Todaytix rush has only 4 tickets, FOUR!- Page 2
Todaytix rush has only 4 tickets, FOUR!
#25Todaytix rush has only 4 tickets, FOUR!
Posted: 2/12/18 at 12:24am
The Public is a very strange animal when it comes to the availability of cheap tickets. On one hand, they provide opportunities like their free first previews, TodayTix mobile rushes/lotteries, and student tickets which can be purchased in advance at the box office. And yet, in practice they come up short with accessibility compared to their fellow Off-Broadway non-profits because they place more restrictions.
The free first-previews are great, but with most of them happening on Sunday nights or weeknights - and the fact that it only happens once in a run - they are often difficult to catch even on a student schedule.
The TodayTix rushes and lotteries are also nice, but they are often so difficult to win that, from a practical standpoint, they might as well not exist. For the lucky few who win, it's great, but there is very little agency for the people seeking cheap tickets. From what I've heard and experiences, it's not uncommon to enter lotteries every day for an entire run and never win.
Many companies (like MCC, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout, MTC, LCT, Encores, TFANA, and Irish Rep, to name just some) offer youth and student discounts that can be purchased ahead of time ONLINE. This makes a huge difference for 2 reasons: (1) because it is not always feasible for students to find the time during box office hours to physically buy tickets downtown and (2) For very popular shows at the Public, it becomes literally impossible to buy student tickets because an entire run might sell out online in just a couple hours, before the box office even opens that day (usually at 2pm). And with no seats being held aside, they simply do not offer student tickets to those shows (I know because it's happened to me before). They have the policy, but they don't protect it in the way many other companies do.
For many companies (CSC and St. Ann's, for example) - even if they don't hold aside discounted tickets to popular shows, they will allow people to purchase cancellation tickets to a for rush price. This also makes a huge practical difference, for obvious reasons.
I realize that these policies are not nothing. I myself have seen things at the Public because of them. And I know that we are not entitled to cheap tickets. But if you look at the Public's policies and compare them with that of their colleagues/competitors in the world of non-profit theatre, there is a clear difference in how practically accessible cheap tickets are on the average day of a show's run.
Some of the things I mentioned (making youth tix available online, allotting tickets for the discount policies, and allowing cancellation tickets to be purchased at rush price) are common practice for companies of their caliber. Even doing ONE of those 3 things would make a big difference in how accessible their tickets would be to students/youth on a budget. Again, it's not that we are entitled to these policies, but when other companies (most of whom are not only smaller and less well-funded, but do not spout the same rhetoric of accessibility as the Public) have more practical accessibility to cheap tickets, it's hard to ignore.
#26Todaytix rush has only 4 tickets, FOUR!
Posted: 2/12/18 at 8:33am
I entered the 1984 and Fun Home lottery for the entirety of their runs and never won. Same with with Sweeney for about a year and finally bit the bullet and just bought tickets. I met someone who works for the app that told me that they can basically select who the winners are. She asked for my email and said to just let her know when I wanted to go. Never took her up on the offer but I always found it to be super shady.
In other news, the Aladdin lottery only gives out 4 tickets. I finally won a few weeks ago (after entering for 3-4 years) and asked the box office person how many tickets they gave out.
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