I took my family to see The Lion King last night at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, NC. What a terrific show! Memorial Auditorium has been a great customer of ours for a long time and they are having terrific success with their Broadway Series.
We have been a supplier for both touring companies of The Lion King for a number of years and we enjoy working with their great crews. I had been to the show in New York a couple of years ago and was anxious to see how it would adapt to a road production. Since the music, props, puppets and costumes translate well into touring halls, the bulk of the show travels well. Some of the large set pieces have been reduced in size, but that really doesn’t reduce the impact of this huge production.
Our friends Mark Colvin and Chris McKay, Lion King property masters, use gaffers tape, friction tape and other products they get from us to keep the puppets and props in the show in working order. They really have their hands full and do a great job. This show is stunning in its beauty and its complexity.
While I’m on the subject of Broadway touring shows, what’s up with the way they price tickets these days. The face value of the tickets were a reasonable (when you consider the cost of a production like this) $65.00 each, but by the time the got into my hands, they cost $76.00 each. Why so many additional added on service charges, handling fees, mystery charges, etc.? I can’t think of any other industry that prices their product this way. How about just charging an honest price and simplifying this ridiculous surcharge system!
Got an opinion about the cost of seeing a good show? Let us know about it.
October 14th, 2006 at 5:40 am
Lion King was pretty awesome I gotta say. Seen better acting in other shows, but the music was amazing as were the puppets. In terms of broadway shows tho, I gotta say that Sweeny Todd is still the best performance that I’ve seen to date. Just seeing the cast double as the orchestra for a show is simply astounding and makes an intersting clash to the macabre plot and atmosphere.
I’d honestly wish it was eaiser to obtain cheaper tickets. Seems the only reasonable way i’ve seen is buying day-of seats for cheap, which still in my mind isn’t that cheap.
It would be very cool if shows would sell tickets to sit close or even with the pit for a night, could be very informative.