TheatreArtLife: There is something to be said about the current price of a ticket to see a Broadway show. I had the humbling experience of attempting to buy my five-year old cousin tickets to what would be her first Broadway show, Frozen, and realizing the venture would cost me over $500.00.
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Personally, I usually check out the 20 somethings approach and wait out long lines and find cheap discounted tickets whenever I find myself navigating New York. The article makes an incredible point out of broadway being a wealthy persons game with Hamilton tickets surging the moon. As a young starving artist, watching these shows aren't exactly ideal whenever I hit the big apple. The last time I went to New York, I stopped by the TKTS booth and bought fifty dollar Miss Saigon tickets, one of the best shows I've ever seen. I walked out thinking about how a show with that much of an impact and that much absolute beauty on stage could be put on the cheap market, I should have paid a lot more to see that show. The point here is that in order to make the most of a New York experience, watch shows that are cheap, that possibly won't have a tour somewhere else, because those shows need our attention much more than Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansenn (you can watch them for much cheaper on a tour). Also, it doesn't hurt your wallet to watch a show that doesn't cost hundreds.
This is an issue in our industry for sure. I would hate to see theatre become disfigured into something that is purely about profit with little to no concern about the art or intention behind the shows being produced; however, I do not think that this will be the case anytime soon. Sure, the most expensive tickets to the best Broadway shows are ridiculously expensive, but that does not mean that all theatre is impossible to attend for people who want to see it. Being able to travel to New York City and see the best theatre in the world is a huge privilege that a lot of people can not even begin to consider, so the fact that those tickets are expensive is not that surprising to me. Theatre is not all about Frozen and Hamilton though. It is about small theatres that put on shows that actually mean something and have the power to influence and change our world in subtle ways. So maybe don't take your niece to Broadway. Take her a couple of streets over to a theatre no one knows about that is putting on a show that will actually mean something in the world.
First off Broadway is FUCKING expensive. Every year the prive of tickets slow climb and climb and now all of a sudden a single perumin ticket can cost over 400$. This is not ok. However, I do not see a reasonable way to fix this. The way to lower ticket prices is to lower overall cost, this would than mean production quality will go down or those involved will get paid less. An arugment I hear all the time is that producers just pocket all this money. This is not true. Sure a producer will make a lot of money on a show like Hamilton but when you have shows like wicked and such who’s weekly running cost is 600,000-700,000 producers are not really pocketing so much money. Overall, I think the price of everything needs to go down but I do not see the world changing. One thing that does bother me is that rush tickets are no nearing 50$ which is not ok. They need to change those prices.
This was an article that articulated something I have heard a lot about recently and experienced myself. As a young theater professional who had the privilege to spend a summer in New York City, you would think I got a health dose of theater. However, that is not the case. I had plenty of time to make it downtown to see a show after work so that was not the problem, the problem was the cost of a ticket. There were no Broadway shows in my price range, and I was probably willing to spend $50-$80 depending on the show. It was kind of upsetting that nothing really fit my budget especially since weeks earlier in London, for the same caliber of theater, that price range would have sufficed. I am certainly curious how this inaccessibility will effect Broadway in the long run, especially as a young professional hoping to work in that sector.
This is definitely something I've noticed over the past few years. I think the first show I remember being really expensive was Book of Mormon. I remember waiting outside at 9am for the 1pm lottery, hoping I could be able to buy one of the coveted $40 seats. It's truly a shame the prices have jumped so high, causing theatre to be an expensive outing. With this increase of ticket prices, at least for me, it almost instinctively causes me to skip the big ticket Broadway shows and go to something smaller off-Broadway. It's a shame because so many of us, students, artists, want to go see works like Angels In America or Hamilton, but simply cannot afford it. Entertainment is something I think you can find in a variety of mediums. That is why I think I'd always choose a student rush ticket at an off-broadway show or comedy cellar rather than dropping my month's rent to see Hello Dolly.
This article brings up a very big concern I have with theatre in todays world. To me, the theatre community feels so inclusive and progressive and artistic. It feels like the goal of everyone around me is bring good theatre to bigger audiences. This goal though seems to be contradictory with the prices of Broadway tickets as mentioned in this article. These high prices are why the entertainment industry are called liberal elites. Though I know that commercial theatre exists to create a profit, its sad to me that the high ticket prices only allows financial elites to enjoy beautiful and cool shows. To see a broadway show in its original venue is an amazing experience and the high prices prevent people from living this and gaining inspiration. It seems to me that theatre should be done to be good theatre, not to make money and sell seats - though its a plus. In the ideal world, Broadway shows would be able to garner all of their profit from sponsorships so that seating may be a little bit more affordable. But, in the mean time, there is really cool theatre everywhere - some of the best aren't even close to broadway and they are worth exploring.
These crazy high ticket prices are one of the main reasons I don’t see more Broadway shows. In fact, I have only seen one Broadway show actually on Broadway and that was sophomore year of high school when I saw Nick Jonas star in How to Succeed in Business, and that wasn’t even on my own volition it was part of a school music field trip. Between travelling to New York, staying overnight, parking, and paying for a show and food, a trip to Broadway could easily cost me almost a thousand dollars if not more. I’m a little mad some research and statistics are ignoring the fact that Broadway’s profit growth is not surrounded by increased ticket sales, but instead by the inflated prices of tickets. Sure, some shows are continuing to sell out for months on end, but after awhile, don’t you think these people could afford to lower the prices and then they would sell out for even longer?
This is an incredibly interesting topic. This concept/problem was something that was only really brought to my attention when Hamilton took the world by storm. Believe it or not, I was really never interested in Broadway theatre growing up; even after I became a technician in high school I did not really transform into a theatre-obsessed crazy person like some of us are, so I really was not aware of much in the theatre world. In addition, I did not go see Broadway shows growing up. But when Hamilton happened, everyone knew everything about it. The price of the tickets sounded absolutely insane to me. I knew one girl at my high school who was super rich, lived in a high rise, and was a huge Hamilton fan. She kept going to see it. Over. And over. It’s pretty unfair. She was taking a seat, an opportunity for someone who might never get to see the show, again and again. This show is important for POCs to see, but the audience sitting in there is made up of the rich, white, top percent.
This is a interesting article in that how do put a price on theatre? Forget about the theater industry, how do we put a price on entertainment or the experience industry ? That I feel is truly the crux of what if being discussed in this article. The phenomenon of higher cost in regards to ticket prices is a fascinating one that actually has a decent correlation to that of the sports world especially during the playoffs. The experience of being there love seeing everything that most likely will never be able to happen the exact same way again would tend people to think that it is a truly special experience and some would be willing to pay highly for that. Add into the fact that there are a limited about of seats for each performance and tickets cost most likely don’t just reflect the producing company trying to recoup cost but rather an extreme luxury good that do to low amount of availability due to supply just generally doesn’t have to worry about price discrimination to reap the full rewards of the demand market. In short the prices are high because the people you want to see it are willing to shell out the money, like those who spent thousands to go the the Super Bowl.
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