An amNY column explains that artist, venue, credit card and partner presales each give marketers another reason to remind you that tickets exist, while warning that presale does not necessarily mean better seats or better prices
Before The Before
THEATRE DISTRICT. Broadway ticket sales have become an event before the event, according to amNY’s Business of Broadway column on whether early birds catch the worms. Written by Alex Tavis, a longtime actor who has worked as an independent theatre ticketing logistics partner since 2017, the column describes a sequence of presales that can precede a public sale, including artist, venue, credit card and partner presales. A presale, Tavis writes, gives a particular group of customers the opportunity to buy tickets before the announced sale. He also warns that presale does not necessarily mean better seats, or better prices.
The result, according to New Yorkers who have tried to buy tickets recently, is a buying experience that has acquired more stages than a Shakespeare history play and more intermissions than most of the shows themselves.
The Presale Ladder
Tavis lays out the reasons producers use presales: creating buzz and urgency, moving inventory early, gauging demand for particular performances and price levels, releasing tickets in stages, collecting customer data and cross-promoting other productions. It turns selling tickets into an event before the event even begins, he writes. For ticket buyers, it means receiving a series of emails, each announcing a new and exclusive opportunity to buy tickets that may or may not be the same tickets as before.
A theatre fan from Park Slope said she had received eleven presale emails for one show. First I was in the artist presale, she said. Then the venue presale. Then my credit card had a presale. Then a partner presale. Then I got an email inviting me to sign up for alerts about the next presale. I think I am now in a presale for a presale. I have not bought a ticket. I have bought nothing. But I feel extremely exclusive.
Urgency As An Art Form
Tavis describes presales as creating the urgency, the hook. Urgency is an emotion New Yorkers have perfected over generations, deployed daily on subway platforms, in sample sale lines and at the deli counter. Theatre marketers have now learned to harness it. A retired schoolteacher from the Upper East Side said she had been going to Broadway shows since the 1960s. In those days, you went to the box office, she said. A man behind a window sold you a ticket. You said thank you. He said nothing. It was beautiful. Now I need a code, a password, a credit card, a waiting room and an emotional support friend.
The Waiting Room
Many presales and sales now use online waiting rooms, in which buyers are placed in a queue and watch a small animated figure walk slowly across the screen, a modern ritual that combines the suspense of a lottery with the excitement of watching paint dry. A software engineer from Williamsburg said he had developed a system: three devices, two browsers and his mother on the phone in New Jersey on a fourth device. We are a team, he said. My mother is the strongest player. She has no patience, so she refreshes constantly. Last time she got tickets. Then she got me tickets. Then she got tickets for a show neither of us wanted to see. We went anyway. It was very good.
The Cross-Promotion
Tavis notes that productions can be coupled together to introduce one show’s audience to another, sometimes with a limited offer, citing Downstate and Small Mouth Sounds. The practice reflects a simple marketing idea: someone who likes one serious play may like another. Theatregoers say the strategy works, sometimes too well. A Hell’s Kitchen bartender said he bought tickets to one play and has since received offers for four more. I am now a theatregoer, he said. I did not plan this. I wanted to see one show. Broadway saw an opening. Broadway is very good at openings. It is literally in the name.
The Data Question
Presales sold through producers’ own channels also help collect customer data, according to the column. For producers, knowing who buys tickets, which performances they choose and what price they will pay is valuable information. For customers, it means their inbox gradually fills with theatre announcements. A Brooklyn lawyer said she now receives more emails from Broadway than from her own family. My mother emails me once a week, she said. Broadway emails me twice a day. Broadway asks how I am doing. Broadway remembers my birthday. My mother remembers it most years.
The Free Ticket Exception
In a photo caption, amNY noted a very different kind of ticket distribution: The Great Gatsby is among seven Broadway shows in a City Hall lottery offering more than 2,000 free tickets to New York City high school students. No presale, no credit card, no partner code. Teenagers who have never fought their way through a waiting room may soon find themselves in a Broadway theatre. Theatre veterans hope the experience creates a lifelong love of live performance. Marketers hope it creates a lifelong email list.
Advice For Ticket Buyers
Theatre experts generally advise buyers to compare prices across sales, check official sources, avoid unofficial resellers and remember that being early does not always guarantee the best deal. Tavis himself makes the point that presale does not necessarily mean better seats or prices. For New Yorkers who believe that getting in first is always an advantage, a philosophy honed through years of brunch reservations, this may be difficult to accept.
The Last Word
On West 44th Street on Friday evening, a couple stood outside a theatre comparing phones. Each had received a different presale code, for a different presale, for the same show. They looked at each other, looked at the box office window and walked up to it. Two tickets, please, the woman said. For tonight. The box office agent nodded, printed two tickets and handed them over. The couple stared at the tickets in disbelief. That was it, the man said. That was the whole process. Then his phone buzzed. It was an email. A new presale, for a show that had just started.