The Playgoer: C Theatre Now

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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

C Theatre Now

From Variety's Frank Rizzo:

Five major Connecticut theater organizations have united for the first time to create a statewide system to offer reduced-priced tickets.

Hartford Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf and Yale Repertory in New Haven, Goodspeed Musical's Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam and Norma Terris theater in Chester have created the website CTheatreNow.com ("See Theater Now"), which offers 25 and 50 percent discounts on tickets the day of performance only.

The website, created by the theaters' marketing departments in association with TheaterMania.com, provides a listing of shows at the theaters and indicates if discounted tickets are available that day.

Imagine if, say, Playwrights Horizons, the Public, Atlantic, and MTC ever got together on a similar venture? True, they already send their xtra tix to TKTS...but I, for one, would much rather go online than wait on that line...

And, besides, how many people on average at TKTS are seeking seats for Off-Broadway nonprofit shows by new writers they've never heard of? I bet they would sell more this way.

I myself am going to bookmark this site since a lot of these theatres are not too far away from NYC. One could log on in the morning then hop on MetroNorth!

5 comments:

Rocco said...

I think that's great, since there's no way I could buy a full price ticket and then pay for transportation on top.

I'm a big fan of New Jersey equivalent: www.njartstix.com

Anonymous said...

In San Francisco, Theatre Bay Area, a theatre services organization with about 400 theatre company members, has a half-price booth in Union Square, and also sells half-price online (some even in advance) at www.tixbayarea.com. We're always looking to increase our inventory, and the small service fee supports a theatre nonprofit, instead of a big commercial ticketing company.

Anonymous said...

To be fair to TKTS, there is now a "straight plays only" line. So as long as you're not looking to go to a musical, buying a ticket at the booth is now a pretty painless experience.

Playgoer said...

True, Dr., the "plays" line ain't Delacorte proportions. But online is still better than any line, no matter how short. Especially if the play is not in Times Sq. So let's say you're downtown and want to check out the show at Atlantic in Chelsea, but have to go all the way up to 47th st first to get the ticket.

TKTS kind of precludes some other online venture from happening soon. But it's probably only a matter of time before they at least supplement the in-person line electronically.

Anonymous said...

For discounts in New York you can go to www.theatermania.com/discounts. Plenty of musicals and plays to choose from, as well as other events.