Affordable Theater

Affordable Theater

Two Broadway plays which recently set box office records were Othello, with Denzel Washington, and Good Night and Good Luck, with George Clooney. These are limited-run performances with staggering prices for good seats, about $700 to $900 per seat. The average ticket price for a Broadway play at the moment is about $200 and we'd be talking “nosebleed” up near the ceiling or so extreme on a side that your neck will ache for days.

When Rent and Hamilton debuted, they featured low price (and even free) seats in their runs offered by lottery and other means, so that more people could have an opportunity to see the shows.

Right now, there is an emphasis on “low cost housing” in much of the US. When I was the chair of the planning board in our affluent town, we were charged with creating a minimum of all new construction contributing to the 10% goal of all housing in town being “low cost, with the consequence of losing money granted by the state government. (“Affordable” was based on actual income vs. average income in the state.)

Why can't we have “affordable theater” where every show must have a percentage of tickets selling for some reasonable range, say the cost of an average movie ticket? Interested parties could enter a lottery of some type by providing proof of lower income—perhaps through tax payments. I understand that producers of plays and actors and support staff intend to make money, and they believe they often need huge star power instead of great material (which I thought was the case with Clooney), but isn't art for everyone? I feel the same way about museum admissions and athletic events.

And some people are telling me that the cost of those movie tickets for a family has become astronomical.