What are premium seats?

Anyone correct me if im wrong...but premium seats are "the best seats" in the house for that particular show. Its the block of tickets that the box office (or any ticket agency) sets aside to sell for a higher price. But, if your in the cancellation line right before the performance, then you can get a premium seat for the normal cost of $100.

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The Broadway Inner Circle began around the time The Producers opened (and is run by some of the producers of the Producers). In an effort to undercut the whole scalping/illegal broker market (which has sold tickets to sold out Broadway hits for years at hundreds of dollars a pop), the Inner Circle began offering "premium seats" to the biggest hits (a few dozen prime center orchestra seats) for $200 - 350 a piece. While it sounds a bit outrageous on the surface, the fact is those same seats used to be snapped up by scalpers and sold for that much and more, going back at least to the time of Phantom (and even before). At least this way, that ridiculous amount of money is going to the people that actually invested in the show and work to keep it open and running. Heck, if courtside seats for the Knicks go for $1200+ a piece and skyboxes to see the Giants and Jets cost several thousand dollars a game, if there are people out there willing to pay that much to get exactly the seat that they want for "Hairspray" or "Avenue Q", then I figure, more power to them.

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I think the "premium" seats come out of each show's stash of house seats, given their location. I know for some shows they were offering additional perks like a special lounge with restroom facilities available only to premium seat holders (obviously most theatres can't pull that off) along with free drinks, programs etc..

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I think it's pretty funny that they're house seats since I consider house seats some of the worst in Broadway theatres. I often give them as gifts & when I get dragged along to the shows usually end up begging a better seat at intermission.

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Well, generally rows 5-12 in center orchestra, although any show directed by someone like Hal Prince who knows how to use the whole proscenium is best seen from the front mezz. House seats tend to be places like the 4th row on the left or right side of the center aisle w/ only a few in the center of the reserved -- thanks, but no thanks. At Nine I mostly saw people's backs, at Hairspray I mostly saw their ankles, & at Les Miserables I mostly saw their makeup melt & their facial hair glue come undone. That doesn't count as the more desirable seats to me. The box seats are virtually always awful & are never house seats on Broadway for that reason. People who pay a premium for them have been snookered into paying full price for what are generally obstructed view seats. The honest shows sell box seats at a discount.

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maybe your claim is stronger than mine!

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They're considered special, I guess, because every time you see a film adaptation of some so-called "period" piece, they're sitting in a box at the theatre or the opera looking very wealthy & chic. I often have people tell me "It must be really cool to sit there" or who ask "How do you get THOSE seats?" I have to explain that they're almost always horribly obstructed & SHOULD be the cheapest seats in the house. Once people take a closer look they usually realize why the boxes aren't very desirable to actually see the show & not just the other people in the theatre.

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It's nice to know that obsession with sitting in a box because people think they're the best is a universal one. It drives me insane and one day soon I am going to snap and start yelling "why do you think they're so good? Why?" at some hapless punter.

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