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| Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" | |
| Posted by: JBarnet 07:45 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| Caught the matinee of Mockingbird today. Thought it lived up to the hype. Just fantastic. Getting to my seat, however, was not. It was the most chaotic getting into the theater experience I have had in recent memory. Lines snaking back and forth all going different places with no signs. The lone female employee working the lines outside was screaming at anyone trying to figure out what was going on. (I recognized her from Blackbird at the Belasco, where I have a distinct memory of her screaming at someone about their bottled water.) Ushers were extremely rude. I get that it's a lot of people in a short amount of time, but I used to be a Broadway usher and I would've gotten fired for treating patrons that way. I was in the mezzanine by one of the ushers and noticed something unusual, at least in my experience. If anyone came up to the usher asking for a Playbill he made them show him their ticket. To be clear, these were people who had already been seated. I saw this happen multiple times. He was not checking to make sure they were in the right spot. He was just checking for the ticket. But it went even further. Two people asked if they could have an extra and he told them they needed a ticket to get a Playbill and that it was only one Playbill per ticket. I thought maybe they were running out because it was Sunday and that maybe they were doing their best until a new shipment came in for Tuesday, but at intermission I noticed stacks and stacks of them in a side corner. Is this some sort of new policy? Staff rudeness blemished an otherwise fantastic afternoon. |
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| I’d rather have “one Playbill per person” than “NO playbill - go online” (nm) | |
| Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 09:55 am EST 02/18/19 | |
| In reply to: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - JBarnet 07:45 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" | |
| Posted by: winters (dearworld2@gmail.com) 08:49 am EST 02/18/19 | |
| In reply to: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - JBarnet 07:45 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| There is never a call for rudeness, especially when it is toward the ticket buying public. As a former playbill acquirer, I would always ‘need’ to leave the theater with two playbills. One of which I could read at my seat and the other, being in pristine condition, for the ‘collection.’ Many years ago just before the Saturday matinee began, I got up from my seat (in a seat wherein I did not disturb anyone), I went the short distance up the aisle and took a second playbill from the stack under the seat in the last row of the orchestra. The usher gave me a stern look. As the lights dimmed same usher, coming up the aisle paused at my seat and handed to me all the playbills she had in her hands. Better than a dozen. “We seem to have a lot of extras.” ‘Shogun, The Musical” Several years ago I sorted through the ‘collection’, kept the important (to me) playbills and passed on those cartons to another collector through this very site. Told the person, money not required, just a hand truck as delivery was not included. I had grown tired of paying the monthly storage bill for all those cartons and wanted the playbills to be in a home wherein they were actively wanted. In this new era of decluttering I was ahead of my time. I’ve got a suitcase crammed with Broadway souvenir books for which I am trying to motivate myself to list and send to new homes. Here’s the thing. Mortality is beginning to knock on my door. My husband, much younger, will survive me. He has little interest in the theater. Just the thought of him paying someone to dispose of all those boxes of ‘junk’ in the basement after I have gone to sing ‘Blow Gabriel, Blow’, well.... I would not rest easy. |
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| re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" | |
| Posted by: mikem 04:55 pm EST 02/19/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - winters 08:49 am EST 02/18/19 | |
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| winters, thank you for sharing your story. I am also a Playbill collector and like to have a pristine copy. That was very kind of the usher to give you more Playbills! I've got a lot of Playbills that I may never look at again, but I also have a bunch of them that make me smile when I think about that show. I'm fortunate that I have the space for both groups right now. |
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| I think it's a Scott Rudin thing | |
| Posted by: charles1055 09:34 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
| In reply to: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - JBarnet 07:45 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| I tried to take an extra Playbill for a friend from a stack at Boys in the Band and was told the same thing. I think it's because people are reselling them. It seems absurd though to me that someone paying the price of a ticket can't reasonably ask for an additional Playbill. |
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| re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" | |
| Posted by: mikem 08:50 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
| In reply to: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - JBarnet 07:45 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| The thing with the Playbills and the usher sounds weird. Why were several people who were already seated asking for Playbills? It sounds like maybe he seated a bunch of people without having Playbills to give them, and then told them to come up later and get them. It seems odd to ration them out like he was, but it sounds like there was some oddness to begin with if people weren't given Playbills at the time of being seated. And he should have anticipated that only one of a couple might go up to get the Playbills from him. And I don't really understand why showing your ticket helps him. How did people get into the mezz without a ticket? Anyone approaching him had a ticket at some point. |
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| re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" | |
| Posted by: JBarnet 10:01 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - mikem 08:50 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| Yeah. That’s exactly why I thought all of it was weird. | |
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| re: "One Playbill per person" | |
| Posted by: Dale 10:23 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
| In reply to: re: Mockingbird today - "One Playbill per person and no Playbill without a ticket" - JBarnet 10:01 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| Ever notice how many PLAYBILLS are left behind in seats or on the floor after a performance?????? | |
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| re: Yes. | |
| Posted by: SuzanneR 09:42 am EST 02/18/19 | |
| In reply to: re: "One Playbill per person" - Dale 10:23 pm EST 02/17/19 | |
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| And I always think “Animals.” |
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