Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler | |
| Posted by: FleetStreetBarber 08:53 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
| In reply to: re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler - mikem 03:24 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
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| "Was it typical at that time to have one price point for all of the orchestra and many different price points for the rear mezz?" For the most part, yes. In looking at the ABC theatre directory in the New York Times from April 14, 1969, I couldn't find any shows with multiple pricing in the orchestra. Unlike "Fiddler" however, most shows at the time had lower pricing for Monday through Thursday evenings as opposed to Friday and Saturday evenings. I did find that shows at both the Lunt-Fontanne and the 46th Street Theatre (now the Rodgers) earlier in the decade advertised "divans," which were more expensive than orchestra seats and which I took to be the first few rows of the orchestra. I'm not sure when the "divan" seating faded away. As far as variable pricing in the orchestra is concerned, I do recall that Harold Prince experimented with it with one or more of his shows (possibly "A Little Night Music" and/or "Superman"), but I cannot recall the details or how successful the experiments were. I also remember that most previews had reduced rate tickets that were far less than post-opening night prices. |
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| re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler | |
| Posted by: mikem 10:48 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
| In reply to: re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler - FleetStreetBarber 08:53 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
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| Thanks, FleetStreetBarber! I'm curious what the "divan" seating was all about. Were they wider seats or just closer? It would be interesting to see whether a theater would experiment with having wider seats at a higher price, and whether the market would support that. I would not have thought that people would pay $50 or more to have the use of a private lounge with bathrooms at intermission, but I don't think that would be a continued option for the Hudson and Lyric if people weren't paying it. | |
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| re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler | |
| Posted by: FleetStreetBarber 02:20 pm EDT 08/29/19 | |
| In reply to: re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler - mikem 10:48 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
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| I wish I could help you further, mikem, but divan seating was before my time. I only know about it from ads that I've been able to find online. In the case of the Lunt-Fontanne, I saw an ad for Sid Caesar in "Little Me" from 1963 which said divans were the first 12 rows of the orchestra. It may just have been a sales ploy, the same way some theatres referred to loges rather than mezzanines or balconies. | |
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| re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler | |
| Posted by: RLand 02:12 pm EDT 08/29/19 | |
| In reply to: re: from the "bygonebroadway" Instagram - ticket price increase for Fiddler - mikem 10:48 pm EDT 08/28/19 | |
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| I remember Divan seating first coming out in the late fifties in a few theaters---I think the Morosco and Helen Hayes (then the Fulton) were two. They were usually situated around fifth or sixth row orchestra center, and to my knowledge (I never sat in them) they were slightly wider. then the normal orchestra seat. Re the Fiddler prices: In the fifties and sixties (and before) it was normal for shows to sell balcony seats for lower prices as the seats got further away from the stage. Usually there were for or five price scales, even in theaters with small balconys like the Booth or Music Box. Even musicals that opened with enormous advance sales or had great demand for tickets after they opened (My Fair Lady, for example) kept the four or five price range balcony tickets in tact. No matter how successful the show , never at that time did it sell tickets at one price for say, the first ten rows of the balcony, and then lower them a bit for the last two. |
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