In this presentation, the speaker shares practical insights on selling Broadway tickets, focusing on group sales and international market expansion. Drawing from personal experiences with productions such as Billy Elliot, Mamma Mama!, Spider‑Man, The Book of Mormon, Lion King, Wicked, Phantom, and Jersey Boys, the speaker explains how immersing oneself in a group’s experience (e.g., riding a Mamma Mama! bus) reveals key motivations like cost concerns, parking anxiety, and the appeal of all‑inclusive packages. The talk emphasizes the need to segment audiences—recognizing that a family group for Mamma Mama! differs from a younger crowd for The Book of Mormon—and to tailor marketing accordingly. It also highlights the significant revenue potential of long‑running shows in non‑English‑speaking markets, where music and spectacle transcend language barriers. Finally, the speaker discusses strategic star casting, noting how bringing international stars (e.g., a Japanese lead) can trigger spikes in ticket sales from that star’s home country, and how shows like Chicago use rotating star roles to maintain this advantage.
Chapters
When I worked on Billy Elliot, I started thinking about ticketing. And they had a problem with groups because the show was very British. It was a little hard to understand. And so it became very popular with the single-ticket audience who knew New York, you know, theater in London. But trying to sell to a school group, it had swears in it. There was all sorts of things. And it was really for me learning like, how do you sell a group to a show? How do you sell— why sell 2 tickets when you can sell 20? And so that became my goal. And I ended up learning more and more about it. And on Mamma Mia! I literally went down to New Jersey and got on a bus and became part of a group because I strongly believe that you have to know who your audience is before you sell a ticket. Like, the same person that's going to go see Mamma Mia may not be the same person who goes see Book of Mormon. You know, that Mamma Mia bus was a lot of moms and daughters and grandmas, like, all getting together. It was a very womanly bus. Now, if I had been on the bus for Spider-Man, Yeah, I think it would have been a totally different— yeah, so it was a really neat experience for me to actually, you know, sit in the seats where a group sits, have one of the group lunches beforehand, and I got some real insight because people, you know, join a group sometimes, they don't want to drive into the city, they're afraid of parking, they're afraid of the cost, and they love buying something where they're going to be dropped off and picked up and it's all in a package. So through my love of ticketing and learning about groups, and also Mamma Mia! learned about international sales, like how many— any long-running Broadway hit has an international component. So if you think about the shows that are still running, like Lion King, Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Phantom, even Jersey Boys now, there's a huge amount of people who may not understand English but can totally enjoy that show. Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys for the music, and the other shows because they're spectacles, and you can sit and watch them and be amazed at them. If you don't have one of those components— people say, oh, it's best to have a show with a star. No, it's not. The only show The one show that's really the exception is Chicago, which is another long-running hit. Sure. And what they do that's very smart is they have roles that they can get stars in and out of. And they learned so much about the international piece that now they have international stars come from other countries to star in their show. And when they do, all of a sudden you see, like, they have a Japanese star and all their Japanese stuff rises. And when they're really getting smarter is they start putting stars in during a break when they know a ton of people from that country come to Broadway.
