Entertainment Prices

We don't go to Broadway shows often.  Years can pass between shows so I tend to be out of touch with ticket prices.

My daughter suggested we take my wife to see a recent, very popular musical for her birthday.  Four tickets for any decent seats, including many balcony seats, was over $2000.  Astounding.

It makes me appreciate our local entertainment options, including SOPAC. I am going to see four shows at SOPAC between now and September. In total, I purchased  twelve seats for those four shows.   The total purchase price was a fraction of what that one Broadway show would cost.

that not the norm. If it's s super popular show, your search probably brought you to re- sale tickets that were marked up. A normal play can still be seen for $150pp for decent balcony seats. Try Broadway Box for latest discounts if you aren't hell- bent on just the one super- popular play.

There's a chance that you were looking at a resale site. While shows are not cheap $500 a seat sure sounds like a lot. For reference, we 'recently' (in November) purchased some tickets for Hamilton (in July) at the normal sale price. They were about $220 each for mezzanine seats, and that's about as bad as it should be.

The Beacon is another venue where you have to be really careful that you don't accidentally click into a re-sale site. I go to the Beacon fairly frequently, and as often as I've bought tickets on their site, I still find myself clicking into a re-sale site every few tries.

Seats at the Papermill have escalated,too.

I agree with the OP's point, which is that there are some excellent performances off the beaten path. There are some insane prices out there. Then again, if all prices were low and "fair," it would be impossible to get tix to some shows. NY Times wrote about this just last week.

"Dynamic pricing and super-premium prices may be relatively new, but the scarcity of tickets for hit shows has a long tradition. [A producer] cited 'My Fair Lady,' the 'Hamilton' of the 1955-56 Broadway season. As Broadway lore has it, a man in the audience turned to his neighbor, an older woman, and asked why the fifth-row center seat next to her was empty.

'My husband died,' she replied.

'Didn’t anyone else want to come?' he asked.

'No,' she answered. 'They’re all at the funeral'.”

Or you can come to a local house concert and spend just $20 to hear a superbly accomplished artist! If you'd like to know more, just send me a PM.

Major league sports tickets too. And concert tickets. I've been complaining about this for a long time. 

Agree with OP.  Broadway prices can be obscene. We would go more if it weren't for the high prices. Pro sports is more affordable than Broadway.