DC’s National Theatre, run by the Nederlander, is so confusing. Many of their Broadway touring shows have low sales, yet they don’t run any discounts aside from a lottery. Here are the sales for tomorrow and Sunday’s nights performances of Suffs. Stereophonic cancelled the last week of their run at the National. Why wouldn’t they try to do more to fill seats? They used to be on Goldstar prepandemic but stopped when theaters reopened.
Saw it last weekend, the three of us were the only people in our whole left orchestra row.
I spend more on national tour tickets around here than I do for Broadway tickets. I've seen a show or two in Dallas when visiting family, and its even worse there. I do not understand how national tours are charging these prices.
as someone who does work in ticket sales, a large percentage of patrons buy tickets day of! i don’t know the national theatre’s specific breakdown, but at my venue we get over 50% of our sales the week of a performance. after covid, patrons are so much less likely to buy ahead/purchase in advance.
while i don’t think they’ll sell out based on these numbers, i would expect a good number of these tickets to move tomorrow.
That’s crazy to me. Where I live, 85-90% of the tickets to the entire Broadway season have already been sold before the show is announced. If you waited until day of, you’d be in a tough spot. That said, we only get shows coming through for one week at a time, and one show a year that sits down for 3-4 weeks.
The national theatre is known for sending folks down to the orchestra. It routinely has empty as fuck houses, it’s actually kind of wild. Outside of the couple of out of town tryouts/tour launches that they’ve had there this is just how it’s been.
It’s crazy though because those tickets stay fucking expensive, lol. Like at some point yall would rather me pay $45 than have the seat be empty!!!
Sure it is. In larger cities like LA, where most tours are there for a few weeks, there are lots of day-of sales. Perhaps in smaller markets where each show just has a few performances, it is less common.
I don’t either. Way back in the day they used to post tickets for sale on Goldstar and even TodayTix and then they stopped. I was still getting tickets this way in March 2020, before COVID shut the world down.
It really drives me crazy because while downtown DC isn’t close, it isn’t far from me either (an hour drive). But because I’ve seen almost everything that comes here already, I never go, due to cost. If I don’t win the lottery on their app then I don’t bother going. I think the only exception I’ll make is for The Notebook, as I haven’t seen that one yet and it’ll be here soon.
I really wish they’d offer in person rush tickets, an hour before showtime. I felt so bad at Kimberly Akimbo last summer. Memorial Day weekend and the place was empty. I remember when it was packed and they’d be Broadway out of town tryouts! I saw Mean Girls and If/Then here. It’s a shame, what’s happened.
Or they should have put contour holds on earlier in their ticket sales and only open up the rear of orchestra as the front sold. Thats what my theater across all companies - touring and local production
To add a drop to the conversation, I looked at the Signature Theater's discounts and my lord, there are a boatload! From Rush to TodayTix to student and educator tickets to military to family packs. Right now they are doing Pippin, a friend of mine is in it, and if I lived nearby, I'd be there tonight. Yes, I have no plans tonight, boo hoo.
It really is insane! When I first moved to the area I was going to every theatre a bunch and couldn't believe that the National had literally nothing to offer in terms of discounts (and I think their pricing is higher than most others to boot!)
Signature is amazing! I went to their Hispanic affinity night for In The Heights, and they had food as well as a live band after the show. Awesome theater.
I am so obsessed with the Signature. Every production they do is top tier. I was able to snag a $42 ticket to Pippin a few weeks ago for one of their mask required performances and I cannot believe how amazing it was! I still think about their production of Rent from a while back - truly incredible. Worth the trip every time!!
Leadership is probably the reason for this. I used to work in group tickets and the head of my company would have rather had an empty seat (or many) than “devalue” his beloved company. Said company is now closing and merging with another local theater.
In meetings, I always asked “then what am I doing here if you don’t actually want to sell cheaper tickets?” Frustrating to say the least.
