I love theater because it's all happening right there and right then.
1: It's a group experience. There is nothing as electric as when an entire audience is on with a piece, whether they're riveted with tension or rolling en masse with laughter. Riding that wave of horde emotion is something I would almost describe as primal - Tootsie did this brilliantly for me. That many people laughing at something that funny? I saw God.
2: It's a personal experience. You enter your own little world and, along with moving with the audience, my other favorite feeling when seeing a show live is when you're totally absorbed by the performance. When you completely enter that serene space between you and the piece, and all you're doing is focusing on it and reacting. This goes with almost any art form - I love being absorbed in music, in a book, a movie, even my own daydreams. But floating out of your seat and being enveloped in the world happening onstage is such extreme bliss. It's part of the reason Fun Home wrecked me so hard - it felt so personal that the sympathetic pain and catharsis became overwhelming. All I remember about Telephone Wire is being doubled over in my seat, crying into the program, because the connection was that intense.
3: It can't be replicated! Everything that happens onstage happens onstage then, and never again. This is why a piece where the actors have terrific chemistry is so exciting, and why a piece where everything seems to be happening in dull, mechanical lockstep is so disappointing. The production of The Wolves I saw in Seattle was small and feisty and amazingly intense because this group of girls was not just playing out these scenes, but clearly had a tremendous connection as a group, which allowed for so much active detail in the subtle interactions. On the other hand, I found Come From Away here in Toronto to be more admirable than anything else because the production was so tightly controlled that it was stripped of spontaneity. I felt like I was seeing the exact same thing that the people the night before saw, and the people the next night saw, right down to the glances between actors, which took away some of the potential magic.
4: Everything that happens is happening in a very limited format. This is part of why theatrical design is my hobby, and a big part of why I love seeing shows. When you design/direct a show, you just have this cube and you have a certain amount of time to fill it in various ways to create the desired effect. What do you put into the cube? How can you layer it, how can you pace it and move things around in it to create a unified artistic whole? Robert Wilson is one of my favorite directors because he has an incredible sense of what that space means and can be, from ritual, to vaudeville, to pop art, to meditation and alarm. Every piece has the same functional format, so what are all the ways that that format and its subtleties and quirks be taken advantage of? Consider all the ways that Boris Aronson used the space - the slightly angled jungle gym unit set of Company that filled the proscenium with images and movement, the fluctuating abyss of Follies that was eventually overtaken by the intense, romantic frills of Loveland, the abstract, almost violently synthetic pop-art of Do Re Mi.
Regarding ticket prices, top tickets for A Chorus Line in 1975 were $15, which is about $70 today. I wonder where that money is going now that it wasn't going before, or where the money was going then and it isn't going today?
Regarding bootlegs: as someone who grew up in a total nowheresville, bootlegs were a lifeline and a major reason that I'm making plans to visit Broadway this year, now that I'm finally able to! It's not entitlement to want to see some of the most fantastic pieces of theatrical art - you could almost argue that it's elitist to suggest that these pieces should be as restricted as they are. Yes, there is incredible magic and power in being there and then, but the kind of people who enjoy bootlegs are almost certainly not the kind of people who choose not to attend productions, even though they can. It's immoral to bootleg, so please don't do it, but thank heaven people do.
would be nice if they had more standing tickets like they do in England. Simulcasts are nice but do take away from the live aspect. 
