I did lotteries for years and usually did fairly well. The only one I remember losing often was Wicked but this was when Idina and Kristin were still in it.
For most shows it was very easy odds, I remember once showing up to Hairspray's and there were 30 people waiting for 20 tickets. There used to be timing considerations too, you couldn't enter two separate lotteries that were occurring at the same time, so the pool of entrants were less. I also remember a lot of shows that weren't huge sellers immediately offering losers reasonably priced seats or obstructed view. I remember seeing the Ragtime revival in a seat where you couldn't really see the top of the stage and just going to hear that score.
I have won exactly ONE digital lottery and it was for Fun Home in previews and I really lost it but they called and offered me a seat.
I don't like the digital lotteries. I have sometimes wondered since it's all done without any disclosure how many tickets they are actually allotting. I have never won the Springsteen lottery (which BTW is $75!!) but I've often wondered if they are only offering 2 seats or some impossible odds. For other shows it does appear on social media that people do win, but I have never been lucky.
I also feel the sense of community is lost with the digital lotteries, but felt very uncomfortable with the extremely crowded situations that started happening for the Hamilton lottery, so on some levels I can understand it. |
