The rising ticket prices of Broadway productions are quickly shutting out most of the public. Live theater has become more of a luxury commodity than an accessible entertainment option, a domain for members of the upper class with large amounts of disposable income.
Historically, this was not the case. It was an outlet for the public to attend high-quality theater and escape, even for a couple of hours, from the drudgery of a hard life.
The typical household income of people attending Broadway productions reached an average of $276,000 in the 2022-2023 season, according to Playbill. New York City suburbs made up 13 percent of admissions, a number that truly demonstrates the inaccessibility for people of local communities.
Apart from ticket prices skyrocketing in general, they are especially high for revivals of well known productions or adaptations of popular films.
“If the line is still out the door, then the ticket prices continue to go up,” according to Robert Florence, an adjunct economic professor at Syracuse University.
In March, Shakespeare’s Othello made a return to Broadway, in a production starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal. Average ticket prices reached $338.83, according to The New York Times. Getting anywhere near the stage cost triple that.
In addition to popular demand for a show, production cost is a significant factor to rising ticket prices. If a show requires very expensive sets and production costs, tickets need to be made much more expensive to compensate.
“It’s really scary right now, because the shows are getting so expensive to run, and as a result, ticket prices need to be higher,” according to producer Marc Hershberg.
To justify such ticket prices, Hollywood stars are lured to the stage in shows with limited runs, making them a kind of “event.” Examples include Washington and Gyllenhaal, George Clooney in Good Night, and Good Luck, and Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) making her Broadway debut in Romeo and Juliet.
The shows starring Washington and Clooney set Broadway records for revenue.
With tickets to professional sporting events seeing similar spikes, the last refuge for bang for the entertainment buck remains the movie theater — where different problems are keeping people away.
Where are people supposed to go?
