Tuesday, March 30, 2010
In theatre, the cheap seats are meant to be just that
guardian.co.uk: "In a recent entry on his blog at The Stage, Mark Shenton discussed the relative merits of seeing the West End staging of Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem – and Mark Rylance's masterful Olivier-winning performance – from the cheap seats. For £10 it's possible to see the play from a (very) creaky balcony seat, roughly at eye level with the light fittings and ceiling sconces of the Apollo, with a view of the stage that's, to put it mildly, vertiginous. The actors seem very far away indeed, which is par for the course with balcony seats, but it's particularly marked at the Apollo." Via: ArtsJournal
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4 comments:
The "cheap seats" on Broadway tend to be seats with moderately obstructed views, or the seats that are extremely far away. However these seats still aren't cheap. Luckily, with big musicals, the experience can be just as enjoyable from far away, but for other shows where that isn't true, I think it is just poor choice of venue. One of the things I tend to do to save money is to buy the cheapest seats, and move down to empty seats in the house. It doesn't always work, but when it does, you get to pay a little less for a better view.
This article reminded me of going to see the tour of In the Heights at the Benedum Center. Our ticketed seats were one or two rows up from the last row. Some moved cloer, as there were large areas of empty seats. It was still incredibly hard to hear, more than to see. Despite these sorts of problems, I think cheap seats are a nice option to have. I really like how this article mentions obstructed view seats that you can pay as you please. I think this is a good business idea, because if the seat cannot be justifibly sold as a regular seat, it is better to get even a tiny bit of money than to leave it empty. It might also encourage people to see the show again, paying full price, if they like it.
I agree with Ariel. Some do have poor venues that do block the view. I think cheap seats are great, bit only if they dont detract from the theater experience. I also like to wait until Christmas or my birthday and then ask fir tickets as a gift and that has worked out great for me.
I have been both the beneficiary and the victim of the day-of-show "cheap seats", usually in the form of seat raffles. Usually these seats are actually fair, nothing like the experience Natasha Tripney had at Jerusalem. The worst I have had is obstructed view at Tarzan, where I was unable to see the top of the proscenium. However, the theatre had television monitors from which we could see a wide shot of the stage, both solving the issue and presenting a closer view of the stage than my seat! Limitations aside, I have had mostly positive experiences with day-of-show "cheap seats".
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