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- From: aku@leland.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Chia-Tso Ku)
- Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre,rec.answers,news.answers
- Subject: rec.arts.theatre Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): part 3/3
- Supersedes: <2kq2da$bsn@nntp2.Stanford.EDU>
- Followup-To: rec.arts.theatre
- Date: 13 Apr 1994 08:18:42 GMT
- Organization: Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
- Lines: 547
- Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
- Expires: Mon, 30 May 1994 00:00:00 GMT
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- Reply-To: aku@leland.stanford.edu
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- Summary: This part of the rec.arts.theatre FAQ contains ticket
- information for Broadway and London theatre. This document
- is posted on a monthly basis. Warning: LONG!
- Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu rec.arts.theatre:14486 rec.answers:4885 news.answers:18032
-
- Archive-name: theatre/part3
- Last-modified: 1994/4/13
-
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- FAQ Part 3: Broadway and London Ticket Information
-
- # = new or significantly revised
-
- 9. BROADWAY INFORMATION [AK]
- 9.1 How do I find out what's playing?
- 9.2 Buying Regular-Priced Tickets
- 9.2.1 In Person Purchases
- 9.2.2 Telecharge/Ticketmaster
- 9.2.3 Mail Order
- 9.2.4 Cancellation Lines
- 9.3 Discount Tickets
- 9.3.1 TKTS (Officially: New York City on Stage) [MB/AK]
- 9.3.2 Bloomingdales [MB]
- 9.3.3 Standing Room
- 9.3.4 Twofers
- 9.3.5 Student Tickets
- 9.4 Premium-priced Tickets
- 9.4.1 The Actor's Fund of America
- 9.4.2 Scalpers
- 9.4.2 Brokers
- 9.5 Returns/Exchanges
- 9.6 Size of Bway theatres and Floor Plans [AK/DF/DP]
- 9.7 Additional New York Information
-
- 10. LONDON INFORMATION [DF]
- 10.1 Venues
- 10.1.1 The West End
- 10.1.2 The RSC and the RNT
- 10.1.3 The Fringe
- 10.2 How to find out what's playing
- 10.3 How to get tickets
-
-
- *************************************************************************
- ** 9. BROADWAY INFORMATION ***************************
- ** [AK,comments: aku@leland.stanford.edu] ***************************
- *************************************************************************
-
- 9.1 How do I find out what's playing?
-
- Good sources for finding out what's playing on Broadway (and
- off-Broadway) are the Sunday New York Times Arts and Leisure section,
- New York Magazine, and The New Yorker. All three have capsule
- summaries and list a phone number for ordering tickets. Better
- bookstores and newsstands may carry TheaterWeek, which also carries
- detailed listings. If your site subscribes to the clari.news hierarchy,
- a weekly posting entitled "Broadway Boxscore" in clari.news.arts lists
- current Broadway and off-Broadway attractions, and ticket availability.
-
- The League of American Theatres and Producers has a telephone line
- with recorded information: 212-563-2929
- BWAY
-
- 9.2 Buying Regular-Priced Tickets
-
- 9.2.1 In Person Purchases
-
- Many people prefer buying tickets in person at the box office: there
- are no service charges; you can refer to a floor plan in front of you;
- and you are handed the tickets on the spolt. The major drawback, of
- course, is that you have to be in New York to buy tickets this way, or
- at least have a friend do the schlepping around for you. If you
- are visiting from out of town, you can always gamble and wait until
- you arrive in NY to do your ticket shopping. If you only need singles
- and don't go after the monster smashes (PHANTOM, TOMMY, ANGELS IN
- AMERICA) you may be pleasantly surprised by the (full price) seats you
- can get a day or two before the performance.
-
- The manner in which ticket inventories are maintained has always been
- shrouded in secrecy, but some have felt that the quality of seats sold
- via the telephone agencies weren't as good as those sold in person.
- That perception may have been largely shaped by the refusal of the
- phone agencies, in the past, to reveal seat location, thereby allowing
- them to stick phone purchasers with poorer seats that would have been
- refused by an in-person ticketbuyer. Now with both Broadway ticket
- agencies (Telecharge and Ticketmaster) giving out seat locations over
- the phone, this perceived disparity may no longer have any basis.
