The Producers

"The Producers" is the hottest ticket on Broadway this year. It is sold out until March of 2002. After that it is hard to get good seats until December of 2002. Today's Tale from the Big City is about the CANCELLATION LINE.

Most people who attend the NYC Theater know that there is a ticket booth in the middle of Times Square. They sell, at a discount, tickets for plays showing that day. Most shows will have remaining tickets available. Not great seats, but it depends.

When I was a teenager my parents and I would visit my grandparents in New York City. My father would send me to Manhattan to stand on line at this ticket booth. Hours later, he and my mother would follow. They would find me standing on line, talking to strangers. Seeing that I was not dead or injured, they would go to the Howard Johnson's and get a cup of coffee. It was a system and it worked.

Over the years I have seen some fantastic shows using this system. I have also seen some rotten shows.

The Producers will not be selling tickets at the discount ticket booth for the next few years. If you want to see The Producers you need to find another system. There are several options:

1. Hang out in hotel lobbies in Manhattan offering sexual favors.
2. Plan early for a trip to New York. Early means years in advance.
3. Ebay. 100.00 tickets are currently selling for about twice their face value, in violation of New York State law.
4. The cancellation line.

Being the "know it all" that I am, I thought I knew everything about New York theater. I did not know about the cancellation line until I moved here. Here is the concept. Sometimes ticket holders can't use their tickets. If the show is sold out the theater will repurchase the ticket and sell it to someone on the cancellation line.

For The Producers this line often begins forming about 4:00 P.M. This is the same line as the Standing Room Only (SRO) line. There are about 14 spots in the back of the theater where you can stand to watch the show. It is a three-hour show. As inexpensive as SRO may be, I am not standing for three hours.

Last Wednesday, for reasons unknown, I decided I would check out the cancellation line. My Yoda regarding New York City cultural affairs indicated that, it being 4:45 already, the line would already be too long to reasonably expect to obtain a ticket. However, it being Wednesday and me not having a lot to do on Wednesday evenings I decided to give it a try. Yoda and I got there at about 5:15. There were about 30 people in line already. This is usually the kiss of death for the cancellation line. After all, how many people are going to cancel going to the hottest show in town? Yoda stood with me for awhile. At about 5:45 she decided our chances weren't good and that she wasn't in the mood for Mel Brooks anyway. I was left alone.

You might not have heard but tourism to New York City has fallen off somewhat recently. At 6:15 I was escorted in to the box office and sold a seat in the sixth row, orchestra and center. This is known as a VERY good seat.

And so I was rewarded. I was rewarded for refusing to be depressed. I was rewarded for believing that living in New York City is about much more than going to work in the morning and going home in the evening to watch television and a pair of neurotic cats. Living in New York City is about having access to great cultural treasures such as that classic song "Springtime for Hitler".

It's a good show. Is it worth $100.00 a ticket? I don't know. Maybe it’s not worth it for everyone. It was worth it for me on that Wednesday evening.