The TKTS Fast Pass seems sweet in the short term. But what about the long? | The Producer's Perspective

The TKTS Fast Pass seems sweet in the short term. But what about the long? | The Producer's Perspective

The following was posted on Ken Davenport's blog in response to his posting.

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I’m glad to see we are in agreement about how TKTS markets it’s discount tickets. Here,http://psychicinfection.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-canaries-in-coal-mine.html, I break down the problem about how price percentages mislead the public and work against straight plays to the benefit of costlier shows and against the interests of consumers.

Also, wailing and railing against discount tickets ignores the yang that discounts are with respect to the yin of premium prices and dynamic pricing. The existence of discounts is what allows the ridiculous pricing structure of Broadway to exist as it does now.

Broadway producers have allowed TKTS to go from a useful tool for the distribution of last minute unsold tickets to become as big a Broadway player as any producer on the main stem at all.

And guess what? The interests of TKTS do not align with the producers of the shows whose tickets they sell, and thrive upon. Millions of dollars in fees for selling tickets to shows you say can not pay back investors at these price points? Sounds very much like a grotesque case of the tail wagging the dog, doesn’t it?

The horse has long since left the barn and no single producer can reign in the mighty force that TKTS/TDF has become, but that might be a good task for the Broadway League, wouldn’t you think? That would take enlightened leadership and cooperation and a concerted program of bringing sanity to the pricing structure of Broadway.

I’m not very hopeful that this is in the cards in any way at all, and I fear that the future of Broadway will suffer for it.