2009 - The Year For Ticket Pices To Be Lowered??? Options

[RH1234]

Will 2009 with the economic crisis force theatre producers to lower ticket prices? I hope so. Have a read of this article from the NY Times, discussing the situation on Broadway.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/theater/...y.html?emc=eta1

In it, Allan Gordon (a major producer of shows like Hairspray, Rent and Spamalot) says “They’ll happen by necessity — not voluntarily, you’ll have no alternative".

Surely producers should take the view that it is better to have lower prices and higher audience numbers with a long recoupment period than to have shows struggling to survive and closing prematurely? Your thoughts...

[Aranel]

Most shows are already getting cheaper....ok, not officially but the amount of deals and offers flying around mean you're silly to pay full price for tickets these days (unless you want to see Oliver right now!)

I booked a top price Sister Act ticket for £35 the other day (including booking fee!).

I think West End prices do need to lower although im not sure about leading lady Ms Butler's claims that the actors should take a paycut in order for it to happen!! All very well out on Broadway and for those in West End lead rolls who get footballer scale wages (mentioning no names!) but our little West End chorus boys and girls get peanuts as it is in some shows (even with new Equity deals being implemented now). But that's a whole other discussion!!!

[Haz]

I think it's unlikely. Yes the numbers of visitors from within the UK might go down but with the pound losing strength every minute, I think we'll see lots more tourists from Europe particularly flocking here through this year, which I imagine will more than compensate for a reduction in the number of home grown theatregoers. And it's often the tourists who are ignorant enough to pay full price so I imagine they'll keep the top price as high as possible to milk that revenue stream. But I agree that there will probably be more offers floating around for those of us lucky enough to know about them.

[Aranel]

But I agree that there will probably be more offers floating around for those of us lucky enough to know about them.

The Sister Act offer I mentioned above was from The Times - there for everyone to see, not an insiders theatre secret (although there are plenty of them too admittedly!). You just have to keep an eye out.

[RH1234]

Just looking at the current prices of premium seats...

Priscilla: £95
Carousel: £86
Sister Act: £85

Will even tourists spend this much on a night out??

[David]

Just looking at the current prices of premium seats...

Priscilla: £95
Carousel: £86
Sister Act: £85

Will even tourists spend this much on a night out??

If they've already shelled out for a plane ticket and a hotel, and they've never been to Britain before, then they probably will- I imagine experiencing 'English Culture' (even if it's in the form of a musical adapted from an American film about gospel singing) is fairly high up the list of things to do, with Big Ben and a trip on the tube (it's no gondola, but it probably costs about the same now).

On the plus side, the subsidised sector is getting ever cheaper it seems- I'm planning on seeing lots for just the train fare there this year:D

[Weez]

The problem is a vicious circle. The more people use offers, the more shows need to raise their full-price tickets to offset the cost. With people still paying top whack - even if it's just a few - it'd take some serious producery balls to say "I'm going to set this to rights" and sell full-price tickets for a less obscene sum.

Mind you, the global economic crisis at least means that if a producer were feeling ballsy enough to offer lower full-price tickets, it's a move that would be much more widely accepted and embraced by everyone right now than if said producer were to do it during a more normal time just because it's the right thing to do.

In fact, Michael Grandage has taken that bold first step, and by all accounts, the Donmar West End season is doing very well. We need more producers to follow suit in the name of reason instead of leaving him to stand alone as a freak occurrence that was very nice but probably won't have any wider-reaching effects.

[RH1234]

Agreed. Perhaps Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber are producers who should take the lead in this. I really think it would make a big difference to people if a top price seat was £45 instead of £60 - they're much more likely to go and more often.

[rainbow_carnage]

There will always be people who are willing to pay full price for theatre tickets. Some will even pay the premium price. Why not let them? Theatre is expensive. Someone has to pay for it.

It wouldn't make one bit of difference to me if the producers lowered the top price from £65 down to £45. I can't afford the lower price, either. But as long as they have day seats/concessions/restricted view for under £20, I'll keep buying tickets. And I'll be grateful to the people sitting a few seats away from me who paid three times what I paid. Without them, the show would not be running.

[Weez]

If the upper prices keep rising, the discounts will rise as well, and I don't mean "£90 ticket, 80% discount!" either. At the moment, you can get half price tickets from, say, TKTS for around (and under!) £30. If the upper prices keep shooting up, you eventually won't be able to get half price tickets for less than £45 anyway. That's just one example. And while top price tickets are shooting up, that doesn't mean that the lesser-priced partial view tickets will stay low; if the basic ticket cost is increasing, there's no reason why that wouldn't cover *all* the basic ticket costs. The balconies, partial views, and discounts are going to increase as well. Plus, y'know, this doesn't match with normal inflation, because wages aren't rising to match or anything right now, so it's not even justifiable.

The rich people paying full whack for the top tickets will only subsidise the discounts for so long; eventually the entire system will come crashing down around our ears like a house of cards where someone's tugged one out of the bottom row. MUCH better to be sensible about it now and gently deconstruct the house of cards one card at a time in a sensible order. DO YOU HEAR ME, PRODUCERS? FOLLOW THAT GRANDAGE!

Plus shows that cost too much won't run so well. Sunset Boulevard had a sold-out run in Newbury. Now they're charging expensive West End prices and not doing so well. It was critically loved, but it's not shifting tickets, not at that price. Whereas the Donmar West End season, probably my most favourite non-RSC related theatrical thing EVER, is producing critical successes that are selling out at ever-so delicious prices. I'm willing to bet real money that Donmar are making far more money out of their sold-out cheaper houses than RUG are making out of their sadly-empty full-priced Sunset. And shows that aren't selling enough never last long. If people can't afford to see shows, the shows won't stay open. We don't just need people to see shows to subsidise our discounts, we need people to see shows so that shows run!

There are many things involved here, and I think sensible ticket prices can only benefit everyone in the long run. Yep, even the performers. Don't worry about what cheaper ticket costs might do to their wage; worry about what an early closure will do.