Touring production prices

Who determines whether discounted tickets or lotteries occur on touring productions? Just wondering why my local broadway affiliate (broadway in detroit) isn't offering any kinds of discounts other than student rush for performances that still have 2/3-1/2 tickets that have gone unsold the week of the show. My real question is why there wouldn't be more of a motivation to get bodies in seats since the show is going on anyway.

Updated On: 10/18/18 at 07:55 AM

Ha! Just going to NYC is not in the cards for me. I was kind of interested in the politics and policies behind the ticket pricing, is it the production or the house that decides? It just seems really short sighted and probably a downer for the actors to perform to a half empty house, so I don't get it.

itsjustmejonhotmailcom said: "@Babe_Williams That decision is made jointly between the venue, the tour management company and the producer. The pricing for each stop on the tour is negotiated pretty far in advance, and any discounts that aren't agreed to then need to be agreed to by all parties later. Venues often don't like to discount because unlike Broadway, they need their audiences to come back to see other shows and don't want to train them to look for discounts."

Unless the lottery is part of the show's marketing campaign (i.e., Rent, Hamilton, Wicked, Harry Potter), most shows will not have any discounts on the road similar to what is seen on Broadway, for the reasons stated above.

itsjustmejonhotmailcom said: "@Babe_Williams That decision is made jointly between the venue, the tour management company and the producer. The pricing for each stop on the tour is negotiated pretty far in advance, and any discounts that aren't agreed to then need to be agreed to by all parties later. Venues often don't like to discount because unlike Broadway, they need their audiences to come back to see other shows and don't want to train them to look for discounts."

That makes sense and thanks for answering! I see someone mentioned that Wicked did lotteries, and I noticed that Wicked did a lot promotions to get bodies in seats. School of Rock and Chicago, student rush only--Wicked? Nearly sold out. SoR and Chicago, dismal, dismal sales. I get that they don't want to train people to look for discounts and it must be a difficult line to walk, but who wants to play to such an empty crowd?

Nashville has started doing a lot of general $25-30 rush tickets recently for pretty much everything ranging from an almost sold out Sound of Music (random singles) to being able to seat any size group with reasonable seats for a poorly sold School of Rock. Beyond that you can almost always get some sort of university or corporate part discount (usually 15% off). I wonder since they are an independent theater (ie not Broadway Across America), if that gives them a little more flexibility in terms of offering discounts.

I think Hamilton, Wicked, Rent, and Book of Mormom are the only tours that require a lottery as part of the tour as of now.

As was mentiomed above, Broadway Across Canada seems to do digital rushes for all their shows. I am in Vancouver & saw Beautiful yesterday with a rush ticket. But you have to be on their mailing list to even know about it, as they do it over a week before performamces even begin. Tickets are $50CAN (about $37US), and seat selection is all over the place, I got a good one down in the back orchestra just off center, but some of the available seats were up in high side boxes.
They can probably do rush here since they are usually close to a sell out.

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Fosse76 said: "itsjustmejonhotmailcom said: "@Babe_Williams That decision is made jointly between the venue, the tour management company and the producer. The pricing for each stop on the tour is negotiated pretty far in advance, and any discounts that aren't agreed to then need to be agreed to by all parties later. Venues often don't like to discount because unlike Broadway, they need their audiences to come back to see other shows and don't want to train them to look for discounts."

Unless the lottery is part of the show's marketing campaign (i.e., Rent, Hamilton, Wicked, Harry Potter), most shows will not have any discounts on the road similar to what is seen on Broadway, for the reasons stated above."

My venue in Jacksonville always does an online lottery the weekend before the show opens for poorly sold shows, which is most of the time. I always win and I'm not lucky. I have come to the conclusion that anyone who enters win. We also get to pick our seats. You can only win once during the run. Most recently, (Friday night) I won the lottery for The King and I for $30. I picked the front row center of the loge. I was not impressed with the production, but that is another story.

Updated On: 11/18/18 at 12:24 PM

To quote Hogan, "There are no rules" and it varies by city, presenter, and show. In SF, the local presenter, SHN, typically offers a rush and works with the TodayTix app, and often Goldstar. Different shows have different demand and availability.
(Part of this may be due to the relatively long runs in SF, and resultant large numbers of seats to fill. Subscription shows here run for at least four weeks. 2300 seats x 8 shows x 4 weeks = 73,600 tickets)