lincasanova

i am unclear as to whether there is any way of avoiding the hefty 8.50 fee for tickets to plays in chicago.

will the service fee be as high directly at ford center of the performing arts box office? i get nothing but computer info on phone number.
thanks in advance.

Patrick

I'm getting tickets to Steppenwolf, Drury Lane at Water Tower Place, and the Goodman all direct without any fees. I looked up the information on their websites found via Google. I'm not sure about the big tours though.

lincasanova

the ford center does not sell on the phone..that the message says for sure.

but i will try again at another number. but i am wondering if they actually give all sales to ticketmaster?
i hope not.

there are five of us..
kind of steep.

wil take my chances and show up at box office if no one can help me find cheaper solution.

wicked is in town.. and since we didn't see it in nyc ten days ago, thought it would be fun to see it in chicago.

awhsu

dont' know if Chicago is on the Goldstar.com list, but we use it here in SF Bayarea for 1/2 price tix!

jlm_mi

I'd be very surprised if you can get Wicked tickets on short notice, so it's best to try calling and asking. Even if they can't sell you the tickets at the number you call, you should be able to find out if anyone besides Ticketmaster sells them.

lincasanova

hope to be able to talk to a human being tomorrow at another administration number.

ticketmaster does have tickets. so.. we will see what tomorrow brings.

Patrick

lincasanova, Wicked is sold out way ahead in Chicago. But I just looked at Craigslist and found pages of offers for tickets -- granted mainly at inflated prices. At the same time, though I saw several posts about people buying Wicked tickets from Craigslists ads and getting to the theatre to have them declined as they are fake tickets. So I'd tred lightly there.

JJ5

I do not know when you are coming, but I can tell you absolutely that Wicked is not sold out on any of the dates that I was opting for, which were mostly in Oct. or Nov. September still had quite a few options.

For instance, I was looking at any Saturday up until Nov. and I could have gotten tickets for all of the 2 pm shows, with all 5 being together on any of those dates but the next ones in early Sept. I could also have gotten excellent tickets for the weekday nights. There are two shows on Wed., Sat. & Sun.

This is my experience. Bite the bullet and buy the ticketmaster tickets. I am not aware of anyone getting them cheaper anywhere else unless they bought large, large groups direct from the Ford T.P. Arts through some personal contact or connection.

I saw it in May and enjoyed it so much that I've decided to take all the girls in my family including my oldest granddaughter who is 10 and this will be her first theatre outside of the ballet. Ana Gasteyer is Elpheba and it is supposed to be the best ever. I've gotten addicted to the music.

Actually with the two service charges (theatre has one also)- the $45.50 tickets will run you approximately $12.50 more than that, not just $8.50 or $9.50.

If you go for the $82.50 tickets they will cost you about $95. The $62.50 ran me about $75.00.

I bought 5 seats for Oct. 1 just last Friday. And they are good seats, center front balcony and all together.

Weekend seats are scarcer than weekday. Orchestra level is possible in the back rows almost on every day, if you get them at least 2 to 3 weeks in advance. Same with the $32.50 class tickets plus the service charges. These tickets are not that bad. The theatre is such that the very farthest seat is still decent. There are some sold last that are obstructed views to some of the side action, but I wouldn't get them unless it's them or nothing. But do not miss this just because of the charges. Ticketmaster has almost all of us here in Chicago in thrall at one time or another.

If you want Wicked tickets, you are far, far better off doing Ticketmaster. You can do it on line and then they will email them to you in your personal email. You will require a printer to print them out.

Actually I must know at least 150 students etc. who have seen Wicked here and I know of no one who could get them direct. All were from ticketmaster source, even the ones bought in larger package (15) for a musical group outing at my college.

You may have LOTS of trouble if you are here Oct. 9 weekend, as that one is Marathon weekend and it is down to obstructed view singles, I think.

lincasanova

I was able to speak to a PERSON today at administration. YES... you can go to the box office, 24 w. randolph, ( which will work for us) and there is NO FEE for any production.

box office hours: M-Friday 10am -7:30 pm.( didn't write down the other hours, sorry!)

ticketmaster was able to offer me many different types of seats for wicked for days after august 25th til the 28th.

JJ5

And we have tried that exact gambit with 2 different downtown workers, and they have not been able to find an "open" box office upon arrival there (both were lunch hour tries).

Good luck with those posted hours, I sure hope you find someone there and tickets in your time frame.

Patrick

I'm really glad this post came up. I hadn't thought about Wicked, having seen it on Broadway not long after it opened. But partner, Lee, mentioned how he got sick during that performance and "rode out" ACT II by sitting in the lobby and would really like to see it.

