TheaterMania Gold Club, Audience Extras, Play By Play- Page 9

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 2/18/16 at 9:46pm

Scott, feel free to PM me some of these offers. I've been on the verge of joining for a few months now and I'd like to see what you have to offer.

[ScottReiburn2]

Posted: 2/19/16 at 12:18pm

Hi Nasty Khakis, 

Send us an email @ [e-mail] at your convenience and we'll tell you more about the club and give you great reasons to give it a try... 

Look forward to hearing from you...

Scott 

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/9/16 at 3:58pm

Has anyone found that there have been zero offerings of note lately on any of the papering sites? I find this especially hard to believe coming out of February which is a notoriously slow time at the BO. Are these sites going the way of the dinosaurs? 

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 3/9/16 at 5:17pm

Some of the papering sites list their sold out offers so you can see what you've missed, others do not. It is possible you just missed what you were looking for (I'm assuming Broadway) since they go very quickly. There have been several high profile Off-Broadway offerings, but even those can sell out in a matter of hours. Also, unless a show is simply not selling, most try to limit papering to the first couple weeks of previews (if you keep on offering comps after that, it can be hard to build an audience of paying customers if everyone knows they can get in for free). So, for several shows opening soon, its possible you missed the window on those.

While not comps, TDF has seen an increase in the number of broadway shows listed. In my experience, its the newer shows that offer papering the most. 

[macnyc]

Posted: 3/9/16 at 5:23pm

I have been very disappointed lately. I'm on a month-by-month at Gold Club. I hope to see things like Disaster on there. I wrote to Gold Club to ask to be put on the email list for Disaster, but that service has been discontinued. If the club doesn't pick up soon, I'm going to drop it. It's a shame because these clubs do put tickets in the hands of people who love theater and, I imagine, can get the word on BWW and social media. 

Updated On: 5/3/16 at 05:23 PM

[Just_John]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 1:35pm

Gold Club is the worst one.  Nobody wants to give them tickets because the guy in charge is a crazy ass, and it's not worth any producers hassle when there are so many stress-free options to get butts in seats. Check out Play by Play and Theater Extras.  They both get plenty of Broadway, and high profile off-Broadway, tickets but you have to check the sites daily.  

Updated On: 3/10/16 at 01:35 PM

[ScottReiburn2]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 1:45pm

Hi Just John. These are hurtful words and we're really not sure where they are coming from. Last month you wrote the following: 

TheaterMania Gold Club, Audience Extras, Play By Play#190
Posted: 2/15/16 at 11:23pm

Just_John said: " Gold Club never has Broadway anymore, probably because they're difficult to deal with and have no problem being rude to anyone when they're making money off getting comp tickets and that's gotten around."

Hi Just_John. Scott, Manager of the Gold Club here. Would love to have a quick conversation with you re/ the above. Very surprising to hear "difficult to deal with" and "being rude to anyone they're making money off"...Wow. Can I trouble you to email us @ [e-mail] your phone number, or at the very least, an email address? We take pride in how we treat our members, and if someone on this end is being less than helpful and kind, we want to know about it. By the way, the Gold Club has had no fewer than 5 Broadway shows in the club in the past couple of months. I look forward to hearing from you and showing you how important our members are to us! 

All the best, 

Scott 

John, why don't we have a phone call to clear the air here? 

For anyone interested in information directly from the Gold Club, we'd be more than happy to be of assistance. Email [e-mail]. Thank you! -Scott 

[Theater3232]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 1:52pm

Regarding all of the clubs:

I have a feeling the next couple of weeks will have some major off-Broadway offers (shows that are closing, shows that are starting previews).  However, the calendar shows that off-Broadway tends to be heavier in the autumn months up through February.  Also, 20@20 ends on Sunday, which is a reason why the past couple of weeks have been lighter with off-Broadway.

Regarding Broadway, there is certainly room to paper for many shows (judging by the latest grosses), but for whatever reason, Broadway producers would rather the houses play to 50%-70% capacity instead of papering via the clubs (they are still papering via the industry).  That's demoralizing to cast/crew and results in lost drink/merchandise sales as well.

[outsideofadog]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 1:59pm

I have to say that this whole thing is out of control. Members of Gold Club, I think, want as many good (and you know what I mean) offers as possible. I have been a member of all the named entities. I am not sure about Audience Extras, but both Gold Club and Play by Play have said, directly to me, that they have very small staffs and this impacts their work, etc. That doesn't matter to me. We as members just expect the service we are paying for. When we don't like it, we should just remove ourselves from the subscription, and the organizations should allow that, but we should not devolve into personal attacks.  I could recount some pretty terrible things about some interactions I had through the years. Why bother when it's not going to get you what you want. Vote with your money; cancel your subscription, members. And give what we are paying for, clubs. But the nastiness of this back and forth is detrimental to the whole process and is certainly the antithesis of the spirit of theater.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 2:08pm

I signed up for Gold Club last month and will be cancelling. The offerings have been absolutely paltry; I've used it once, blind, for something I never would have paid for. Definitely not covering the cost of membership. 

