Wednesday, February 15, 2006

There goes my entertainment budget for the month.

Or maybe 2 months.
A friend and I decided to have a little Valentine's Day fun by going to see Bridge & Tunnel, a one-woman show by the amazing Sarah Jones. I had heard about her for years, and now I am really mad at myself for not having gone to see her before she got to Broadway! In other words, back when she was less expensive. The tickets, which we did not manage to get at a discount, were $86.25 each. As I've posted about before, Broadway prices are truly outrageous, especially if you need to plan ahead. (For same day, you can go to the TKTS booths and get a pretty good discount. I keep meaning to take advantage of that more, especially now that they have a plays-only line.) Most of the online discount sellers seem to require a subscription, and I don't go to Broadway shows enough for that to be worth it. If anyone has any good tips for getting discounted tickets in advance without a subscription, please post them in the comments, so I can feel like an idiot later.
I did want to avoid the service fees that go with buying tickets online, so I decided to just walk up to the box office at the theater. For some reason, I had originally thought a range of prices were available but when I got to the box office I discovered that there was only one price level for that theater. By that point I didn't want to turn around and not buy them, so I decided to just suck it up, and I am so glad I did! It was the best thing I've seen in years. Well, it's one of the only things I've seen in years, but still, it was really good!
It's funny to think about what makes a show "worth the money"-- some people might not think a one-woman show would be as worth it as a big musical with lots of singing and dancing. But to me, seeing one extremely talented performer playing multiple roles in a 90 minute, no intermission show, it's worth it.
But however you look at it, it was a big splurge, so now I have to go back to just reading books for a while!

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

Everyone I know that's seen it raves about it. I really want to go....but YOWZA! that's pricey!

Our budget is pinching a bit this month because we sprung for 2 Wanda Sykes tickets and the *total* is like $95 (after 7 different fees were applied to each -electronic- ticket of course). But we almost NEVER go out like that, certainly not "downtown" to a show of any kind.

Maybe I'm just spoiled from all the insanely great theater and dance I got to see for free or cheap as an undergraduate...salad days I suppose :)