$76 Standing Room tickets for 'The Music Man' is bullshit on the highest level

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

It was announced this week that standing room tickets for Broadway’s ‘The Music Man’ will be made available at the staggering price of $76. While the price is considerably lower than a regular seated ticket at the Hugh Jackman-led revival, it’s well above what is usually charged for those types of tickets and spits in the face of those hoping Broadway will become more accessible.

To add insult to injury, the show isn’t hurting for revenue. It’s been nearly sold out for its entire run and grossing over $3 million a week. The idea of standing room tickets is to make it possible for people who can’t afford the $200 rear mezzanine seat. Seriously, $200 for the last row in the theatre. So compared to that, producers must think that $76 to stand for 2+ hours is a bargain beyond belief.

Yet it just reeks of elitist bullshit.

Also, the supposed cleverness of having them at $76 to match “76 Trombones” is even more insulting. I saw a funny comment on a thread that read “why couldn’t it have been 39 trombones led the big parade?”.

It’s these types of shenanigans that make me think that Scott Rudin isn’t as fully departed from the show as he said he would be.

In the end, it won’t matter because people will pay for those “seats” to an above-average revival and the ludicrous notion of paying that much for standing room tickets will look like a great idea to the investors of the show.

Do you want my advice? Use the same amount of money and go see ‘A Strange Loop’ which is a much better show where they’re not making you empty your wallets to stand in the back.