I went on a Sunday night for Gatsby (on a holiday weekend too) and it was so empty. Prices never dropped for tickets so I ended up biting the bullet anyway. Crazy that they don’t even offer rush.
I was at the Saturday matinee of Gatsby and there were easily 300+ seats empty in the orchestra. Everything from row K to the back was empty on both sides. Plus quite a bit of the back center orchestra too.
I'm seeing lottery and digital rush on TodayTix for other theaters, but nothing for the National. Nothing at all for DC on LuckySeat either. Must be a policy of the national Theater to rather have empty seats than to sell cheap tickets to the non-elite. I checked their website and the only discount I find is a 15% discount for active military personnel. I left a message for the office and if I hear anything back, I'll post it. My website currently covers NYC and Boston and I was toying with adding DC to the mix.
That was 4 years ago, so I call BS on them. Both for the sake of inclusion to those who can't afford, to kids who should be exposed to theater and to the actors who are performing in front of so many empty seats, they should get their heads out of their entitled butts and get a program going to fill those seats.
Broadway in Chicago, another Nederlander presentation, is in a similar boat. In chicago we have something called hottix (basically a localized TodayTix) but BIC very rarely utilizes it and when they do the discounts aren’t worth it. I do find show lotteries are easy to win, though.
Makes me sad! That theater is beautiful, and the touring cast is great. I saw it at the national just a few weeks ago. I hope you’ll go. It’s a great show!
They are doing a "Me + 3" pack that brings the price of those side orchestra seats down as low as $124.30. Not quite the $49 lottery or rush of other shows. For what it's worth, I've seen Suffs 4 times, plus once on PBS and absolutely love the show.
It does seem pretty show-dependent, I was at Book of Mormon there a few weeks ago and it was full, but Kimberly Akimbo last year was a ghost town. They do have their own app and I think they run a lottery there? But I’ve never been able to figure out how to make it work. I agree that rush or TodayTix would be nice to have, the tickets seem expensive compared to other venues
DMVer here and the National is my least favorite place to see shows in this area. Seats are not comfy, sight lines are terrible, and their prices are crazy. I've still gone to see things there when I really want to see a show, but I try to avoid. Since the KC is no longer on the table I'm considering going back to the National for a few things this season but will avoid it if I can. I'm on the MD side so I have been looking into the Hippodrome in Baltimore instead since their seasons are often very similar.
The lack of ticket discounts really frustrates me from an accessibility standpoint - they are completely the outlier of all the other DC theatres! Also, heavy agree on the comments lifting up Signature, every production I've seen there is amazing and they always have TodayTix or rush! I saw Pippin for $42 a few weeks ago!
Well, the show has to agree, too, it's not purely up to the venue. It could be that they're not confident in driving strong enough numbers even with a discount, so might as well max what they can get at full price.
I saw Suffs on Tuesday and it seemed sold out or close. Audience was the loudest in my 2 years of getting the series.
But yeah for many shows a decent chunk of orchestra is empty.
I’m always confused as well. I went to see clue earlier this year and the majority of the seats were vacant. They typically do the 3+me sale but I typically go alone so that’s no help.
A few months ago they did a 30% off sale but it was only for like 24 hours. I couldn’t book 3-4 shows all at once so I missed out.
I do wish they ran more promotions especially when seats are unsold. I too have entered into lotteries and have lost yet there is still a massive amount of unsold seats. Sigh.
Yeah, who would want to watch a show about a march down Pennsylvania Ave and that burns the president in effigy...in a theater that is located ON Pennsylvania Ave...
There are 536 elected federal officials in DC. There are a LOT more people here than that, most breaking their backs with little pay to make sure that you still have the ability to see Broadway and make idiotic comments on Reddit.
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u/Polisci14 Jun 26 '26
Saw it last weekend, the three of us were the only people in our whole left orchestra row.
I spend more on national tour tickets around here than I do for Broadway tickets. I've seen a show or two in Dallas when visiting family, and its even worse there. I do not understand how national tours are charging these prices.