On Tuesday the Tony Award big shots had their say, spreading around nominations to 26 Broadway plays and musicals - and shutting out several others. Now some of the scorned are striking back: The producers of Bette Midler’s hit play “I’ll Eat You Last†and Alan Cumming’s mostly-one-man version of “Macbeth†are pulling back free tickets for many of the 868 Tony voters, and instead offering to sell them at standard prices of about $135 each.
While a few Tony voters have been heard grousing over drinks at theater district hangouts, a spokesman for “I’ll Eat You Last†said on Thursday that many voters were understanding and had decided to purchase seats to see Ms. Midler, in her first role on Broadway since “Fiddler on the Roof†in the late 1960s.
The Midler play is a particularly hot ticket: It has been selling out, and the producers are charging as much as $298 for seats in prime locations - probably where Tony voters would have been sitting for free if Ms. Midler had been nominated. “I’ll Eat You Last,†about a rough day in the colorful life of onetime Hollywood super-agent Sue Mengers, is scheduled to run through June 30.
An 24-person committee decided who would be nominated for Tonys this season.. And rescinding free tickets for those who choose the winners has happened before: Producers pulled back tickets for the 2012 revival of “Streetcar Named Desire†after it received only one Tony nomination, for best costume design, and producers of “The Graduate†(which starred Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone) did the same after the play received no Tony nominations in 2002.
A spokesman for the producers of “I’ll Eat You Last†noted on Thursday that some Tony voters had received free tickets to the play before the nominations. “Once they were announced, and given that the show is a limited engagement, the producers elected to follow the precedent of shows from prior seasons and informed voters that tickets would be available at standard box office prices,†the spokesman said.
As for “Macbeth,†the play has been selling well but has had many empty seats in the mezzanine at some performances. The Tony voter tickets would have been for prime seats in the orchestra. The lead producer, Ken Davenport, said on Thursday that he was putting the interests of his investors first in pulling back tickets, as the show tries to recoup its capitalization of $2 million and turn a profit before its scheduled closing date of July 14.
“Because we only have 64 performances left and because of the high demand for prime orchestra seats, every single ticket is extremely important to our business model,†Mr. Davenport said. “To give away over 1600 seats would be to give away more than an entire house. And while I’d love every Tony voter to see the show now more than ever, without a potential for gain, it just doesn’t make fiscal sense.â€