-
- 9.2.2 Telecharge/Ticketmaster
-
- TELECHARGE sells tickets to shows playing at Shubert and Jujamcyn
- houses (PHANTOM, ANGELS IN AMERICA, PASSION, TOMMY, etc.) as
- well as Lincoln Centre Theatre, Circle in the Square, and selected
- off-Broadway theatres. Telecharge now gives out seat locations over
- the phone, but usually only during daytime hours. For books that
- contain floor plans to Broadway theatres, see section 9.6 of the FAQ.
-
- (212) 239-6200
- (800) 432-7250 outside NY/NJ/CT
-
- The 800 number is a relatively recent addition, and only gets
- advertised with some shows, notably the more tourist-friendly shows
- like CRAZY FOR YOU. If you are out of town and the show you are
- interested in lists the 239-6200 number, try the 800 number instead if
- you want to save on long distance charges.
-
- TELECHARGE has a service charge of $4.50/ticket
-
- ---
-
- TICKETMASTER sells tickets to shows playing at Nederlander houses
- (SHE LOVES ME, DAMN YANKEES, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, etc.) as well as
- selected off-Broadway theatres. Ticketmaster now gives out seat
- locations over the phone.
-
- (212) 307-4100
- (800) 755-4000 outside NY/NJ/CT
-
- TICKETMASTER has a charge of $5/ticket plus an overall transaction fee
- of $2.50 for the order.
-
- 9.2.3 Mail Order
-
- In this age of instant gratification, people often overlook snail
- mail, a slower, but far cheaper means of buying tickets. There is no
- service charge involved, and you can request seats in a particular
- area of the theatre and for a particular date or range of dates (but
- if you are overspecific, you'll get your check returned and a "no can
- do" note). I have found that I have always gotten better seats via
- mail order than through phone orders, but now that seat locations are
- available over the phone, this point may no longer be valid. Some
- shows will offer mail orders weeks or months before telephone orders
- are accepted.
-
- Payment: By check only. >>> Include a self addressed stamped envelope.
-
- Turnaround: 2-3 weeks, but this is ballpark
-
- Address: You can find the address to send your payment and SASE
- in the alphabetical listings in the Sunday New York Times, OR
- you can call Telecharge/Ticketmaster (make a note of which
- agency your show uses) and they will tell you an address to send
- mail orders to.
-
- 9.2.4 Cancellation Lines
-
- Cancellation lines sprout when a show reaches sellout status. The
- term "cancellation line" is a bit of a misnomer, because most of the
- tickets sold this way are actually house seats reserved by producers
- to give to VIPs, and are only sold to the public at the last minute,
- just before the curtain rises. These seats can be very good indeed,
- but the possibly of not getting in (the number of available seats
- isn't announced until the last minute) can deter many. Tickets are
- full price.
-
- 9.3 Discount Tickets
-
- 9.3.1 TKTS (Officially: New York City on Stage) [MB/AK]
-
- These are the well-known "1/2 price" ticket booths that sell
- day-of-performance theatre tickets to Broadway and off-Broadway shows.
- Starting in mid-1992, TKTS started offering 25% off tickets to more
- popular shows (under pressure from producers) in addition to 50% off
- tickets. Keep in mind that some shows are almost never available at
- TKTS, like PHANTOM and LES MISERABLES. TKTS adds a $2.50 surcharge
- that goes to the Theatre Development Fund, a non profit agency that
- runs TKTS and does a lot of work in promoting and supporting the theatre
- community. TKTS accepts cash or travellers cheques *only*. No personal
- checks or credit cards.
-
- Recorded information: 212-768-1818
-
- LOCATIONS:
-
- ** Duffy Square (Times Square: 47th St. at Broadway)
-
- Right in front of the ticket windows are plastic orange plaques that
- list *all* the shows with discount tickets available. As a show sells
- out, the plaque is removed. "Runners" from the various theatres may
- drop off new ticket inventories during the day, so the selection
- continually varies (although it is almost certainly the best when the
- booth first opens). By the time one gets close enough to the see the
- boards, one has only about a minute before having to step up to the
- ticket window. It is always good to wait at TKTS in pairs, so that
- one person can walk to the front of the line at regular intervals to
- check on what's available so one isn't caught making a snap decision.
