EXCLUSIVE: With investors to repay and resellers on the prowl, the producers of Hadestown increased ticket prices by as much as 47 percent, coinciding with the show’s best musical win at the Tony Awards on June 9.
The hike primarily kicks in during the last four months of the year, when tickets are plentiful. They’re currently on sale through Jan. 5, 2020.
The jump illustrates how the industry’s highest-profile award bolsters demand. (Hadestown also won seven other Tonys.) Broadway Journal randomly selected dates to compare prices. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, seats in the the fourth-row of the right mezzanine of the Walter Kerr Theatre cost $249 — plus $18.70 in fees when buying via Ticketmaster, the primary online outlet.
That section previously ranged from $179 to $219, according to a memo sent last month to group sales agents from SPOTCo, which handles Hadestown‘s advertising and marketing.
Likewise, tickets are $249 plus fees for the last row of right orchestra for the evening of Saturday, Sept. 21. They were previously $149 to $169 in that section, according to the sales memo. A production spokesman declined to comment.
Tickets are scarce over the summer, although a few are often released shortly before each performance, in the $300 to $400 range.
Raising prices when a show wins best musical at the Tonys is nothing new. And the increases for the jazz-influenced folk opera are in line with the market. Hamilton, the 2016 Tony winner, continues to command $849 for the best weekend seats. Tickets for the new season’s first big musical, Moulin Rouge, adapted from Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie, currently top out at $399. The show, capitalized for as much as $28 million, begins previews this month at the Al Hirschfeld.
Hadestown tickets offered by resellers are abundant. But there’s no function on Ticketmaster for finding the the next available ticket, excluding those from resellers. (Ticketmaster, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, services 14 of Broadway’s 41 venues.) Ticketmaster spokeswoman Ashley Dos Santos said the company is researching new capabilities but didn’t have details.
Telecharge, a division of the Shubert Organization, has that “next available” capability.
The Hadestown production team is led by Mara Isaacs, Dale Franzen, Hunter Arnold and Tom Kirdahy, and includes Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns the Walter Kerr.
For tickets, go to the show’s website or call 877-250-2929 and press 0 or say “operator” to bypass the automated system.
