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INTRO: (:15) New Yorkers aren't going to the theater even though Broadway had a stellar year in ticket sales. Instead, those seats are being filled by tourists. Many locals are choosing to stay away because the prices are too high and lines too long. Rebecca Castillo reports from Times Square.
SOUND: Ticket scalpers at Times Square. [sound fades down]
NARR: (:18) Broadway show tickets bought by area residents have declined within the last year. Expensive ticket prices and difficulty getting them are two main reasons cited by New Yorkers as to why they stay away. Jackie Sirgo is a native New Yorker who hasn't gone to a Broadway show in five years.
TAPE Sirgo: (:13) Um, I haven't gone to any Broadway shows because one being expensive. Two its just crowded with so many tourists. You can't even go to matinees. I just can't deal with this crowd of people anymore.
NARR: (:26) But Broadway hasn't felt the loss of attendance from this group since tourists are filling the void, especially foreign tourists. They have taken advantage of the weak dollar The number of foreigners seeing shows nearly double last year. [Times Square fades out.] Jeffery Erik Jenkins is a professor of theater history at NYU and former chairman of The American Theater Critics Association. He says that Broadway has found ways to cover its costs.
TAPE Jenkins: (:15) Broadway will make sure it is a tourist attraction and you know, it has become that more and more and more. And that has been the focus of Broadway theater for many years.
NARR: (:05) Jenkins says this reliance on tourists has swayed the dominance of musical productions.
TAPE Jenkins: (:20) The Broadway audience is primary a musical audience. You know it's people looking for a night of entertainment a big splashy musical. It's a tourist attraction. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's what it is, that's what it's become. Prices are $90 or $100 dollars. That's a lot of money for a couple or family of four or something like that.
NARR: (:14) The average orchestra ticket price is one hundred dollars. If the show is popular you can expect the price to be higher. [Times Square fades in.] Savvy New Yorkers find discount tickets but may still wait in line. Eileen Allen has lived in New York all her life and tries to see a show every other month. She buys her tickets at the TKTS discount ticket booth in Times Square.
TAPE Allen: (:12) I think that if you don't stand in this line that tickets are very very expensive. So people in the city with fixed income would not necessarily use this as their first choice they would rather go to some less expensive form of other entertainment.
NARR: (:18) Traditionally New Yorkers don't attend musicals so TKTS has tried to make Broadway more accessible to them by introducing a express window for theater-goers who want to buy tickets for plays and comedies. The lines for this window is shorter and the ticket prices are still cheaper. Still, Sirgo says she wants something else.
TAPE Sirgo: (:11) Maybe if they add more shows maybe had a show in the morning so that maybe New Yorkers that could go to that one and the rest of the world could go to the matinees and evening one. That's I think, that's when I will go back to Broadway shows.
NARR: (:11) But considering tourists purchase 57% of all Broadway tickets, [Times Square fades out.] theater producers may not be so quick to cater to New Yorkers. Rebecca Castillo, Columbia Radio News.