- The ticket sellers can be pretty surly at times, so don't dawdle. A
- nice addition in the past year or so has been a table that features
- flyers, discount coupons, twofers (see below) to shows (primarily
- off-Broadway). These coupons can be used to buy advance, discount
- tickets at the boxoffice of the show in question. Some date and/or
- seat location restrictions may apply.
-
- While standing in line, you may be approached by people selling
- tickets to hit shows (LES MIZ, CATS, etc.), often at significant
- discounts. DON'T buy them!! There will certainly be the occasional
- person who is legitimately trying to unload an extra ticket or two, if
- someone cancelled on him (most shows don't allow refunds), but it is
- more likely that the tickets were purchased with stolen credit cards
- or obtained by equally shady means. It's probably not worth the risk.
-
- Hours:
-
- Monday thru Saturday 3pm -8pm for evening shows
- Wednesday and Saturday 10am-2pm for matinees
- Sunday noon-"closing" for Broadway matinees and off-Broadway matinees
- and evening shows
-
- ** World Trade Center (2 World Trade Center Mezzanine)
-
- Matinee tix are sold 1 day prior. This booth also sells full
- price Broadway advance tix.
-
- Reopened: April 5, 1993
-
- Hours:
-
- Monday thru Friday 11am to 5:30pm
- Saturday 11am to 3:30 pm
-
- ** Brooklyn (Court and Montague (sp?) Streets)
-
- THIS BOOTH CLOSED ON NOVEMBER 27, 1993, AND WILL NO LONGER BE
- OFFERING DISCOUNT TICKETS.
-
-
- 9.3.2 Bloomingdales [MB]
-
- Bloomingdales has a Ticketmaster outlet on the third floor by the
- Credit Office, supposedly open store hours which are 10-6:30 on
- Saturdays. They sell discount tix on a sliding scale for day of
- performance only.
-
- 9.3.3 Standing Room
-
- A sellout show does have a potential silver lining: the theatre
- may begin to sell standing room. Provided that the theatre can
- accomodate standing room (for example, the Broadway Theatre doesn't)
- and the day's performance is expected to sell out, standing room is
- usually sold first thing when the box office opens at 10am.
- Unfortunately, not many shows sell out these days; PHANTOM, GUYS AND
- DOLLS, ANGELS IN AMERICA, and KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN are among the
- recent ones that have and thus offered standing room. If you can get
- standing room, they are an excellent buy: typically, they are $15 or
- $20 for spots at the rear of the orchestra section (where seats cost
- $65 for most musicals). To find out what time you should start standing
- in line, ask the person in the ticket booth the day before, and get
- there 1/2 or 1 hour before the time he gives.
-
- 9.3.4 Twofers
-
- "Twofers" is now a bit of a misnomer as well; formerly, these
- ticket-shaped coupons allowed one to buy 2 advance tickets for the
- price of 1 at the boxoffice, but now they now offer widely varying
- discounts to both Broadway and off-Broadway shows (and you can buy
- only single tickets). Usually seat and date restrictions apply, but
- the nice thing is that you can buy them in advance (but not *too* far
- in advance, at most maybe one month ahead of time). Twofers are
- distributed around New York (hotel desks, recreation centers, the
- table at the Times Square TKTS booth), but if you live out of town,
- you can send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Hit Shows, 630 Ninth
- Ave., New York, NY 10036 and they will send you some for assorted
- shows. Usually only older shows that are slipping financially will
- offer twofers.
-
- 9.3.5 Student Tickets
-
- Some Broadway shows sell student tickets; often these shows have run
- awhile and use these offers to attract business. [Notable exceptions
- to the rule were Cameron Mackintosh shows, which sold student tickets
- (albeit in the rear balcony) to shows like LES MISERABLES and PHANTOM
- from the very first performance. Since revamping the ticket scales to
- $15-$65 for everyone, student discounts for the CM shows have been
- eliminated, but student discounts may still be available for his
- touring productions.] One often has to inquire about these tickets at
- the boxoffice, as they are not posted to the "Scale of Prices" sign
- outside the boxoffice. Student tickets are only sold in person at the
- boxoffice, and require a student ID. They usually aren't prime
- seating.
