Is this really a big deal? Aside from the premium pricing, the ticket scale looks a lot like that for other shows. Premium pricing typically doesn't even affect general ticket availability. Even without it, the best seats to popular shows are swooped up by scalpers who then mark them up. The only real difference is that with premium pricing, more of the money goes to the producers rather than the scalpers. I think it's a false assumption to think that without premium pricing, all of these tickets would be readily available at lower prices.
There are a surprising number of people -- wealthy tourists and businessmen included -- who are willing to pay $500 or more for tickets to the hottest Broadway show. They've been doing it for years, well before premium pricing was ever introduced. Clearly premium pricing has a market. Just about every Broadway show now does it.
Of course it remains to be seen whether YF will be a hit. But it's a win-win for Mel & Co - they can pull in more money earlier in the run, and even if the show is not a huge success and they can't sell tix at $451, they can then lower the premium price or sell them at $121. It won't really have an effect on their overall ability to sell tickets.
"This is wanting something, this is reaching for it,
This is wishing that a moment would arrive.
This is taking chances, this is almost touching, what the beauty is." --The Light in the Piazza