Pippin Rush

[Employed123]

I wish I was unemployed so that I could rush Pippin everyday

[lenstersf]

I wouldn't go as far as calling him a psychopath, but definitely unusual and somewhat excessively obsessive. Meh...It's ultimately his time and money, so whatever.

Good luck with the rush tickets. I saw the show last Friday, and when I walked into the theatre at 7:45pm, there SRO line was formed, but tickets weren't being sold yet...I believe there was a single ticket unsold. The view from the back of the orchestra would be awesome though.

[gchris11]

I was unemployed which is how I racked up so many shows so fast. now I am working and it is my guilty pleasure on my days off.

[gchris11]

delete.

[TheaterGirl622]

Wowsers! I was going to get there at 8 (I live waaaaay uptown almost in the Bronx), but I just re-set my alarm to get there earlier tomorrow: it's my one and only chance to see the show before leaving town for the summer. Thanks all for the info - wish me luck getting out of bed quickly enough tomorrow!

[ClydeBarrow]

"Some are better than others but I am not giving out that info. Sorry."

[Kelly2]

"I have got to go back stage, sing on the cast album, was at the GMA shoot. I chat with the cast members when we run into one another at various events and on the street. or at the theater before and after shows. They are AWESOME. I am not psyco, I just go to the show a lot. I don't stalk them, most of the time they approach me and ask how many times this week? I am chill and one of the nicest people you will meet. Stop by the rush line some time and chat. I only bite if you want me too. LOL!"

This is reminding me of Penny Lane in a bad way. "Don't you have any real friends?" "Famous people are just more interesting."

[gchris11]

Kelly, I have real friends. Why are you so bitter? I see the show a lot, big deal.

[Kelly2]

The way you talk about it makes it sound like a cult. I don't think "join us" is meant quite so literally...

[gchris11]

They do call it the MANSON TRIO!!!! LOL :)

Come drink the Kool-Aid Kelly. It's okay!!! LOL!!!

[showchoirguy]

Has anyone rushed the show on Sundays?

[gchris11]

yes, box office opens at 12

[showchoirguy]

What would be a good time to arrive at the box office?

[gchris11]

before 8 am.

[mpd4165]

I concur. I showed up a little after 8 AM, and was 8th in line. The first few showed about 10 minutes before me. I got orchestra row C, last seat on house right. Missed a little but not a lot.

[pli1018]

Rushed the show yesterday (Thursday). My two friends and I got in line around 7:28ish. I believe 19 tickets total were sold, the last three being ours. All three seats were box seats, neither together nor particularly good. I moved down to standing room before the show started, fantastic view from there!

[dancer484]

I rushed this morning (Tuesday). We arrived at 7:10am and were 16th and 17th in line. They had about 20 tickets--I know the 2 people behind us got some of the last tickets but we didn't stay around after that.

[stevenycguy]

It's really bizarre (and quite frankly inhumane) how they try to sell (or more accurately, withhold) standing room for this show.

If you wait around 4 or 5 hours, and there is *ONE* ticket still unsold, they will not sell standing room to you.

There are times when a show was sold out according to telecharge.com by 5:20pm, but the theater was still not selling standing room at 7:50pm even though there was a long line of people waiting for it. Perhaps they were afraid they'd have ONE person return their tickets by 7:59pm so as to make the show no longer sold out.

(Meanwhile I've seen theater industry people picking up comp tickets for this show while I was waiting for standing room.)

I bet the box office personnel get tired of seeing the same people 10+ times on multiple days, only to keep turning them away again and again and again. Let's face it, you know we're not going to buy full-priced tickets, so just sell us the standing room and you won't see us again and we won't keep holding up the line for full-priced customers.

I've had no problem with other shows - Kinky Boots, Motown, Book of Mormon, etc with standing room. Just this theater.

[ACL2006]

I find it bizarre that they really wait until EVERY SINGLE TICKET is sold before selling SRO. I've never heard of any other show doing this. Hell, after In The Heights won the Tony it frequently sold standing room even if the show was only at 95% capacity or so. Jersey Boys still sells SRO, as long as the show is close to being sold-out. And even Chicago will sell SRO during the peak holiday weeks. I just can't believe this theater is really making it's fans wait until up to curtain to tell them if SRO will be sold. I guess I was fortunate to have SRO sold to me an hour before curtain for this show.

[broadwaydevil]

It is absolutely absurd. I was fortunate to be able to rush the show last week after getting a day off work but in the weeks before whenever I had a free afternoon or evening I would check throughout the day to see if standing room was being sold and continually encountered the same rude box office employee who would tell me I'd have to check back later that there were seats available and standing room was only when every single seat was sold.

I checked on Telecharge each time and the most number of seats that were ever available on the nights where the box office wouldn't sell the tickets was 7 randomly scattered single seats. Most other nights it was 3 or 4. They were mostly $135.

Let's say there are 25 standing room spots and they sell them at $30 per person (not sure on these numbers since I never actually got standing room for Pippin), that's $750 of revenue per show they're missing out on, or $6000 per week, no not a huge amount of money, but not insignificant. This also doesn't even include other benefits the show receives by having 25 extra bodies in the house like merchandise and food and beverage sales and good old word of mouth. The average person willing to wait on a line for hours and check back with a box office all day to stand for three hours during a show is not someone who's going to spend $135+ on tickets. Them withholding standing room will do ZERO harm to the sale of a few randomly scattered single seats but will annoy people who want to see the show and everyone else trying to pick up will call 10 minutes before curtain and fighting past a bunch of people hoping the box office will release standing room.

The point of selling standing room "when the show is sold out" is because if there are tons of seats throughout the theatre at a variety of prices, it would make sense why a producer wouldn't want to lose out on potential sales of slightly more expensive seats. It isn't to sell 3 extra seats that no one who would otherwise get standing room will ever buy. No other show that I have ever stood for has ever had such an absurd policy. If the producers insist on continuing this for whatever illogical reason, I suggest they develop some sort of system to ease the traffic flow at the box office if nothing else. Perhaps tweet when standing room becomes available? What about actually putting up the "sold out" sign when the show is sold out so people who want standing room don't need to constantly ask and check, they can just look for the sign? Or at the very least, have a box office employee who appears to have some interest in his job and can answer questions without being condescending and causing more confusion.

Rant over!

[thepangelinanpost]

Has anyone done SRO for a Wednesday matinee? Given that the box office is open all day, unlike Sunday, does SRO open up earlier than usual?

[getatme]

From experience and the experiences of several friends, SRO for a Wednesday matinee is sort of a crapshoot. Sometimes they'll offer it early in the day, sometimes 10 minutes before curtain, but recently, it's not been happening at all.

[thepangelinanpost]

Thanks, I'll report back tomorrow. I'm hoping Tony week helps with sales.

[gchris11]

I was there last wednesday and they did not offer it as the show was not sold out.

[tytonius]

I went thru the same process as you did:
At 6:30, the house was open and they still hadn't started selling rush tickets. It was probably 6:45 before the door manager started sending people one at a time to get them. $37 each, 1 ticket per person. Cash or credit. The three people who were in front of me were seated where I was (Row B and C in the far left orchestra) and my friend was seated in Row C in the far right orchestra. Apparently, only 15 tickets or so were given out.

The show is phenomenal, by the way. Try to see this one soon--as soon as it's open, I have a feeling that the rush lines are only going to get longer.

[ClydeBarrow]

What the hell are you talking about? They don't sell rush tickets at 6:30...and the show is open.