In one of the most gratifying moments near the end of "Act One," his classic memoir, Moss Hart vividly describes seeing a long line snake down West 45th Street, filled with people clamoring for tickets to "Once in a Lifetime," his first Broadway hit, co-written with George S. Kaufman. That iconic image--box office lines around the block--epitomized Broadway success.
Today, such lines are rare; the ever-multiplying ways to buy tickets have made the curling queue a relatively quaint 20th century relic. If you're not desperate to see the Main Stem's biggest hit today, you can call ahead--most major sellouts offer tickets a year to 18 months in advance. Craftier, thriftier folk explore myriad discounts and buying incentives on at least two dozen websites. Thousands of people dole out dollars for membership in ticket clubs, get in on group sales, test out ticket brokers, snuggle up to scalpers, and/or wait months or even years for seats to a once-SRO blockbuster that finally turns up, at last, at the TKTS booth in Duffy Square.
But for those who are desperate, there's a new phenomenon, one ironically reminiscent of that scene in Hart's book. It's called "sleeping in the street."
Actually, such nocturnal submissions have only occurred once in recent memory: when "Rent" began a daily lottery (Broadway's euphemism for "rush") for $20 tickets; the seats are located in the first two rows of the Nederlander Theatre. And at the pinnacle of the craziness, that cultural rite-of-passage--sleeping outside while waiting for rock concert tickets to go on sale--even inspired a new term: "Rentheads."
Now comes word that "Hairspray," Broadway's newest SRO smash, will begin instituting its own last-minute lottery with the performance of Tues., Dec. 3. Of course, it's a matter of speculation as to whether the demographic appeal of the two musicals are precisely the same. For that reason, one cannot easily discount the possibility that yesterday's sleep-deprived "Rentheads" won't be the "Hairheads" of tomorrow.
You've Got to Be in It to Get In
Partly because the "Rent" lottery proved so popular with the want-it-now set, there are arguably more people lining up today at box offices for standing room seats, returned tickets, or "rush" seats than for full-price purchases. The recent public fretting of Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers, regarding still-soft advanced ticket sales for Broadway would appear at least tangentially related to the trend.
Yet if the weak advance-sale market worries the League, it has positively invigorated producers and marketers. Today, almost all Broadway shows use discount codes as well as a bewildering array of other incentives to sell seats.
Details regarding how the "Hairspray" lottery will work are still in the planning stages, according to a spokesperson for Richard Kornberg and Associates, which handles publicity for the tuner, and a spokesperson for Laura Green-Richard Frankel Productions, the show's general managers. Presumably, however, they will follow near to the "Rent" format: You write your name on a card, then wait on the street until roughly 6 pm, when the cards are drawn and the names of the "winners" are announced via megaphone. Also like the "Rent" lottery, the "Hairspray" lottery will likely be cash only.
Currently, standing room tickets for "Hairspray" are available for $20 at the box office on the day of performance. The lottery tickets, however, will cost $30 and be for the 25 seats that constitute the last row of the Neil Simon Theatre, Row U. Which one is the better buy is all, therefore, a matter of personal preference.
In the meantime, here is the question: Do two Broadway shows with ticket lotteries truly constitute a trend? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Or perhaps, instead, it's best to look outside the Broadway box. In late 2000, after tickets sold out within minutes to "The Late Henry Moss," the new Sam Shepard play starring Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, Cheech Marin, and Sean Penn, San Francisco's Magic Theatre created a rush-like lottery--an idea that was as much a hit with the crowds as the show itself.