Boy do they make it hard. The ticketmaster Chicago website doesn't tell your actual seats, so had to call. I don't have the option of popping into the boxoffice from Florida. They tell me on the website that the best tickets they have are in row J. I call them. I find out those seats are against the side wall. Horrible. I try others. I ask about the Loge seats. The tell me the best they have are in the center of the fourth row loge. I push for other options. Finally when I ask specifically about the first row of the Loge, she finds two in the left center section. These are just off the aisle towards the center -- in other words, just a little bit left of center in the front row of loge. Can anyone explain why the two seats against the wall in row J downstairs or the two seats three rows further back in the loge would be "better" seats? Why couldn't they tell me that without having to pull teeth to get them? Anyway I booked them.
Yipes. The two tickets cost a total of $155 (it is a Wednesday night end of October). But there are additional charges of $29.03 for the two tickets. That's worse than any add on charges for Broadway tickets! So they actually cost a little over $92 each. I hope the production is great!

JJ5

Thank Major Daley and Gov. B. for the added fees. They have raised the hotels' service fees/parking as well. And Ticketmaster is guilty on these theatre productions gouging. They only have half that service fee on many other venue sales.

I don't know how you did it Patrick- but I just do it on line www.ticketmaster.com and they have the theatre grid etc. all laid out for you so you know exactly what you are opting for. Yes, they are expensive. And I must say that I did think that in comparison to spending anywhere from $8.00 to $12.00 for the kinds of movies that people are paying to see, it is definitely worth it.

Patrick

Gee, when I brought up the ticketmaster site, they only show a general grid, not seat numbers. And the offering for "best available" was row J, right section -- but no indication of which actual seats. On the aisle would have been fine, against the wall is not. I brought up an actual seating plan with row numbers via www.broadwayinchicago.com, but that didn't help when the ticketmaster site wouldn't give me actual seat numbers. How did you get those on the site? But in any case, the website still wouldn't work as well as speaking to a rep as I did, as there is no way they were ever going to show me those first row loge seats, no matter how many times I tried and how many times I typed in those "secret" words. What a pain.

swalter518

Patrick, to ease your mind, we saw Wicked two weeks ago here in Chicago and it was FABULOUS! I went into it knowing nothing about it other than it was about the witches from the Wizard of Oz. What an imagination to come up with that story. It's long-3 hours but it flies by. I know it's expensive but worth the money and the Oriental theater is something to see in and of itself.

Patrick

Again, yes, I saw Wicked on Broadway. What I meant was it is now almost the same price in Chicago as the original was on Broadway. What I'm hoping is that the production will be equally good (kind of hard with those wonderful stars of the original), but here's hoping the "new" ones will be just as strong. I'm not complaining about the money, but it was a revelation to find out that the touring production in Chicago is hardly much of a bargain compared to Broadway, which I USED to think cost a whole lot more -- no longer.

JJ5

Patrick, ticketmaster.com isn't a particularly easy site to use, I agree.

There is a seat grid for every venue on a link, but it you may not have noticed it on those terribly dense pages, and I think it is on the page where you pick your day/time and not on resulting option of tickets available page. I print it out and use that print during the 1 minute drills of putting in the coded words etc. as you mention, and it is a pain.

Particularly on this last purchase which had 5 tickets together, I did approximately 15 different code words over a period of three days, to get where I wanted to be and those seats were NOT available by phone when I tried. GO FIGURE!

But the grids are numbered etc. so you can understand the method of that particular theatre. Oriental has all odd on one side, all even on the other- so many people also don't think their seats are together, but they are.

No, it isn't the most easy to use at all. But I do it all the time for Sox tickets now as you can't count on getting them at the box office at the park any more. Not complaining about the fees either, as long as the lines when you get there are also avoided, it is worth it to me.

swalter518, did you wear green? We took the skyway coming back from MI Sunday. Didn't know about the added tolls before and added $2.50 besides. It looked like Chicago was "the Emerald City" floating in its grey haze. Not!

Patrick

JJ5, I may be dense but I still don't quite understand. Are you saying that on the website it did actually give you specific seat numbers being offered and not just a row number and a section? I couldn't get there. And again, telling me row J in a certain section still doesn't tell me if those seats are in that section near the aisle or against the wall -- that's the issue I wanted to know.

Incidentally, for Broadway the Ticketmaster site does give you specific seat numbers, but I've learned talking with a representative ends up being more effective as we can really search for what I feel are the best seats, not what the website seems to think are the best ones.

swalter518

JJ5, no no green from me but alot of people were! Patrick, I don't know if this makes a difference price wise but the Chicago Wicked company isn't a touring company but a permanent company with an open ended run. Elphaba was great-- she used to be on SNL and now I forget her name...

CAPH52

Carol Kane? I know she was in the production when my daughter saw it. But don't know what part.

JJ5

Elphaba is Ana Gasteyer now. The reviewers I've read say she plays it different and better with the singing starting off softer and building in range / volume to effectively that it gives more depth. Also saying that her comic asides etc. are better.

Carol Kane was Madame Morrible when I saw it in May, but I think she is gone now.

Patrick, I don't know what site you were on and don't know how else to explain but I get Section, row, seat numbers before I decide (but I only have that 1 minute). The seat numbers are designated under the section, row in a different font. Then I look at the map which also designates that particular seat Number consignment.
www.ticketmaster.com

Everytime I see a certain student standing on her stool in the stacks I always ask her if she is defying gravity. She has a green belly button piercing with Elphaba on it. Really!