Brad Marshall writes to ask…
Just curious to know if people in Las Vegas, going to these truncated, "road show" versions of Broadway shows, are being charged the same $90 to $120 that they do on Broadway? If so I would say that's a pretty big rip-off.
Well, sort of. As I've noted here before, the price of a show in Vegas has gone up a lot. A few years ago, a number of them decided to try inching prices up and see what impact it had on their sales. A friend there told me, "Some of them were genuinely stunned at how much more they could tack on to the price of a ticket without it affecting the demand." So the going policy now seems to be to price tickets high and then if they start finding themselves with empty seats, they spread around discount coupons and offers, rather than to lower the base price of a ticket. This can make it a bit confusing to figure out how much it will cost to see some of these shows.
Tickets for the 90 minute version of Hairspray start at $71.50 and go up to $110 on the Luxor website. Over at Goldstar Events, which is the only online discount service, they have them for certain performances at $56.10 to $66.00. Tickets may also be available at up to 50% off at the discount booths in Vegas but you won't know unless you're in Vegas and you go to one of these places on the afternoon that you wish to attend the show.
Seats for Mamma Mia — which is performed in full, including an intermission — range from $45 to $100 on the Mandalay Bay website. The Goldstar Events site says that tickets normally go for $82.50 to $110 and they have some for $49.50 to $66. And again, this one is sometimes available at the half-price booths.
You can order tickets for the upcoming 95 minute version of Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian website for a low of $75.64 and a high of $150.64. They probably won't have discounts available for the first few months. No word yet on what The Producers will cost but I'll bet you it'll be the highest priced ticket until Spamalot shows up and tops it.
So I guess the answer is that they're charging Broadway prices or more…but as on Broadway, where you can go to the TKTS booth and maybe get a half-price ticket for that night, you can often score seats for 50% off. If you'd like a guide to show prices in Vegas, including an overview of discounts, The Las Vegas Advisor has a survey up on this page.