Why Stand in Line if You Have a Ticket?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:36pm

This is my newest theatre pet peeve. Glad Playbill addressed it in this article.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/139691-ASK-PLAYBILL-Broadway-Ticketholders-Waiting-in-Line-

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:41pm

I know some people that do it so they can use the restroom BEFORE the show.

Me? I like to come in at about 10 minutes beforehand.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:42pm

Another explanation, via house staff, was that these theaters don't have the lobby and aisle space for people to mill around in, like most regional houses.

It's not too big a deal, though I do hate when people start pushing in front of each other. The seats are assigned, you'll get there in time....why bother?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:43pm

I like to cut in "line" and have a tourist yell at me. It's my new favorite theatre tradition.

[singtopher]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:44pm

People ask me all the time at TKTS how early they have to get there. I always reply, "As long as you're there before the show starts, you'll be fine. You have your own seat."

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 8:47pm

Doesn't address the theaters that actually make people wait in line.

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:09am

I'm not seeing the issue. If you have 1,500 people all wanting to get into the same place, you don't want them all rushing the doors 5 minutes before the show in a big mob, you want them entering in an orderly fashion so their tickets can be read and they can all be seated before the show begins. How else would people enter if not in a line?

[Marianne2]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:21am

^ I agree. I get there when I get there before curtain. But, I do perfer to not have to climb over people to get to my seat.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:33am

I'm with Cape.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:50am

I don't see this as a big offense at all. There are many reasons to get to the theatre early. Personally, I like to get there when they open doors so I can use the bathroom, browse the merchandise leisurely if I want (not like the crazy rush at intermission), and peruse the Playbill prior to the show. I'm sure there are many who show up at half hour for similar reasons in addition to the ones addressed in that article. No big deal.

~Steven

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 3:05am

Those Phantom lines (and a few others) start way before 30 minutes to curtain.

[mallardo]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 4:04am

God, I hate the lines. It makes me feel like I'm back in Junior High. They don't do it anywhere else - certainly not in London - and they never used to do it in New York. I don't recall ever being in a chaotic mad scramble in the pre-line era. I know a lot of Broadway houses have small lobbies but that's no excuse.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 4:21am

Since most theaters open the house at the 1/2 hour, those lines start forming much earlier. You are getting there early TO stand in line -- like you have to.

What REALLY drives me nuts? That the theaters are too cheap to hire more than one or two ticket takers.

[angelplays]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 8:05am

I look at where my seat is to determine how early I get there. If I know I am in the middle of a row, I will often line up to go ahead and be in my seat so I'm not bothering everyone else who's already sitting down when I come running in 5 minutes before curtain. I used to have a friend who was notorious for not keeping up with time and would come ambling in just before curtain when our seats would invariably be in the middle of the row or over against the wall. Primary reason my response was "I'll meet you there" when we'd be figuring times out.

Obviously last minute sales are going to be a horse of a different color, but when you've picked up your tickets early and know where they are (in the case of tdf) or ordered your tickets ahead of time and know where they are, imo it's just rude to be in the center of the row or in a wall seat and wait until just before the show to come in, thereby making everyone who got there not at the last minute move and shift and stand to let you in.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 8:12am

The article doesn't address the issue that the lines form because many theaters are too cheap to open more than one door and employ only one or two ticket takers. As a result, when you have a lot of people arriving around the same time, there's going to be a line that forms. Those of you complaining about it, what exactly do you do? Push your way through and rudely move to the front because you don't like standing on a line?

I never get to the theater before half-hour, and almost always, when I arrive, there's an orderly line of people moving in to the theater. I fail to see the problem.

[binau]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 8:18am

I love that as an example they use the lines for the NIGHT MUSIC signing - no idea why there are any people standing in line there!!

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 9:05am

[CapnHook]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 9:35am

The article is utter nonsense. This is now an ISSUE, this is WHAT HAPPENS. And it's for a reason. As mentioned above, it's a GOOD THING that people arrive 60-30 minutes prior to curtain. It takes that long for all these elderly, slow-walking, disabled, blind patrons to find their seats. And that's not a knock at them, I'm not saying that it is their fault that they are not fully physically functional, it's just truth. You get old and you get brittle.