-
- Student tickets are more readily available off-Broadway, especially
- at the non-profits like the Public Theater. Some offer only
- student/senior rush seats (ie. 30 minutes before showtime).
-
- 9.4 Premium-priced Tickets
-
- These are only options that the most wealthy or fanatical would use.
- Choice seats to popular shows may be snapped up by scalpers or brokers
- and resold at a premium, often at several times the face value of
- the tickets.
-
- 9.4.1 The Actor's Fund of America
-
- Broadway producers assign a few seats to every performance to The
- Actor's Fund of America to help raise money for the Fund's charitable
- work in the entertainment industry. Seats are double the box office
- cost (1/2 is a charitable donation). Tickets are on a first-come,
- first-served basis (subject to availability) (212) 221-7300.
-
- 9.4.2 Scalpers
-
- You can sometimes find these people loitering around the front of the
- theatre of a "hot" show just before the performance. Keep in mind that
- you are taking a chance when buying a ticket from an unauthorized dealer:
- even if the ticket looks authentic, it could have been purchased with a
- stolen credit card and have been invalidated.
-
- 9.4.2 Brokers
-
- These are essentially legalized scalpers and typically, as in their
- ads, they offer seats in the first 12 rows of the orchestra to the
- hottest shows (PHANTOM, TOMMY, ANGELS IN AMERICA) for a substantial
- premium. You can find their postage stamp-sized ads among the theatre
- ads in the Sunday New York Times.
-
- 9.5 Returns/Exchanges
-
- It says right on the ticket NO RETURNS OR EXCHANGES, so you will have
- a tough time getting either from a Broadway show. If the show is a
- sellout, there is a slim chance that this will be allowed, but the
- transaction has to be done in person. If the show you attend features
- star who gets billing above the title in the advertisements, and the
- star doesn't show, you *may* be eligible for a refund. Check at the
- box office before the performance begins.
-
- 9.6 Size of Broadway Theatres and Floor Plans [AK/DF/DP]
-
- Theatre total orchestra address
- seats seats
-
- Ambassador 1125 602 215 W 49th St
- Brooks Atkinson 1090 608 256 W 47th St
- Ethel Barrymore 1096 620 243 W 47th St
- Belasco 1018 532 111 W 44th St
- Martin Beck 1302 686 302 W 45th St
- Biltmore 948 520 261 W 47th St
- Booth 783 515 222 W 45th St
- Broadhurst 1157 702 235 W 44th St
- Broadway 1765 909 1681 Broadway (at 53rd)
- Circle in the Square 681 681 1633 Broadway (50-51st)
- Cort 1089 506 138 W 48th St
- Criterion 499 499 1514 Broadway (at 45th)
- Gershwin 1933 1298 222 W 51st St
- John Golden 805 468 252 W 45th St
- Helen Hayes 499 311 240 W 44th St
- Imperial 1452 755 249 W 45th St
- Walter Kerr 949 541 219 W 48th St
- Longacre 1220 523 220 W 48th St
- Lunt-Fontanne 1478 858 220 W 48th St
- Lyceum 938 411 149 W 45th St
- Majestic 1629 895 245 W 44th St
- Marquis 1601 1016 1535 Broadway (at 45th)
- Minskoff 1621 1039 45th & Broadway
- Music Box 1010 539 239 W 45th St
- 1216 592 208 W 41st St
- Eugene O'Neill 1077 711 230 W 49th St
- Palace 1686 807 47th & Broadway
- Plymouth 1077 660 236 W 45th St
- Richard Rogers 1342 802 226 W 46th St
- Royale 1058 622 242 W 45th St
- St. James 1636 702 246 W 44th St
- Shubert 1483 697 225 W 44th St
- Neil Simon 1334 683 250 W 52nd St
- Virginia 1220 744 245 W 52nd St
- Winter Garden 1513 989 1634 Broadway (50-51st)
- Vivian Beaumont 1050 723 150 W 65th St
- (at Lincoln Center)
-
-
- Books of floor plans to NY theatres are available:
-
- 1) The New York Theatre Soucebook by Chuck Lawliss ISBN# 0-671-68870-7
- Fireside Book, published by Simon & Schuster Inc.
