“Book of Mormon” tickets soared after the Tonys. (AP)
There’s no business like show business, and thank goodness, because the prices of seats on the Great White Way are more convoluted than the plot of a Shakespeare comedy — and carry weirder fees than an airline ticket.
The massive success of “The Book of Mormon” has put a spotlight on Broadway — and its crazy ticket prices. “Mormon,” which opened on March 24 to universal raves, was charging $132 for regular seats until June 12, when it took home nine Tonys, including Best Musical. The next day, the regular ticket prices shot up to $155, and premium seats went from a range of $192 to $277 to between $302 and an eye-popping $477.
The pricing model has folks griping that buying a theater ticket has become as infuriating as booking an airline seat. Extra charges are added for aisle seats, and for holiday and weekend shows. What’s next? An extra fee for putting your bag under your seat?
“It’s just like the airlines,” says Isaac Butler, who writes the theater blog Parabasis.
“They try to charge as much as the market will bear. They tack on a bunch of fees that no one understands, and when you get there, the seats are uncomfortable and too small,” he says.
But theater insiders say it’s just good business sense. “We are trying to price based on demand and value,” says Jordan Roth, president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, where “Mormon” is playing. Jujamcyn, along with producers Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino, set ticket prices.
With a hot show on his hands, Roth says the company just charges what people are willing to pay.
Which is, apparently, an arm and a leg.
Wacky ticket pricing took off after the producers of “The Producers” (Mel Brooks and Co.) broke the $100-per-ticket barrier the day after the show opened to unanimous adulation in 2001. That show was also the first to come up with the “premium” seat price point seven months later, when it earmarked a section in the front and middle of the theater and jacked up the prices of those seats from $100 to $480 — to a chorus of shock and awe.
The rationale, says Butler, was that scalpers were going to charge that much anyway, so why shouldn’t they? Before “The Producers,” shows generally had uniform pricing, regardless of whether or not it was a hit. After “The Producers,” Broadway wised up and started charging whatever it could get away with.
With “Mormon,” this new model, called “dynamic pricing,” has been fully exploited.Below are examples of the wild pricing scheme as it applies to that show:
* Prices fluctuate throughout the theater:Seats in the back of the theater cost $69, good seats run $155 and the best seats are between $302 and $477.
* Prices fluctuate throughout the week:A premium seat goes from $302 during the week to $352 Friday through Sunday.
* Prices fluctuate depending on when you purchase:A $302 ticket becomes $427 if purchased two to four days prior to the performance, and $477 if less than 48 hours before the show.
* Aisle seats cost more:Aisle seats cost $182 instead of $155, and you have to buy both the aisle seat and the one next to it.
* Prices go up during the holidays:A $155 ticket costs $175 around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
* Weird fees at the box office:Each ticket includes a $2 “restoration” fee to pay for work on landmarked theaters; this occurs industry-wide and is included within the total ticket price.
* Weird fees online:If you want to buy tickets from the box office online, you will be redirected to Telecharge, which will hit you with a $7.50 service charge per ticket, and a $2.75 handling charge per order; this is also industry-wide.
* There are deals for those in the know:Each performance of “Mormon” offers a lottery in which 20 theatergoers, whose names are pulled out of a drum, can buy tickets for $32. There are also 24 standing-room tickets sold daily at the box office for $27 each.
* There is a legal scalpers’ market where tickets go for astronomical prices:
Buying scalped tickets is pretty much the only way you can see “Mormon” for the next six months; it’s completely sold out until January. Last week, StubHub had three tickets to tonight’s show listed for $1,000 each.
* The scalpers’ market also charges fees, by the way:A 10 percent service fee is tacked onto your purchase, plus a $15 shipping fee.
* * *
Despite the sky-high prices, “Mormon” has set a new house record at the Eugene O’Neill every week for the past three months.
“The producers have an enormous amount of goodwill,” says Butler, in part because of how they’ve cultivated the public, streaming their soundtrack for free on NPR for a limited time — and offering a free show to lottery winners.
Also, he says, people are happy to see it do well because it’s an original musical with an original score (by Matt Stone and Trey Parker), not a jukebox musical created around existing best-selling songs, such as “Mamma Mia!” Also, the show hasn’t relied on celebrities to fill the theater — it’s drawn the crowds with a cast of unknowns, which is no easy feat.
“ ‘The Book of Mormon’ folks are not motivated by the money,” says Jerome Kane, chief operating officer of the Broadway.com ticketing Web site. “They could move to a bigger theater and still sell out. They are passing up many, many millions.”
And history proves that theatergoers will not pay those prices for an undeserving show.
In 2007, Brooks famously blundered when he tried to pull a “Producers” with “Young Frankenstein.” He set premium ticket prices at $450 before the show even opened; it closed after just over a year, which generated a resounding round of schadenfreude from theatergoers and critics. “The apotheosis of absurd pricing was ‘Young Frankenstein,’ ” says Butler.
“The pricing probably helped cause bad reviews; their hubris was too great.”
Tickets to “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” range from $52 for a rear-mezzanine seat to $302 for a so-called “premium” seat. A $2 “facility fee” is tacked on, ostensibly to repair the landmarked theater.
A seat on the aisle can run you an extra $25 or more, and you must buy the one next to it as well!
On the legal scalpers’ market, prices go for whatever the public will pay. StubHub recently offered tickets to tonight’s performance of ‘‘The Book of Mormon” in the front center mezzanine for $1,000 each. StubHub will also charge you a 10 percent service fee and a $15 shipping fee per order.
Check your watches. Ticket prices go up as curtain time grows closer!
Happy holidays? Ticket prices skyrocket during Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Buying through Telecharge results in an extra $7.50 service charge per ticket, and a $2.75 handling charge per order.