If the Roundabout is buying a huge block of tickets for their subscribers as part of their subscription series, they are investing a significant amount of money in the production, just not upfront. It's not uncommon, when non-profit companies do this with commercial productions, for the non-profit to be listed as one of the producers of the production. The cost of the ticket buy, even if the commercial producers are getting the theatre at a reduced rate, is probably much less than actually producing a show of their own.
I wonder if anyone has ever had the idea to put together a block of "subscribers" for a series of commercial Broadway productions in a season in this way. |