Plus, there are many benefits to getting there early:

- Mingle with others in line.
- Don't have to feel rushed to get to the theater.
- Insurance in case there is traffic or transportation issues.
- Time to use the restroom.
- Time for a pre-show cocktail in the lobby.
- Time to browse merchandise.
- Time to read over the Playbill.
- Time to complain to the House Manager that you were told that your seat is not partial view, when in fact it is.
- Time to glance over the audience to spot celebrities.

Mostly, this is not an issue because I WOULD RATHER HAVE PEOPLE SHOW UP EARLY THAN TO ARRIVE LATE!!!

And yes, a lot of theaters DO need to hire 1-2 more ticket-takers. But I have a solution to this. Why not have a Self-Checkin? Like at the grocery store, but instead of checking out, checking in. Take your ticket, scan the barcode, and go inside. If you don't have a barcode, it won't scan, or the ticket gives an error message, then go into the line where an usher will check you in.

[mallardo]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 9:46am

The picture provided by Mama'sDoinFine says it all. There's no reason to have to line up like school kids - or sheep. There's usually just two ticket takers at London theatres and everyone gets in just fine. It's nothing to do with early or late it's the indignity of the line itself.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 9:52am

The problem with a self scanner is that people do not know where their seats are. Or do you just mean for them to scan them, and then an usher can tell you where to go?

I actually like the set up at the Gershwin theater. I got there super early once for some reason, and I thought I was going to have to wait out in the undercover between there and Circle in the Square. However, I went inside and the usher scanned my ticket and let me right up the stairs. Yes, the theater was not physically open for seating yet, but there things to look at while waiting in the lobby area.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 11:01am

Lining up before the house opens is a post-Phantom thing. For some reason people started lining up literally for the first preview at Phantom, and it has never stopped. Lining up pre-house opening has now spread to other theatres. I don't get it.

If there's a line a quarter til, okay, but the house is open, and the line is moving. Get there early to hit the bathroom and that's about it.

As for reading the Playbill before, I am at the point where if the play can't tell me everything I need to know as I need to know it, then the playwright has not done their job.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 11:19am

As for reading the Playbill before, I am at the point where if the play can't tell me everything I need to know as I need to know it, then the playwright has not done their job.

Most people reading the Playbill are doing so to find out about the cast- reading the bios, etc. Very, very few shows print any kind of synopsis in the Playbill anymore.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 11:54am

I'll usually get to the theatre anywhere from 15-45 minutes before a show, depending on what I'm doing beforehand. If I'm done with my dinner, drink, coffee, whatever I don't need to sit there taking up table/bar space in a crowded establishment. If I'm there early in a line, so be it. I'm not sure what the problem is in doing so. Talk to your companion, people around you, hell, even the stage hands hanging around having a smoke outside the stage door. They are usually the ones with the best theatre stories to tell anyway.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 12:38pm

I was seeing In the Heights a few summers ago and some tourist woman with unresolved line leader issues from childhood went off on me over this. I was coming from 7th, the line was forming towards 8th. I was by myself, there was a large gap at the front, so I walked towards the doors. This one woman (who was causing the gap by not moving forward) started ranting that they had waited an hour in line and basically thought she and family deserved special treatment and consideration for wasting an hour of their lives for assigned seating. She tried to get a theatre employee involved, but he rolled his eyes and told us to move along. The daughter was clearly embarassed and told her to drop it. The expression "mountain out of a molehill" comes to mind.

When people are lined up outside a theatre an hour before the doors even open, it basically says they can't find anything better to do in Midtown Manhattan than stand around staring at the back of the person's head in front of them. What was the point of shutting down Times Square traffic if everyone is just going to unnecessarily clog up the side streets sidewalks for hours on end anyway?

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 12:40pm

This is such a non-issue. I don't understand what the people complaining are complaining about. I don't know, just avoid the line? Better early than late I say. The time I went to Fences, I only got there with less than ten minutes to spare and the line was still going down the block. A line at that time is much more frustrating and inconvenient than a line at or before half hour. And if people got their butts in seats earlier rather than later, maybe the shows would actually start on time.

~Steven