Mr. Saturday Night

[SmoothLover]

Does anyone know if this show was workshopped? How did it all come about? Did it tour?

[BrodyFosse123]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/theater/billy-crystal-mr-saturday-night-broadway.html

[SmoothLover]

Thanks for the article. I must say there is a lot of talent associated with the production. 

[Sauja]

Looks like they finally SORT OF got the message. The last several rows of the mezzanine have dropped from $199 to $139 for all performances. Still more than I would pay to sit in the back of the Nederlander, but I guess it's an improvement. 

[TaffyDavenport]

They haven't lowered the prices for matinee performances.

[JSquared2]

They'd have to pay ME $199 to sit in the Nederlander mezzanine!

 

[Sutton Ross]

The front mezz is $199 which is pretty standard. I don't really get the drama and complaining about this show's prices. Welcome to Broadway?

[uncageg]

JSquared2 said: "They'd have to pay ME $199 to sit in the Nederlander mezzanine!"

 

I sat up there twice. The first time wasn't too bad but the second time I had an aisle seat for "War Paint" (M 115) and my legs got a bit cramped. The worst seat is that E 20 seat down in the Right Orch. I got a rush ticket for "Newsies" and sat there. The seat was literally tilted to the side. I was in so much pain after the show. I was really thinking of just leaving at intermission. 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

I sat in the Front Mezz for LEHMAN. It was fine. Not much worse than any other mezz I've sat in...

As for the ticket prices, as many of us have said before: If enough people don't want to pay for tickets at that price point, they will lower the price. Or the show will close. It's all supply & demand & an attempt to avoid scalpers. A show is a business entity, and it owes you nothing.

As for the origins of the show, this has been Billy Crystal's "passion project" for a number of years. He wrote/directed/starred in the movie, and now he's cowriting/starring in the stage musical. There have been NYC readings, plus the "public" workshop at Barrington Stage last fall. I would guess he even has some money in the show. Crystal talks about the show's origins at 6:10 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a5bgfb4eSI

[Tom5]

If Mr. Saturday Night is as good as Billy's interview with Kimmel it's a hit!

[bwayphreak234]

These prices don't seem too outrageous to me. Especially now that they lowered some performances to have the $139 price point. I have sat all over the mezzanine at the Nederlander (including the last row) and the view has always been perfectly fine to me. 

[JasonC3]

Though some do, I doubt most people commenting on ticket prices in various threads truly feel they are "owed" something.


Many simply stating their take on the perceived value of a production and its cast, as well as the overall pricing trends.

 

[mamaleh]

After sitting in a very leg-room deficient seat in the mezzanine (and I'm only 5'6", I actually had to have  physical therapy for my knees.  The pain was excruciating.  As to the show, it was HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, which was only mildly painful.  

I much prefer standing room there, which I did for RENT. 

[Sauja]

Sutton Ross said: "The front mezz is $199 which is pretty standard. I don't really get the drama and complaining about this show's prices. Welcome to Broadway?"

Sure, the front mezz being $199 isn't wild. But they were charging $199 for the last row of the mezzanine until a couple days ago. Even Music Man, which is wildly overpriced, had a number of $99 seats for every performance. Hamilton had some $60 seats before the scalpers sent those prices sky-high. The issue isn't the stupid expensive price of Broadway seats. It's that almost every single Broadway show usually makes at least SOME reserved seats affordable when they first go on sale. My issue was never that the majority of tickets were $399 or $199. It was that ALL of the tickets were those prices. If the last two rows of the mezz were $79, I never would have blinked at the pricing for the show. So now, I will confess, there's a bit of schadenfreude watching them have to lower prices because they're not moving the volume of seats they expected to. 

[Sutton Ross]

I totally get your pov and am glad they are lowering prices. I don't have much interest in this show but the talent involved is pretty incredible. 

[theaterdarling]

SmoothLover said: "Does anyone know if this show was workshopped? How did it all come about? Did it tour?"

FYI and FWIW in one of the other "Mr. Saturday Night" threads there are comments on the production staged at the Barrington Stage Company by a few who saw it, myself included.

[Groz]

I have always liked Billy Crystal and loved his one man show.  But, I hope that he fails miserably with Mr. Saturday Night.  I hate that they have the nerve to price the tickets as outrageous as they have.  99% of the orchestra seats are $299 and up.  I go to Broadway very often and the producers can price their tickets any way they seem fit, but some of them are way too full of themselves. 

       This show reminds me of when they over priced Young Frankenstein after the very successful The Producers.  Of course supply and demand will dictate what the tickets eventually go for, but going by how many tickets are still available for all of the performances, it shows the backlash.

         Hope they lose a fortune on the show and I am usually not a vindictive type and always support all Broadway shows over and over.

          Groz

 

 

 

 

 

        

[Jordan Catalano]

Oh, shut up. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

If enough people don't want to pay for tickets at that price point, the producer will lower the price. Or the show will close. It's all supply & demand & an attempt to avoid scalpers. A show is a business entity and they probably only have Billy Crystal for a finite amount of time.

The beautiful thing about Broadway is that if you can't afford THIS one show, there are plenty of other, cheaper options with inventory. Same goes for shows that are sold out, or shows that you aren't interested in seeing.

Any time there is a rare show that's priced more expensively (this, Music Man, Hamilton, Hello Dolly, star-driven plays), certain people try to use it to make statements about Broadway's prices, when the majority of shows have tickets available for under $100.

[JSquared2]

Groz said: "I have always liked Billy Crystal and loved his one man show. But, I hope that he fails miserably with Mr. Saturday Night. I hate that they have the nerve to price the tickets as outrageous as they have. 99% of the orchestra seats are $299 and up. I go to Broadway very often and the producers can price their tickets any way they seem fit, but some of them are way too full of themselves.

This show reminds me of when they over priced Young Frankenstein after the very successful The Producers. Of course supply and demand will dictate what the tickets eventually go for, but going by how many tickets are still available for all of the performances, it shows the backlash.

Hope they lose a fortune on the show and I am usually not a vindictive type and always support all Broadway shows over and over.

Or here's another idea...you could just NOT see this particular show??

[carolinaguy]

They have done another round of price reductions. I was looking for a matinee performance in May and all of the mezzanine seats had been $199. They are now priced $119 -$159. 

[inception]

carolinaguy said: "They have done another round of price reductions. I was looking for a matinee performance in May and all of the mezzanine seats had been $199. They are now priced $119 -$159."

Looks like they're going to move month by month on price reductions.  July still has everything high

[dangeresque49]

I actually don't mind high pricing on broadway shows. I know that it is exceedingly rare that I can not wait long enough for a seat to become available at an affordable price or get lucky on a lottery, partial view, rush ticket, etc. I say let the suckers buy the high priced tickets early to get the show paid for and subsidize my cheap tickets on the back end of the run. 

The only way to beat the greed in the entertainment industry is to stop playing their game. I control the price I am willing to pay by being flexible and informed and willing to miss out once in a while. I have seen almost every big ticket show on broadway in the last 5 years without paying more than than the tkts price and most of the time much less. The one exception is I saw hamilton in chicago but at that time I believe the cast was considered superior. 

[broadwayfan128]

Any rush or lottery announced yet ?

[veronicamae]

broadwayfan128 said: "Any rush or lottery announced yet ?"

Not yet