There are things I don't do, like bowl. I don't bowl, not drunk in Williamsburg, not with children, I don't do it. I also don't travel by bus; city buses are fine, Greyhounds are not. Another thing I don't do is pay full price for Broadway tickets. Clearly some people do, and they keep the shows running. That's great for them, but I'll take a quick 40% savings from Theatermania or Playbill.com. There's always chatter about how Broadway is not affordable. It's a luxury good, they say. Bull, I say, and I would like to give a shoutout to Roundabout Theatre Company for keeping their productions affordable for the average public school teacher (like me).
Last weekend I attended Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Importance of Being Earnest. I paid $22 for my ticket through Roundabout's HIPTIX program for people under the age of 35. Really, 35 is generous, but I'll take it. And I have five years left of qualifying!
I was certain this was the cheapest Broadway ticket I would ever have that wasn't comped, but that changed this Monday. I was on the train from work to Times Square (armed with a discount code) to buy tickets to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert when I saw a tweet from @NewYorkTheater, "Get tix for $10 to first 4 performances of @AnythingGoesRTC today at Stephen Sondheim Theater box office (124 W 43)." I remembered when I first heard that there would be $10 tickets for Anything Goes when the box office opened at noon, but I knew I would be at work, so I disregarded this as a missed opportunity. But yesterday, as I was already headed to Times Square, I thought I would swing by The Sondheim and check the status. There were two or three people in line in front of me, armed with their discount codes. I assumed I missed the 600 $10 tickets. The woman in front of me handed over her credit card for a $356 purchase, so when I was called to the adjacent window I whispered, "Do you have any $10 tickets left?" and they did! I walked out of the box office with a pair of $10 tickets to a Broadway musical. It doesn't get more affordable than that!
Paul Wontorek of Broadway.com made a case for more full priced tickets in a recent interview by Stage Rush. He argues that people will pay top dollar to see top shows. If there's a market for only full priced tickets (Wicked, Merchant of Venice, Lion King, Spiderman) fine, but if you want paying customers in all of your seats, you might have to lower the price for some of them. I could pay full price and go to the occasional Broadway show, or I can by discount tickets and be a repeat customer. Thinking of my beloved Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which I saw more than ten times but less than twenty and never paid full price, I could have bought $120 tickets a few times, but instead I poured $600-800 into the show and went often, bringing friends and family. Less expensive tickets get us in the door, talking to people at word about the shows, writing blogs about them. Offering cheap tickets is good karma, too, especially if they're targeted at teachers, actors, students, retired folks or young people. Kudos to Roundabout Theatre Company for making some of their seats affordable for us, the people. More about the Roundabout Access program can be found on their website.
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