-
- 2) STUBS is a booklet with seating plans for about 100 Broadway,
- Off-Broadway, and other theaters in the NY region. It is
- available at some theatre souvenir shops in the Broadway district
- and is also available by mail order. Send a check for $12.20
- payable to STUBS to:
-
- STUBS Magazine
- 226 West 47th Street
- New York, NY 10036
-
- The price includes shipping and handling (the list price is $9.95).
-
-
- 9.7 Additional New York Information
-
- To keep the size of the FAQ manageable, further New York tourist
- information has been archived. A "New York Survival Guide" was compiled
- by Paul Goldsmith in preparation for the 1993 RATcon in May.
-
- This document has been combined with hotel listings, and archived
- by Elizabeth Lear Newman at world.std.com as:
-
- RAT-archive/NYCguide
-
- It has also been archived by David Pirmann at quartz.rutgers.edu as:
-
- /pub/theater/nyc-info.gz (gzipped)
- /pub/nyc/nyc-info.gz (gzipped)
-
- While you are connected to this archive, check out the NY information
- that David has been writing and saving from other newsgroups. Located
- in the directory /pub/nyc/, there are files on restaurants, clubs,
- and book and record stores in NY. The quartz archive is available
- via gopher.
-
- *************************************************************************
- ** 10. LONDON INFORMATION ******************************
- ** [DF,comments: davidf@world.std.com] ******************************
- *************************************************************************
-
- 10.1 VENUES
-
- Just as theatre in New York can be divided into Broadway and
- Off-Broadway (and Off-Off-Broadway ...), theatre in London can be
- divided into the West End and the Fringe.
-
- 10.1.1 THE WEST END
-
- The West End corresponds closely to Broadway; it is the home of big,
- commercial theatre. Like Broadway, it is dominated by large, long
- running musicals such as LES MIZ, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MISS SAIGON,
- CATS, etc.. And like Broadway, critics keep writing its obituary, but
- you can still find quality theatre here, often revivals of classic
- plays (Shaw, Wilde, etc.) with top British actors (familiar to
- American audiences from Masterpiece Theatre), or transfers from the
- Fringe or the RSC or RNT. Prices are comparable to Broadway, or
- perhaps a bit cheaper depending upon the current exchange rate; top
- prices range from almost 30 pounds for the big musicals down to around
- 20 pounds for plays, but you can pay much less if you aren't choosy
- about where you sit.
-
-
- 10.1.2 THE RSC AND THE RNT
-
- The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Royal National Theatre
- (RNT) are the real jewels in the crown of British theatre. Although
- often lumped together with the West End, the RSC and RNT are different
- from the other, commercial theatres, in that they are subsidized,
- which allows them to mount more adventurous productions with less
- attention to the bottom line, and both present plays in repertory,
- with several different shows being mounted over the course of a week.
- Although the RSC does, as it's name implies, concentrate on
- Shakespeare, both theatres perform plays from all periods, including
- new works. The RSC's home in London is the Barbican Centre, with two
- theatres -- the large Barbican Theatre and the smaller Pit. The RNT
- is based in the South Bank Centre, with three theatres -- the large
- Olivier, with its unusual fan-shape, the more conventional Lyttleton,
- and the small, flexible Cottesloe. Both the Barbican Centre and the
- South Bank Centre are huge, concrete, post-war architectural
- monstrosities, but the theatres themselves are quite nice. Ticket
- prices range from a high of 21 pounds down to 5 pounds; the top ticket
- price for weekday matinees at both the RSC and RNT is only 10 pounds.
