developed or is the only solution to just do revivals (which still manage to cost a lot)?

#31

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/29/21 at 4:38pm

Yeah producing a Broadway musical these days is insane and you really don’t get much bang for your buck.

I think that’s why I loved shows like Beetlejuice, Great Comet, even Rocky because I felt like I could see the money being spent and where it went.

I do wonder if all the movie studios dipping their toes in Broadway has anything to do with the budgets getting bigger because it’s not just individuals raising the money?

Like something like Dear Evan Hansen. I get why they wouldn’t change from off-Broadway to Bway because the reviews were so good but the staging just feels lackluster now because they could have opened it up so much more instead of the confines of Second Stages smaller off-Broadway house.

And honestly same for Hamilton.

To me Fun Home got it right. They changed it up and it felt like a big musical and brilliantly staged.

#32

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/29/21 at 6:38pm

As a theater professional for the past decade, the Ayn Randian attitudes in this thread are so shallow, short-sighted, and poorly considered that one struggles to know how to engage.

Updated On: 6/29/21 at 06:38 PM

#33

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/29/21 at 6:42pm

Scarywarhol said: "As a theater professional for the past decade, the Ayn Randian attitudes in this thread are so shallow, short-sighted, and poorly considered that one struggles to know how to engage."

Care to elaborate? I'm not snarking; I just see more than one points in what you are saying.

#34

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/30/21 at 1:14am

I see Some people mentioning discount codes and websites like theater mania etc. to get discounted Broadway tickets, but I haven’t seen any codes posted for the return of Broadway. It makes me nervous and worried that these might be done away with completely… Hopefully I’m wrong and they will come back

#35

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 6/30/21 at 1:35pm

Alessio2 said: "I see Some people mentioning discount codes and websites like theater mania etc. to get discounted Broadway tickets, but I haven’t seen any codes posted for the return of Broadway. It makes me nervous and worried that these might be done away with completely… Hopefully I’m wrong and they will come back"

Discounts are the way producers of most shows have to sell their tickets, unless they want to play to empty houses and lose even more money. (Hint: they don't.) So of course there will be discounts. Right now we are in the phase when shows are testing the market for full price tickets and also to project strength. As has always been the case with a product that depreciates to zero once the curtain goes up (see also hotels, planes, etc.) the discounts will arrive as night follows day. Worry not.

#36

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 7/4/21 at 1:11am

Sutton Ross said: "I guess those people should make better life choices and get better jobs if they want access to luxury items like Broadway theater tickets. The organizations that run thingsare very comfortable with their choices. That will never change."

This is frankly one of the most classist and tone-deaf things I've ever read regarding theatre or not.

#37

Theaters Inaccessibility

Posted: 7/6/21 at 4:51pm

Bettyboy72 said: "Like a kid today couldn’t just cut school or take their allowance or lawn cutting money and take a train into the city and see a show. Something happened that made Broadway prices inflate significantly greater than wages. "

When I was in college I took an elective on the economics of the arts, and the explanation given had to do with the relatively fixed productivity of workers in the arts relative to other industries. Advances in technology in most areas has dramatically increased employee productivity, which has allowed employees to make much more money. However, it still takes about the same number of people to put on a non-scaled-down Broadway show as it did in past decades. Broadway employees still expect (and require, given inflation) their salaries to rise with those of the general population, so the supply curve must inevitably reflect those rising salaries without comparably rising productivity. This causes ticket prices to rise faster than inflation. Something similar could be argued for the price of higher education.

I don't know if this explanation is still offered by economists, or indeed if it ever held water, but it made sense to me at the time!

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