It was only a few months ago that theater fans were outraged by ticket prices to see Denzel Washington in “Othello” and George Clooney in “Good Night and Good Luck.”
Producers were charging $900 a pop for the plays, and in some cases even more.
Right now, “Hamilton,” has a premium ticket priced at $1,500 to see their original Tony Award winner Leslie Odom, Jr in a short return to the role of Aaron Burr.
Now Tom Hanks is facing real resistance to his off Broadway debut at The Shed, way off Broadway in Hudson Yards.
Hanks starts performances on October 31st in “This World of Tomorrow,” which he co-wrote and stars in with Broadway favorite Kelli O’Hara.
So far, tickets are not selling. They’re available for every performance in large quantities.
The only tickets that are sold for each night “at the very front of the theater.” They’ve been put aside for people under 30 years old, and cost just $45.
But the rest of the theater sells for $379 to $399 a seat. If you’re over 30, and bring a guest, “This World of Tomorrow” will cost $800, not to mention food and transportation to the real world of tomorrow, Hudson Yards.
Commenters on Instagram, where ads are running frequently, are outraged. “No one can afford this” is the gist of it with one commenter saying they couldn’t come even though they knew someone in the production.
The $399 ticket is heavy lifting for a totally new play, not a known legacy hit like, say, “The Gin Game” or “On Golden Pond.” It’s also a lot for a show that isn’t a musical, which would have show stopping sets and maybe a little dancing.
While Hanks is a movie superstar, he’s also not a big draw for the under-30 crowd. Maybe if Selena Gomez or Ayo Edibiri were his co-star there would be more interest from young people.
It’s unclear if Tom, the ultimate good guy, has any idea that right now he’ll be playing to half-empty houses. I tried to make contact through his publicist, but was rebuffed. So much for that.
What to do? Use some kind of AI technique for de-aging, then make a fake ID. If anyone mentions anything that happened in the world before 1995, just say “Oh, yeah. My parents told me about that.”
