Nick if you think movie tickets are expensive....

ScottM

ScottM

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... I just bought tickets to see the plays Fiddler on the Roof and Showboat.

Fiddler on the Roof were $160/each before service charges and Showboat was $100/each before service charges. They don't even serve popcorn or Twizzlers at the theater either!!

But I am seriously looking forward to seeing these plays/musicals. I love getting to go the theater, it is always magical. Over the years I have gotten to see a lot of plays. I even got to see Cats in London with the original cast during its first run before it became a world wide phenom. I also saw Jesus Christ Superstar with two of the original cast (Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson).
 
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You got away cheap. I paid more than that for some shows 6-7 years ago... London, NY, Houston...
 
wsuffa said:
You got away cheap. I paid more than that for some shows 6-7 years ago... London, NY, Houston...
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You know I never seem to pay a lot in London. A couple of years ago I was there and saw We are the Champions. Got main floor, third row seating for 44pounds (about 70USD) on the day of the show. I always take advantage of the ticket brokers in London. Great deals!! We really do not have that in Chicago. The brokers here make you pay about 4x face value. I think it is because our theater community is not as thriving as London. We used to have a bunch of small theaters but they have mostly died out in favor of larger megaplex plays.
 
In SF's Union Square, there was / is a day of show or day before show 50% off booth for all the major theater companies. I think they have a website now. They want to fill those seats, no matter what, and half off is better than empty seats.
 
ScottM said:
You know I never seem to pay a lot in London. A couple of years ago I was there and saw We are the Champions. Got main floor, third row seating for 44pounds (about 70USD) on the day of the show. I always take advantage of the ticket brokers in London. Great deals!! We really do not have that in Chicago. The brokers here make you pay about 4x face value. I think it is because our theater community is not as thriving as London. We used to have a bunch of small theaters but they have mostly died out in favor of larger megaplex plays.
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I was going to say.... London is usually half ways reasonable. Even with the xc rate.
 
woodstock said:
I was going to say.... London is usually half ways reasonable. Even with the xc rate.
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I think that is because of the very vibrant theater community in London. Lots of big stuff and tons of little stuff. It is a great town or theater. A lot of the Broadway stuff comes there first to do work ups and that is always fun to get tickets too. Cheap tickets BTW!!! New York is always hard to get tickets, at least it seems that way to me, for the bigger shows. These past few years the trend towards the giant blockbuster shows with tons of special effects has really cranked up the ticket costs too!!!

I have been going to a lot more community shows. There are two theaters near me and they not only do some nice productions of plays. They also bring in name acts for performances.
 
ScottM said:
You know I never seem to pay a lot in London. A couple of years ago I was there and saw We are the Champions. Got main floor, third row seating for 44pounds (about 70USD) on the day of the show. I always take advantage of the ticket brokers in London. Great deals!! We really do not have that in Chicago. The brokers here make you pay about 4x face value. I think it is because our theater community is not as thriving as London. We used to have a bunch of small theaters but they have mostly died out in favor of larger megaplex plays.
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Having said what I did, I should also (in the interest of full disclosure) note that I got comped into some excellent seats for several shows, including Lion King during it's first run, Smokey Joe's Cafe when it was impossible to get tickets from the borkers, The Graduate (Kathleen Turner - MEOW) and a couple of other ALW productions.

Agree on the US, though if you're willing to see random shows in NY the TKTS booth can work to your advantage. Here in the US, we're woefully behind places like London that have great theater traditions.

Probably the most expensive tickets I've bought were to the opera in Vienna (must-see) for a last-minute purchase, and Jimmy Buffet in Chicago.
 
I love live theater and music, but can rarely afford the prices. Thankfully I live near a big University...
 
Where are you seeing the shows, Scott?

I almost 100% avoid Ticketmaster rat(p)es. The last time I bought Penn & Teller tickets at the box office, and got a Amex member only early buy deal at the box office for the Broadway-bound "The Producers" with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. One the best shows I ever lucked into.

We got tickets at Hot Tix on Broadway for Goodnight Gracie with Frank Gorshin and Man of LaMancha with Brian Mitchell (and my old high school chum in the cast.)
 
mikea said:
Where are you seeing the shows, Scott?
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Chicago. I have no idea which theater off the top of my head.


mikea said:
I almost 100% avoid Ticketmaster rat(p)es. The last time I bought Penn & Teller tickets at the box office, and got a Amex member only early buy deal at the box office for the Broadway-bound "The Producers" with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. One the best shows I ever lucked into.
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I really have no choice but use that Satan owned and run Tickmaster.
 
Fiddler on the Roof were $160/each
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Look at it this way: You can not go to 3-4 tenth rate movies and then go to a really good play or musical that you'll really enjoy.

steingar said:
I love live theater and music, but can rarely afford the prices. Thankfully I live near a big University...
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Don't overlook the bazillion black box theatres scattered all over the place. $8-25 typically and preview night can be as little as $4 for two people depending on how they run their operation. Heck, I was working tech at several shows where preview night was free the night before opening. And don't think for an instant that the small operations in the back of old converted gas/service stations are bad. They just don't have the million $$$ budget for everything. The sets are decent and the actors are often as good as, if not better than, the ones on the broadway class tour groups.
 
ScottM said:
Chicago. I have no idea which theater off the top of my head.


I really have no choice but use that Satan owned and run Tickmaster.
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Yeahbut, it's Chicago. There are a brazillion small theater groups doing great work and they usually don't use Ticketmaster.

Also http://www.hottix.org
 
I hear Gucci purses are expensive too. Probably San Francisco Bath Houses too.

I kid.
 
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