Producers and Brokers sitting in a tree. Doing B-U-S-I-N-E-S-S.
Back in 2009 (gulp!), I wrote this blog about how Broadway’s year end gross box office figures were wrong. The reported numbers were just under a billion dollars.
But, I argued, the actual take was well beyond that, if you added in the premium that ticket brokers were charging. Of course, we don’t know what that actual amount is, but my point was that Broadway is an even bigger business than our yearly box office indicates.
My conclusion in that blog was that Producers and Brokers, notoriously sworn enemies since the beginning of Broadway itself, should find some common ground. Because sometimes two parties that seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, are actually touching on the other side.
Last week, one of the largest retail brokers, StubHub, and one of Broadway’s biggest hits, The Book of Mormon, announced the first ever partnership between Producer and Broker. As described in this Forbes article, Premium Tickets and exclusive packages for BOM will now be available directly through StubHub, allowing the Producers (and the Artists) to benefit from the StubHub customer who is willing to pay whatever it takes to get a ticket to the show when he/she wants. And it allows StubHub to get direct access to seats from the box office themselves, without having to wait for someone else to dig them up.
It looks to be like a win-win. Customer is happy. Producer is happy.
Why did it take so long to get here?
Who cares. Let’s not worry about the past. Let’s just all keep working on additional ways to use partners (that’s right I said partners, not brokers) to sell our tickets so we can all reap the biggest benefits.
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Podcasting
Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.
