why don't more shows inform people how many rush seats they have

Yes, that would be nice. The answer is -- some people just aren't nice.

When would they do this? Don't most rush seats go on sale when box offices open? So you want them to delay a 10am box office opening in order to at 10am first count how many people are on line, count how many rush seats they have that day, announce to the rush line how many seats they have, and then they can open the box office and start selling tickets?

Besides, why would you (you = the theatre) 'turn away' people before they even get to the window by telling them there are no rush tickets for them when they're still on the line? You never know if the patron might buy something else - partial view, discount code, box, whatever. maybe even a full price - if rush is sold out.

And then can you even picture the threads on here if the number is, as you say, somewhat off: "the sign on the window/the box office person PROMISED that there were x tickets, but then there were only x-1 tickets, and so I didn't get a rush ticket this morning!!!!!!"

I will say I walk by Beautiful before 10am all the time on my way to work, and I like the way they do their signs, it says "there will be rush" "there will only be standing room" etc, whatever that day's situation is, that even as someone just walking by, who isn't waiting, I know what's going on, before the box office even opens. Their sign never states a number, though. (At least that I've noticed.)

"And then can you even picture the threads on here if the number is, as you say, somewhat off: 'the sign on the window/the box office person PROMISED that there were x tickets, but then there were only x-1 tickets, and so I didn't get a rush ticket this morning!!!!!!'"

Exactly. Whenever I've done box office work, it's best not to give out exact numbers, not to mislead, but because numbers can change at the last minute and all of a sudden you have a customer who's irate because you promised a certain number of seats.

Not every show has a set number of rush seats. Some box offices might not even know how many rush seats are going to be offered until staff arrives that day. So in some cases, it is literally impossible to know in advance what that day's haul is going to be. As others have said, some shows offer deeply discounted seats to ticket buyers who miss out on rush -- turning them away would mean losing that potential segment of business, as well.

I would assume the main reason is that they hope to sell more expensive tickets to people who are in line but miss out on rush, which probably works in many case. It would be really great if they saved you the 20-30 minutes of additional waiting if there aren't enough ticket, but oh well I guess...

A nice thing to do as a patron (that I've had happen to me, and done myself as well) is let people in line behind you know what the situation is. At Color Purple for example I got the last rush seat for the evening show on a 2-show day, so when I left I told the many people still waiting that the evening was sold out of rush as of now and that I didn't know what the matinee situation was. So everyone who just wanted rush and just wanted evening could at least leave then.



On the other hand, many times I missed out on a rush ticket the BO people made very little effort to convince me to buy another ticket, discounted, partial view of even full price in the back. I've just been told no and goodbye. I mean, I usually know my stuff and know if I would be willing to spend more, but they don't know that...