Theatre, like the airline industry, has always been a supply and demand business; so although there is an official “rate card” for prices that are charged for the tickets to both, in fact it’s a very fluid science. Regular theatregoers have wised up to this, of course, and as a leading producer told me only the other day, it’s what has driven advance sales down: people wait to see what offers become available, and only pay top dollar (or rather pound) when the reviews persuade them that they absolutely must.
But what happens when the demand outstrips the supply, and shows sell out? [click below to continue reading]
The trouble with the theatre is that the supply is a finite source, limited by the capacities of the theatre (though a number of shows on Broadway regularly report attendances of over 100% thanks to the selling of standing room there).
That’s when the touts and eBay arrive. The Guardian reported yesterday that a pair of tickets for the sold out Los Angeles run of Ian Kellen’s RSC King Lear, opening there this week, are being offered on eBay for $3,500 (£1,720). Meanwhile, on the website StubHub, tickets start at $465 apiece and rise to $2000, while Gotickets are offering them at up to $1,860.
“This is a seller’s market”, a StubHub spokesman is reported as telling the LA Times. Of course Ian McKellen is a big name; but he has deflected the power of his own drawing power, saying, “It is the Royal Shakespeare Company doing King Lear directed by Trevor Nunn. If we weren’t selling out, there would be something wrong.”
In a separate story reported in the New York Times yesterday, the aforementioned StubHub – which it calls “one of the biggest of the ticket-resale web sites” – has just opened a storefront office on the edge of the Times Square theatre district so customers can pick up tickets in person there. Most of the tickets that are sold through it are for sports and concert tickets, but it also trades in theatre tickets, and the opening of its store outlet has changed the way its business can operate: “StubHub has a blackout on ticket sales through the mail three days before an event. At a store, though, resellers can try to get rid of tickets in a matter of hours. Walk-in customers can use in-store computer terminals to see what’s available and pick them up on the spot.”
And it could yet also provide another discount outlet, too, instead of being a marked-up one: “The store could possibly open up the discount market as a place for brokers trying to dump tickets at the last minute. A spokeswoman for eBay, which owns StubHub, said that 40 percent of tickets on eBay are sold at or below face value”.
So it cuts both ways – which is the way Broadway producers have long been seeking to have it, too. As the New York Times reported, “After years of complaining about scalpers, the theaters’ introduction of the premium ticket in 2001 meant that Broadway had decided, in a sense, to join them.” This is the practice in which producers turn greater or smaller parts of their inventory into tickets that are marked up beyond the official top price: for Young Frankenstein, for instance, these sell at between $375 and £450.
As I previously reported here, this show has declined to have its weekly grosses published, as is the common practice on Broadway, but Variety yesterday speculated that the tally for their first four previews yielded “an average ticket price of about $205”. As a leading New York press agent who circulated this story to me in turn said, “So why are we reporting numbers? If you withhold your numbers, the estimate could be better than what you are actually doing! On these projections, Young Frankenstein will be the top grossing show on Broadway without having to disclose numbers!”
In the West End, we’ve always had an absence of hard facts, though you an get a sense of how inventory is shifting from whether or not a show appears routinely at the official half price booth (whose daily offerings are published online, so you don’t even need to walk past the Leicester Square booth itself to find out), or the number of offers that are being made.
But breaking the mould on its own way of selling tickets is the new production of Rent, which opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre last night. The stalls are sold as general admission – what the leaflet describes as “best seats in the house only £30 (unreserved seating)”. But beware: I was told last night by a friend sitting in the rear stalls that those seats are restricted view, from which you don’t see what’s happening on an upper platform at all.
The Rent seats are far from the best in the house.
In the stalls they are the front row and thereafter only on the extreme sides which are slightly obstructed until way in the back where they become obstructed because of the circle overhang. At the performance I attended the house staff were beseiged with complaints from £30 ticket holders and were brushed off with a -what do you want for £30 anyway ? response.
Their ticket pricing isn't innovative at all - its just lazy; and saves the Box Office from having to sell crap locations. Now as audience members we get to choose our crap location for ourselves.
"In the stalls they are the front row and thereafter only on the extreme sides which are slightly obstructed until way in the back where they become obstructed because of the circle overhang"
This simply isn't true. Anyone can go and look at the rectangle of reserved rented seats on the seating map at the theatre:
"Row E 6 to 17; row F 5 to 16; G 3 to 14; rows H, J, K and L 5 to 16"
Personally I we sat in Row F 17 and 18 and had a great view. As they say if you get there early you can great seats. Turn up 5 minutes before the show starts and might get stuck at the back with a restricted view but it the risk you take.
Actually Lee I DID get there early and the seats that you describe DO cut off the rear corner of the stage. The fact that 95% of the show is staged down stage center makes those seats only minorly obstructed - but £30 isn't so cheap that the seats should be obstructed at all.