The Cost of Art
We finally got to see Hamilton, and it was a great night. It’s a fantastic, well-written play, and we got to see it in DC, just a few blocks away from the Treasury they’re singing about. I mean, we’re in the capital, and they’re singing about establishing the capital. So that part was magical. Plus, my sister-in-law had a baby shower the day before next to Yorktown, so, really, literally traveled Hamilton’s route (except that we stopped in DC instead of continuing to NY).
It was a wonderful cast, and the costumes and dancing were impressive. I cried like my heart was breaking in half when Philip died. Our seats were great; everyone around us was happy. Overall, an exceptional theater experience.
But you already knew all of that because everyone says that. Because it’s true.
A while back, we had an opportunity to see it in New York with the original cast, but the tickets were going to be around $500 per person. PER PERSON. The kids wanted to see it, and we wanted them to see it, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around the idea of paying that kind of money to see a play. So as we were watching the play this week, I asked myself how would I have felt if I had purchased $2000 worth of tickets to see a performance of this play. And the answer is that I would have felt sick about it. Was it good? Sure. But it wasn’t $2000 good.
It wasn’t even $900 good, which was the cost of other seats in the theater. We got $99 seats, thanks to our friends who gave us their tickets at cost. $99 is still A LOT for an evening of entertainment, but it wasn’t appreciably different from the $65 – $80 I paid for Broadway tickets 15 years ago. So $65 seats inflated to $99 seats, and $80 tickets more than doubled to $225.
And people will pay it. Every single seat in the theater was taken, and the seats sold out within minutes.
Hamilton was an incredible opportunity to hook the next generation of theater-goers, and I’m sure that it grabbed some kids along the way; maybe ones that lucked out and got the lottery seats plus a few who paid full price.
But the vast majority of those people won’t see another play this year. They may not see another play ever.
It is expensive to create a show,* but when it costs $2471.50 to experience art (It’s $2471.50 for a family of four to see The Cursed Child** on Broadway or $879.50 if you purchase seats in the back of the theater), you have to ask who is the show for? The elite? The people willing to carry credit card debt in exchange for a night of entertainment?
The lottery seats in the front row are a nice Band-aid to a much bigger problem. I can wrap my brain around the concept of a queue and needing to wait three years to get my turn to see a show. There are only so many seats in a theater. But the cost? The New York production of Hamilton is making over $600,000 in profit per week (it’s grossing $1.9 million per week). It’s keeping $31.2 million per year after paying its actors and crew. Doesn’t that feel… off? Especially when you think about how much the traveling shows are making, too?
As we were walking out of the theater, I thought about all the people who wrote on the walls at Elephant House that JK Rowling made them fall in love with reading. Her books created the next generation of readers. Would that have been the case if she had seen the popularity of her books and tripled the price just because people would pay? Granted, you can borrow a book from the library but you can’t borrow a theater seat. But you know what I mean. Would we still feel good about buying Harry Potter if after book three when the public frenzy was cemented, she raised the cost to $60 per book? If she split the last book into two books, making you pay $120 to read the end of the story?
Lin-Manuel Miranda created a great play. And he deserves big bucks for that hard work. Most shows are not Hamilton, and you need the Hamiltons of this world to pay for the smaller shows that don’t turn a profit. Though I’m not sure that $31.2 million is trickling down to any of those struggling shows.
But those numbers above give me pause. I hate the idea that people will be one-and-done with theater after they’ve ticked off going to Hamilton. I want the show to be a door that people walk through into a world of going to theater all the time. But how can they do that when the cost of going is that high?
* Believe me, I know the general costs of putting on a show. My husband and many of our friends work in theater. I have gotten to sit through many a budget discussion.
** There are so many shows priced like Hamilton now. The Cursed Child requires you to purchase two tickets to see the whole play. The least expensive option is $190 per person and the prices goes up to $588 per person for good seats. There’s a $29 service fee for each ticket and a $3.50 processing fee, bringing the total to $2471.50 for a family of four.
10 comments
That’s why I didn’t make more effort to see Hamilton when it was in town. And why I don’t go to concerts. I can’t bring myself to pay that much money for entertainment. I’m glad of Hamilton’s success and that the cast has great opportunities because of it. I just can’t see paying that much for 3 hours of something when I could better use that money elsewhere.
The price of theater now is outrageous. I still try to see 1 show per year because I love it, but it’s definitely a splurge. I used to see 3-4 shows a year. I want to be able to take my kids – they hear the soundtracks all the time – but we can’t afford it.