 

 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 2:09pm

If there has been a Broadway show in the past two months, if was gone in a flash. 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 3:20pm

There are enough off-Broadway shows at certain theaters that I'm holding out hope for that I'm not ready to cancel anything yet. But I agree that, looking back, February was a particularly bad month. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 3:25pm

And it was a terrible month for business, so I'm not optimistic about better offerings in the spring, when things aren't so lean.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/10/16 at 3:31pm

I'm not going to weigh in on what Just_John is saying tonally but I have my own issues with the customer service of Gold Club. I've said in the past that I find them to be very condescending and unhelpful. Every question you ask is copy and pasted the same response. If you ask to be put on a waitlist for a show that's previously been on they never tell you it's available and in the past I've had to email them after I've already seen the offer and gotten tickets. Honestly it's not my fault if they have a small staff because I don't think I'm being unreasonable by asking the occasional request. Maybe if they had a better selection of shows they'd make more money.

[tiramisu_girl]

Posted: 4/6/16 at 10:43am

Hi, is anyone a member of Audience Extras who's willing to help out? I'm thinking of switching to this and would just like to know if it's worth it if I'm mainly concerned with Broadway shows. Thanks!

[@z5]

Posted: 4/8/16 at 10:09pm

Gold Club is awful...rarely has anything decent to go to, and their website still says that have "Recently" had tickets to shows that closed WELL over a year ago. I wish I could get my money back from when I was a member. 

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/8/16 at 10:16pm

The trick is you have to check almost every few minutes and than jump on something when it pops up. The last month or two have been abnormally slow.

[@z5]

Posted: 4/8/16 at 10:20pm

I was a member before the last month or so and there was nothing to offer, it's more of a scam than anything.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/8/16 at 10:24pm

If things continue like this for the summer, look for one of them to fold their tents for good.

[Pammylicious]

Posted: 5/3/16 at 3:09pm

just as you say no broadway BOOM 

 

gone already

Updated On: 5/3/16 at 03:09 PM

[sorano916]

Posted: 5/3/16 at 3:20pm

Show-Score (http://www.show-score.com/start) has been offering some shows with a $5 administration charge to active members/reviewers. Most have been off-Broadway, but they did offer Tuck last week. *shrugs* All you have to do is review/score shows to get offers. Nothing to really lose to be a part.

[SpealingBeChamp]

Posted: 6/24/16 at 11:36am

This is a bit of a old thread, while I've lurked on this board in the past the desire to ask a question on this topic has caused me to finally register.
 

I was wondering what the current opinions are about some of the services mentioned here as many of the posts in this thread are years old. I also didn't notice anyone mention studentrush's Will Call Club, I was a member a little over a year ago & they used to be great for off and off-off Broadway shows (unfortunately I was using the club several times a week and got extremely sick without notifying them of the cancellations and had my membership revoked without any recourse for reinstatement). Does anyone have any information on what they're current lineup has been like?
I currently only belong to TheaterManis's Gold Club because they offer monthly memberships, they're selection is fairly disappointing with mostly cheap cabaret type shows but around twice a month I'll find a small play that interests me enough to keep my membership going.
I'm hesitant to join any of the programs that require a year long membership, especially when they insist on keeping their show listing hidden until after they have your non refundable year long membership fee.

I suppose what I'd really like to know is how the other sites compare to the Gold Club and if any of them are currently worth joining? 

Thanks.

[Sara Goldstein]

Posted: 6/29/16 at 4:53pm

I am a member of Student rush currently and they don't tend to offer anything the other services don't have. I do keep it though always hoping something pops up but sometimes I am just not fast enough. I have both Gold Club and PlaybyPlay. I find overall that PlaybyPlay has more and better offerings. Don't expect to see a Broadway show every day but they do get a good amount throughout the year along with plenty of off-broadway to choose from.

[ashk8177]

Posted: 6/29/16 at 5:04pm

I also have play by play and have been pretty happy with it. I only joined a few months ago and have seen 2 broadway listed (1 musical and 1 play), tons of off and off-off broadway, 2 ballets, both walking and bus tours, and stuff at BB king. There is much more, just naming the ones that caught my eye.  I went the Bway musical listed and that alone paid for my membership. I don't care for the $5 fees on top of the membership fee, but my guess that helps keep people from making reservations and not showing up. Shows at LIncoln Center are particularly likely to show up. If it keeps up the same I will renew for next year. 

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/29/16 at 6:21pm

Will Call/Student Rush can hold its own depending on what you like. They seem to have connections with MTC and Roundabout so it's worth it for me. And once in a while they get a Broadway offer and unlike with the other sites, it doesn't disappear in a few minutes. 

I'm also relatively happy with Gold Club. I don't see a ton of stuff but there tend to be worthwhile offerings. I haven't made the leap to Play by Play yet even though I'm paying the same for Gold Club because I don't feel the need to add anything else right now. Also, with all the closings lately, there's not much for me to fish for. Maybe next year.