# Broadway ticket prices - really?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250 "2016-12-20T18:34:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/21 "2016-12-22T04:15:29Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Which AFAICT is also about the price in Prague of a nice three-course restaurant dinner for two. With wine. > > :dubious: I mean, I think you have to factor in basic COL differences rather than comparing ticket prices straight up. IME, in Manhattan a nice three-course restaurant dinner for two with wine will **also** cost you more like $130 than $35. Hell I’m in Chicago and I can’t get a nice three-course restaurant dinner for two with wine for $130. Well, depending on what you consider nice I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/22 "2016-12-22T06:58:59Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > **Book of Mormon** is an open-ended run same as **Wicked** , **Hamilton** , etc. It’s never had an end date. I’ll take your word on it. [Here’s an example](http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/news/ct-hamilton-chicago-tickets-on-sale-20160608-story.html) of Hamilton’s lead producer Jeffrey Seller making the distinction: > [@](#): > > You’ve written about some of the different philosophies producers employ when they are making these bookings. Do I stay as long as I am making a reasonable profit, and if some tickets go unsold, so be it? Or do I leave while there is still huge demand so I can return? As you know, “Wicked” followed the one theory in Chicago and “The Book of Mormon” the other. Without being able to predict how it will play out for “Hamilton,” I subscribe more to the “Wicked” theory than “The Book of Mormon” theory. If one theory is take-your-money-and-run and the other is longevity, I subscribe to longevity. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/23 "2016-12-22T09:31:45Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’ll take your word on it. [Here’s an example](http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/news/ct-hamilton-chicago-tickets-on-sale-20160608-story.html) of Hamilton’s lead producer Jeffrey Seller making the distinction: “in Chicago” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/24 "2016-12-22T14:41:42Z")
> [@naita](#): > > “in Chicago” Sure. I’m not a theater person so if it makes less sense in the context of other cities, my apologies for confusing you all 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/25 "2016-12-22T15:38:52Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Sure. I’m not a theater person so if it makes less sense in the context of other cities, my apologies for confusing you all 🙂 Broadway theater is a different animal than road companies of shows that started on Broadway. You rarely want to do anything that will limit your run on Broadway, while a road company of a show can always move on to a new city/new market. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/26 "2016-12-22T15:40:39Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Live theater in New York will be dead in a generation if we continue to freeze out the non-rich. No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/27 "2016-12-22T16:52:07Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded. Somebody really should write a bio musical for Yogi Berra. So many good lyrics to just pluck from the apocrypha… ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/28 "2016-12-22T21:07:45Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > Another possibility - the tour is supposed to come to Atlanta in the 17-18 season. I’ve read that some of the regional theater companies are advising if you want to see Hamilton to become a subscriber the year before it’s supposed to come. Then become a subscriber the year it’s coming and hope for the best. They expect there to be so many people to become subscribers the year of, that you’ll need a leg up on them. StG ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/29 "2016-12-22T22:54:29Z")
It’s pay the theater or pay the scalpers, really. If they price it too cheap then the scalpers make all the money instead of the people putting on the show. It’s a fight big name musicians have been dealing with for a long time, too. You get some people like Springsteen who’ll play three or four nights in one city and charge low prices – but your name has to be on the ticket, no transfers! – and on the other hand you get people like the Rolling Stones who will charge $500 a seat and let’s see if the scalpers make money on _that_. (They will. Market price for a Stones show is probably over a grand, at least. But it’s harder for scalpers the higher the face value of the ticket is.) ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/30 "2017-01-30T13:04:19Z")
Just thought I would post an update. I have just booked a front stalls, premium seat for Hamilton in London on my birthday next year. Normally, I would find £200 for a ticket outrageous, but it suddenly looked like a bargain! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/31 "2017-01-30T13:55:32Z")
I am appalled at the rise in Broadway Ticket Prices. They have gone up much faster than inflation. Granted, the prices back when I was a kid were arguably too low, but there’s no excuse for the absurd prices many shows demand today. (At the rish of sound like an old codger, I note that it used to be possible to purchase matineee tickets on the day of the show for between $20 and $300 bucks for a major first-run show. That’s from the box office – without having to go to TKTS. I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company performing William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle’s _Sherlock Holmes_ in 1975 for (bear in mind that this was SRO) $2.50 That’s correct – no slipped decimal point or anything.) I was amazed when tickets first broke the $1900 mark with _Nicholas Nickleby_ in the 1980s, but pretty soon that was the norm. The last show I saw on Broadway was **Amadeus** , until we went to see **Spring Awakening** with our daughter a couple of years ago. Ticket prices here in Boston have kept pace with Broadway. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/32 "2017-01-30T14:19:32Z")
I see most of my shows here in Schenectady; our seats (we have a subscription) are about $25 a show. If Hamilton comes next year, we’ll get first crack at those seats, too. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/33 "2017-01-30T17:06:01Z")
Just reminiscing. Back when I was in high school in the 1970s, I was a theater buff. In those days, I could go to Duffy Square on Wednesday around noon and get half price tickets to most shows. So, as a teen, I could see Broadway plays for around six or seven bucks. Not that much more than I’d pay for a movie. Today, even HALF price tickets are a hundred dollars. Which means a teenager in Astoria today could never see the shows I saw. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/34 "2017-01-30T17:51:06Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (At the rish of sound like an old codger, I note that it used to be possible to purchase matineee tickets on the day of the show for between\*\* $20 and $300 bucks\*\* for a major first-run show. That’s from the box office – without having to go to TKTS. I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company performing William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle’s _Sherlock Holmes_ in 1975 for (bear in mind that this was SRO) > > $2.50 > > That’s correct – **no slipped decimal point or anything**.) > > I was amazed when tickets first broke the \*\*$1900 \*\*mark with _Nicholas Nickleby_ in the 1980s, but pretty soon that was the norm. It looks there are quite a few slipped decimal points in there… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/35 "2017-01-30T20:54:14Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > It looks there are quite a few slipped decimal points in there… Not in my mind, but, yep – that’s what I paid. At the same time, “nosebleed” seats at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center cost $1.50. No joke. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/36 "2017-01-30T21:03:38Z")
So when was $1,900 (the amount you paid in the 1980s for the Nicholas Nickleby tickets) the _norm_? Or is it the norm now? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/37 "2017-01-30T21:06:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I note that it used to be possible to purchase matineee tickets on the day of the show for between $20 and $300 bucks for a major first-run show. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you can still do that now, for every show… ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2017, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/38 "2017-01-30T23:27:11Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I’ve actually been thinking about flying to London to see Hamilton when it opens there, because it’ll be years before it hits Nashville and it’s prohibitively expensive in the US. > > StG Tickets went on sale today…the presale was two weeks ago…and I forgot. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250/39 "2017-01-31T12:41:53Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you can still do that now, for every show… Slipped digit there – should be “between $20 and $30 per show”. And, yes, I saw **1776** from an Orchestra seat for that much back in the early 70s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadway-ticket-prices-really/775250.md?page=1)