The hottest game on Broadway was written more than 400 years ago. The demand for Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal Face in Shakespeare's “Othello” is so strong that many central orchestra chairs sell for $ 921, which helps the show fair records of the show.
During the first week of previews, the average ticket price was $ 361.90, more than double that on the next show with highest average price (“The Outsiders”, at $ 155.02). And last week “Othello” raised $ 2.8 million, more than none of them -musical has ever made Broadway in a few week.
The huge numbers, for a show that has not yet been assessed and that was sold for a long time before someone had seen it, come at a time when the prizes for the most sought after pop concerts and sporting events are also quite high.
And theater pricing-aldhans for the most sought after shows are no exception.
At its peak, “Hamilton” $ 998 counted for the very best seats during holiday weeks, and at one point a revival of “Hello, Dolly!” Taken from $ 998 for seats in the first row, so that fans of Bette Midler could be brushed the possibility by her glove while she strolled past a Passerelle.
But “Othello” distinguishes itself by the large number of seats that are sold at the highest prices, which increases the average ticket price. With many upcoming versions, the show asks $ 921 for the first 14 rows in the Orchestra Center, and for a large part of the first two rows on the front mezzanine.
The show uses, just like others, variable prices-the prices are higher for the most desired seats at the most desired times. Early in previews, the top price was $ 897, and there are some future versions with the top price $ 721. The show reported a lowest regular ticket price of $ 197 last week, and with each version a number of partial display goals have been made available through an online lottery for $ 49.
With many movie stars and television stars that appear on New York stages this season, a number of shows have charged high prices for their best tickets.
A production of “Romeo + Juliet” with Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, sold well during his 20 -week run, which ended only eight days before “Othello” started. (Yes, it has been a good season for Shakespeare.) For most weeks the top price for “Romeo + Juliet” was $ 574.50, but it sold a number of seats for $ 974.50 during the thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Week, and the calculated $ 1,478.50 for some seats during the last week. But the average ticket price was considerably lower than that for “Othello”, a peak at $ 225.07 during the last week, and often much lower.
Another star weather game on Broadway, “Good Night and Good Luck”, with George Clooney in his first professional stage in almost four decades, asks $ 799 for the best seats for some versions, while a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” has some tickets to offer for $ 724.50. And the prices for those shows can rise if demand peaks.
Off Broadway, a one -man “Vanya” with Andrew Scott in the lead role andrew Scott counts up to $ 449, while the Brooklyn Academy of Music is looking up to $ 435 to see a revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Paul Mescal.
Washington is very praised and extremely popular. He has won two Academy Awards, for “Glory” and “Training Day” and a Tony Award, for “fences”; In 2020 he was appointed by the New York Times film critics as the greatest actor of the 21st century so far. “Othello” is his sixth leading role on Broadway, where he is now one of a small handful of artists who reliably sell strongly.
But the sale of “Othello” is at the next level and seem to display the attraction of the combination of two well-known actors with a well-known title, and also a “Taylor Swift effect”, which means that consumers get used to paying top dollar for live entertainment.
“Shows such as 'Othello', which are Star vehicles with a limited run, do so much to build the Broadway brand, and they are a unique part of the ecosystem,” said Deksha Gaur, the executive director of TDF, a non-profit organization trying to make theater more accessible and that supervises the TKTS discount steers. “At the same time, it is of course important for us as an industry to think that people are aware of all the price points available to the public – there is a huge range of shows available to the public, and we don't hear that.”
Gaur pointed out that during the week that ended on March 9, 10 of the 26 shows on Broadway had an average ticket price under $ 100 (the average price for all shows was combined $ 120), and she said that 21 of the 26 shows had at least one performance for sale at the TKTS cabins, where Last-Minute Tickets were sold.
It is of course possible that the prices for “Othello” can fall. If reviews, or word of mouth, are not great, that could lead to a reduction in prices for the remaining ticket inventory at the cash register and can also reduce the demand for the resale market.
But so far, “Othello” has recorded more at the cash register than any other show on Broadway, “Wicked”, “Hamilton” and “The Lion King”, although those shows play in larger theaters and sell more seats.
“Othello”, as every Broadway show nowadays, cost a lot for the stage, namely how producers tend to explain high ticket prices. The show, which will open on March 23 in the Ethel Barrymore Theater, was capitalized for a maximum of $ 9 million, according to an application for the Securities and Exchange Commission. And, like most plays with movie stars, which tend to have a limited time available for stage work, it has a short run: it is planned for just 15 weeks. That makes a return and profitability, challenging.
The main producer, Brian Moreland, refused to comment on the prices of the show. But the subject is clearly a sensitive – after the New York Post entertainment critic Johnny Oleksinski wrote a column that refers to the “Othello” prices such as “Obscene” and based on “greed”, the production refused to fulfill its request for free press chairs, who had previously offered the production with other Jalalisten.
