Saturday Matinee

The first time I bought full priced theater tickets in NY: for Les Miserables. It hurt, but it was completely worth it to see Lea Salonga, Gary Beach, and Jenny Galloway

I found a really interesting NY Times article, out of all places, on Perez Hilton’s site. Rising theater costs is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, because that’s the biggest obstacle between me and all the theater that I want to see in this world (with distance/accessibility a distant second, because traveling far to see good theater is hardly an issue for me). And with, for example, The Color Purple tickets selling at $99 a pop if I wanted to see it up close, it’s just all so disheartening as the trend for skyrocketing prices will only get worse with time. However, this article brings up some encouraging observations. In referring to an off-Broadway theater that experimented by discounting its ticket prices: (emphases are mine)

“Normally $45, [tickets] were sold for $15 for every performance of every show of the regular run….

The Signature program was an instant success. Perhaps most significant was the change in the demographic of audiences. After the initiative was put in place, 30 percent of audience members were 35 or under; that may not sound like such a hot number, but if you’ve been to a matinee lately, you will not question its significance… A full half of the audience was new to the Signature.

The Metropolitan Opera has a small subsidy program in place… The Met also reduced its cheapest tickets to $15 from $25 last season. New York City Ballet did the same, halving the price of its cheap seats, to $15 from $30. Sales tripled.”

Wow. It seems dramatic that halving the lowest ticket price will have such a dramatic effect as increasing sales up to three times. Although if I’m going to pay the same price for a movie or a theater show, I would most definitely want to see theater.

Not surprisingly, the impetus in reduced ticket prices started with a desire to reach new audiences. And this research shows that this might actually be a good way to do it.

I remain grateful however, for the wonderful rush programs and student discounts that are available at many of my favorite venues: San Francisco Symphony, SF Opera, SF Ballet, Cal Performances, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Mondavi Center, and more. Otherwise, this blog would be awfully empty.

Read this article, here.