SingerWhoMoves Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 So, tonight I first went to the Zucker box office, and was honestly surprised not to see tickets listed there- it being a random Tuesday etc... So I went over to see what they had at the box office. They seemed to have many tickets available for $100 and up. I was offered fourth ring for $91. That is insane! I was a fourth ring society member, but unfortunately not the season right before they discontinued it, but I would never pay so much for 4th ring. They also had $59 4th ring or $39 partially obstructed view in the third ring. I am sure there were many unsold seats in the house tonight, and that makes me really sad. I was so hoping to see Mearns and Bouder together in Serenade. :-( Sandi Link to comment
cobweb Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Actually the house was packed tonight including the fourth ring. Very appreciative audience for many wonderful performances! The surprise for me was Red Angels. One of the few modern pieces that made sense to me. And if this is Jennie Somogyi's first week back, I'm impressed. She looked wonderful - in form, totally confident, and sassy! Link to comment
SingerWhoMoves Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 I am thrilled to hear that the house was packed! The lady at the State box office (I refuse to call it the Koch) implied to me I could sit anywhere I wanted if I wanted to pay- but maybe it was because I was a single. I remember seeing Red Angels in a PBS presentation and really liking it. How was Serenade? I love Sara, Ashley and Rebecca, and its my favorite ballet, so this was a dream cast for me, but I just couldn't justify paying that price. :-( Link to comment
abatt Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 I love Red Angels and I'm disappointed that I cannot see it this season due to scheduling issues. I had assumed they would bring it back next season, but that is not the case. They used to revive it on a regular basis, and it was a very popular work in the rep for quite a few years. In fact, I recall that they used a sexy photo of Helene Alexopolous dressed in the Red Angel costume posing in front of the Coney Island Ferris Wheel as their season advertisement about 12 or 15 years ago. Link to comment
ivanov Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Yesterday I bought a ticket for the evening performance and there were plenty of $38 tickets available in the 4th ring. (The ring was about half full.) I guess it is like buying an airplane ticket--the seats do not have a fixed price, it all depends on demand and what the algorithm at the box office decides. I guess my question is, taking the long view, is a clever algorithm a good substitute for treating the audience with consideration? Link to comment
KarenAG Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 It is great that the house was packed, but $91 for a 4th ring ticket - that seems very high and I probably wouldn't have paid that, either. Last winter I was in NYC for a Saturday matinee and decided to stay for the evening performance. I think I paid $59 for my ticket in the 4th ring, purchasing it about two hours before the 8 pm performance - it was an almost sold-out event, too. So I guess what I'm driving at is - why $91 for one at a particular moment and $59 another? SingerWhoMoves, I refuse to call the the Koch, too! ~ Karen Link to comment
carbro Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 So I guess what I'm driving at is - why $91 for one at a particular moment and $59 another? The theater does not publish a chart of seating prices. It used to be that we'd see two prices for orchestra seats (prime and less prime), then for Rings 1-3, one price for the seats in the main section, a lower price for the seats in Row AA along the sides, and in the Fourth Ring, a price for rows A & B, another for Row AA (before the construction of Row BB), one for Rows C-K, and the cheapest for Rows L-O. As I understand the current pricing system -- in addition to the dynamic upping of prices (and I may be a bit off in this) -- it works from the center outwards, so you might conceivably pay less for a side-ish seat in the Second Ring than you would for a center seat in the fourth. Or, the person sitting right next to you may have a significantly more or less expensive ticket than you do. It's a very confusing, and terribly unfair to the budget-conscious in the audience.SingerWhoMoves, I refuse to call the the Koch, too! Link to comment
Jayne Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 hmmmm....what you need to do is out-game the pricing game. Crowdsource funds to hire a developer to create an App that tracks pricing at NYCB - and sends you alerts for the cheapest prices. Sort of like Travelocity, etc. Probably won't help NYCB's bottom line, but there you go. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 SingerWhoMoves, I refuse to call the the Koch, too! I'd have thought a great deal more of the man if giving the money and getting the tax deduction didn't come with renaming the institution for himself. Bah humbug. Link to comment
abatt Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 The only reason people give those huge sums of money for theater renovations (did Koch give $100 million?) is so that the theater will be renamed in their honor. Part of the reason that Avery Fisher has not undergone a massive renovation is that it is stipulated that the name Avery Fisher can never be removed as the name of the theater. Link to comment
ivanov Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 While reading Jane Mayer's article about David Koch in last week's New Yorker I came across an ad for NYCB (coincidentally showing Teresa Reichlen in the Red Angels costume) saying at the bottom "$29 tickets incl. orchestra." Logically, this suggests that $29 tickets are also to be found in other parts of the house (it does not say "$29 tickets exclusively in orchestra," which is topsy-turvey anyway). If you are going to advertise $29 tickets, it seems wrong to sell tickets in row O of the 4th ring for $38, $59, or $91, or to decline to sell those seats at all. Link to comment
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