-
- The RSC has a second home in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has three
- more theatres, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, the Swan, and The Other
- Place. Many RSC productions start in Stratford and run there for a
- season before transferring to London. Stratford is less than two
- hours from London and is well worth a trip; the RSC even runs a
- shuttle which allows you to visit for a day and catch a show.
-
- 10.1.3 THE FRINGE
-
- The term The Fringe covers all the other theatres in and around
- London. It is of wildly varying quality, but much of it is quite
- good, and the prices are generally lower. Some Fringe theatres are
- run as clubs, which means they are covered by somewhat different
- regulations than normal theatres. In most cases, this just means that
- if you aren't already a member you have to pay an extra pound or two
- to join the club when you buy a ticket. Many of the clubs have
- reciprocal memberships, so if you go to several different Fringe
- theatres you may only have to join once.
-
-
- 10.2 HOW TO FIND OUT WHAT'S PLAYING
-
- First, check the separate FAQ listing current West End, RNT, and RSC
- shows (unfortunately, there are too many Fringe shows to make listing
- those practical). Second, check the various publications listed
- elsewhere in the FAQ; of particular note in the States is London
- Theatre News. London newspapers are a good source for current
- listings; many of them include information on ticket availability so
- you can check which shows are selling out. In the Boston area you can
- find London papers at Out-Of-Town News in Harvard Square; if you know
- where to find them in other cities let me know so they can be added to
- the list.
-
- The weekly magazines WHAT'S ON and TIME OUT both have extensive
- listings of what's going on around London, including theatre; it's a
- good idea to pick up one or the other when you reach London,
- especially if you are interested in what's going on in the Fringe.
- Also pick up the London Theatre Guide, a free brochure put out
- bi-weekly by the Society of West End Theatre and available at most
- theatre box offices.
-
-
- 10.3 HOW TO GET TICKETS
-
- If you are planning in advance, the easiest way to get tickets is by
- calling the box office and using a credit card; pretty much all the
- West End box offices, as well as the RNT and RSC, will be happy to
- take phone orders, and most of them can tell you exactly where you
- will be sitting (by the way, the ground floor seats that are called
- orchestra seats in the States are called the stalls in Britain, while
- the mezzanine becomes the dress circle).
-
- Another possibility is to buy in person at the box offices once you
- reach London; this allows you to look at a seating chart and see
- exactly where you will be sitting.
-
- If saving money is important, try the Half Price Ticket Booth in
- Leicester Square. Similar to the TKTS booth in New York, the Booth
- sells same day tickets for many West End shows at half price plus a
- small service charge, cash only, limit four tickets per person. These
- are tickets that the producers haven't been able to sell elsewhere, so
- you won't find the most popular shows or the best seats, but you can
- see some great theatre at a bargain price. The booth is open from 12
- noon for Matinee tickets, and 2:30-6:30 for evening tickets, Monday
- through Saturday (although you should get in line early for the best
- choice).
-
- If the show you want to see is sold out, don't despair. First, check
- with the box office; if you are flexible about which performance you
- want tos), you may get lucky. Second,
- most shows offer "returns" (already sold tickets which have been
- returned) for sale on the day of the show; ask the box office how
- early you should show up to get in line. Both the RSC and the RNT
- reserve a small number of tickets which only go on sale the day of the
- performance, at 9 am at the RSC and 10 am at the RNT, although
- depending upon the popularity of the show you may need to be in line
- well before that.
-
- If you don't have time to wait in line for a ticket and are willing to
- pay a premium, there are a large number of ticket agents in London who
- would be glad to sell you a ticket for a fee over and above the face
- value of the ticket; you can find them by checking ads or simply
- walking around the West End. There are also a large number of touts
- (or scalpers) outside the major shows, but it is recommended that you
- don't buy from them -- there is no guarantee that the ticket is
- legitimate, and you have little recourse if you discover you've been
- had.
-
- Finally, West End Cares' Charity Ticket Hotline can help you get into
- sold-out shows and help a worthwhile cause. Theatre producers donate
- house seats to their shows (which are usually good seats), and they
- are then sold for twice their face value, with the money being donated
- to an AIDS charity. It's expensive, but it allows you to do a good
- deed while you see a good show. The number is 071 976 6751.
-
-