I am glad to hear the raves about Hamilton continue. I was lucky enough to get 2 seats at face value (so still $$ but not $$$$), and I keep worrying that after all the hype and build up, I’m going to have spent $300 to be disappointed.
Absolutely. I adore live theatre & concerts, but the prices are getting ridiculous — especially if you’re trying to take an entire family. I just paid $450 for two tickets (in the orchestra section) to see “Come From Away” here in Toronto for our wedding anniversary in July. We enjoyed it hugely, but it was the most expensive evening of theatre I’ve ever paid for (including tickets to “Kinky Boots” on Broadway, a few months after it won all the Tonys). “Hamilton” is coming next year, and I imagine the tickets for that will be at least that expensive (if you can get them…!).
When I was growing up in Manitoba (40 years ago, I’ll admit, but still…!), they would bus in schoolkids from miles around/hours away for matinee performances at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. I remember paying something like $20 for season’s tickets, which included 5-6 shows during the year (balcony seats), plus the transportation there & back. Plus we got the afternoon off classes to go 😉 and we always stopped at McDonalds en route home for something to eat. 😉 We saw some excellent productions over the years, including some plays we’d studied in school — Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen. I don’t know if they still do the same thing these days (or what the prices would be now), but I hope so. I am sure that a lot of kids got exposed to live professional theatre that way who would not have seen it otherwise.
My son, a stage actor in Chicago, cannot afford to see most equity shows in town–unless he is able to get an industry night ticket. I can’t go unless there are comps, which are fewer and fewer with every show.
Yes, Yes, Yes to this whole post. It is so unaffordable to see anything at that level. I love experiencing live theater, but it’s just not feasible. Small community theatres, school shows, and other traveling acts are the way to go.
In contrast to these high priced shows, we used to go to the Baltimore Shakespear’s Festivals Skakespear in the Park every summer. They shut down several years ago due to funding, as they were a non-profit run by theater students. The shows were some of the best I have ever seen, the quality and the acting. It’s so sad how uneven it all is, people paying thousands to see the some big-name show, and these very good small local outfits just struggle so bad. And the art get lost.
I really want to go. But at the moment it’s a total of 10 hours of return travelling to London, plus tickets, plus a sleeper train or a hotel. I do like a weekend in London but it’s not like I can just pop down.
At the same time, we have a fabulous local theatre with a mixture of volunteer and professional staff, that struggles to get bums on seats outside panto season.
It won’t happen, but it’d be lovely if the folk in charge of Hamilton let provincial theatres run the production.
I confess I have seen Hamilton twice now in London. Here it is at the top end of London theatre prices but you can still get to see it for a lot less than $500 each. There are very strict controls in selling so no crazy prices from yours either. I did think it was worth it / for us it was instead of spending that money taking an extra few days on vacation or going out to eat a few times. The production in London is also paying for the complete restoration and improvement of the Victorian theatre it is in so it’s not just going to make the producers and creatives very rich. We are lucky to have a very vibrant theatre scene in London which doesn’t seem too affected by the mega shows.
Jealous. It came to SF last year which is 2+ hours each way plus babysitter etc. tix were $500 each (direct not resale). (Maybe there were cheaper tix at one point but they must have sold out the first hour or something). But I was swamped at work until fall and the run was over by then. Seeing it anywhere else would be a huge expensive trip. Maybe it’ll come back to SF some day…but yeah we’re not rich but we’re comfortable and yet that’s a huge expense. Not affordable for the general population.
Ouch. That’s really expensive! And the Cursed Child tickets sound outrageous too. Even before I convert into NZ dollars.
Though that said, I’ve got tickets for Catherine Tate in December, and she’s not cheap. And I’ve paid for West End musicals in London. (We don’t get the option of many big shows here in NZ.)
It’s all about relative cost, and what we want to spend our money on. I know people who wouldn’t travel because it is too expensive, yet they get the latest iPhone every year.
Anyway, glad you had a great time.
I guess this is what happens with limited supply and high demand. Price is the way to allocate a scare resource, and it’s not a perfect way for all the reasons you say. Maybe, like Rent, it will be turned into a movie so it’s more accessible to people wherever they are and at a much more affordable price, not being limited to the number of seats in a theater in a day (or twice a day).
So glad you got to go at an affordable price! I splurged way too much when Hamilton came to Denver. The show was fantastic, but I confess I had a bit of buyer’s remorse about the sheer outlay.