West Side Story revival? — Page 19

ColorTheHours048 said: "While West Side Story is absolutely a well-known property and will most likely sell better than people are expecting (at least until it opens), you have to understand that unless a show is obviously a blockbuster (like Moulin Rouge), the producers are definitely holding seats for later release."



What if you want one of these tickets that was held back? I bought a ticket through Telecharge a couple days ago for 13th December for almost $400, which was the only seat left for the dates I’m in New York. Today I went on there again and there are at least 7-8 new seats for other dates for roughly half the price. Both my ticket and these new tickets are for premium seating. Telecharge has a no refund policy. Can I do anything about it?

fromagehomage said: "ColorTheHours048 said: "While West Side Story is absolutely a well-known property and will most likely sell better than people are expecting (at least until it opens), you have to understand that unless a show is obviously a blockbuster (like Moulin Rouge), the producers are definitely holding seats for later release."



What if you want one of these tickets that was held back? I bought a ticket through Telecharge a couple days agofor 13th December for almost $400, whichwas the only seat left for the dates I’m in New York. Today I went on there again and there are at least 7-8 new seats for other dates for roughly half the price. Both my ticket and these new tickets are for premium seating. Telecharge has a no refund policy. Can I do anything about it?"

Call telecharge and politely ask to exchange. You will probably get it, and recieve a refund for the difference in price.

We found it shockingly difficult to get 3 tickets for WSS during the crunch week between Xmas and New Years. Telecharge was a dead end. Stubhub had a few more reasonable prices (even with the 30% markup fees) for generally lousy seats for that period. We kept checking till we could find just a few okay seats at okay prices for the Sunday 12-29 7pm show. I still don't understand why this show is exponentially tougher to book seats for than either Hadestown or To Kill a Mockingbird have been in the past. Mysterious.

Someone in a Tree2 said: "We found it shockingly difficult to get 3 tickets for WSS during the crunch week between Xmas and New Years. Telecharge was a dead end. Stubhub had a few more reasonable prices (even with the 30% markup fees) for generally lousy seats for that period. We kept checking till we could find just a few okay seats at okay prices for the Sunday 12-29 7pm show. I still don't understand why this show is exponentially tougher to book seats for than either Hadestown or ToKill a Mockingbird have been in the past. Mysterious."

I think most things now hold back tickets to help combat touts. Try closer to the actual date. If you stay on it you can get great tickets a few days before or even on the day.

"I think most things now hold back tickets to help combat touts. Try closer to the actual date. If you stay on it you can get great tickets a few days before or even on the day."

I'm flummoxed. There are gobs of tickets available on the reseller sites, just at astronomical prices. So we're supposed to plan our shows for one of the busiest weeks in the year by not buying any seats a month and a half out, but rather just taking our chances and seeing what pops up over Christmas? Sounds wacky and will leave us with even fewer sure seats.

Again I'll ask, why is West Side apportioning so few seats to the public during December, utterly unlike all other hot tickets in town right now?

Hundreds of tickets are on resale websites, it's simply a matter of people paying 300% mark up, which they will not. This is not Hamilton.

theaterdude2 said: "FromageHomage said:What if you want one of these tickets that was held back? I bought a ticket through Telecharge a couple days agofor 13th December for almost $400, whichwas the only seat left for the dates I’m in New York. Today I went on there again and there are at least 7-8 new seats for other dates for roughly half the price. Both my ticket and these new tickets are for premium seating. Telecharge has a no refund policy. Can I do anything about it?

Yes. Call telecharge and explain. The same thing just happened to me at The Inheritance and they exchanged my seats for the newly lower priced ticket. I was pleasantly surprised at how helpful they were.

I also had trouble finding a single ticket for the first week of Jan in the front orchestra. There was only ONE ticket at $375. But what I discovered last week while seeing a bunch of shows were that many seats got released 48 hours before the performance date. It's a little scary and unnerving to wait, but I don't think I have a choice at those prices. I'm not sure why, but they are definitely holding tickets back."

There's also a range between 200 - 400 tickets for dates starting in Jan on StubHub right now.

GeorgeandDot said: "^I'm not sure that's a screen. Looks more like they built a facade onstage."

It’s a video wall. I posted about it several weeks ago.

Long preview period are about one thing: raising money. A production legally can raise money until opening night. Most shows raise a substantial amount of their capitalization during previews. If a show makes artistic changes that better the production in that window too, that's great, but its not usually the reason a show like WEST SIDE STORY will have 6 weeks or more of previews.

JSquared - Scott Rudin was the lead producer on CAROUSEL and they had a hell of a difficult time raising money.

No smart producer ever puts their own money into shows.