The Playgoer: Cheap Seats

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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Cheap Seats

To those who say the whole problem with theatre apathy is the high ticket prices, I'm happy to report I just bought a BAM fall subscription to four shows for $135. And that's for two tickets to each show! And that includes a $7 service charge for phone orders.

What cheap fare will I be seeing for $16 a seat?

Ibsen's The Wild Duck by the National Theatre of Norway
Twelfth Night directed by the great, great Declan Donnellan
La TempĂȘte, a multi-media reimagining of Shakespeare by Montreal's "4D Art"
Hedda Gabler directed by Thomas Ostermeier, the German director who brought us a stunningly modern Doll's House two years ago.

Yes, we all hate at least some of the stuff we see at BAM. But is anyone else in NYC offering the classic repertory on such a serious scale with such impressive artists? And for as low as $16???

There's lots more, too. Single tickets are now on sale this week, too, if you can only take so much. And much better seats are available in even the $20-30 range. But it definitely pays to subscribe.

I swear I get no kickback from BAM for saying this. But after more than a decade of doing this, it still strikes me as the best theatre value around, even with the occasional misfire. Not to mention the value of seeing some of the best artists from abroad and getting a sense of what's going on in theatre outside of our little bubble here. It almost makes up for my depressing lack of travelling lately.

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