It’s a whole new world for Broadway fans, who can now receive perks for scheduling flexibility into shows.
A new partnership between Disney Theatrical Productions and Volantio announced earlier this month will give guests the flexibility to upgrade their performances, such as trading tickets for a Saturday night performance in the balcony for an orchestra seat on a Sunday matinee performance, without a change in price. The same technology is used by airlines to handle the double booking of plane seats.
“Capacity has always been fixed in the history of theater,” Azim Barodawala, CEO and co-founder of Volantio, told Bloomberg. “You can’t put a new balcony in for the show just because the demand is there to sell the seats. But we’re enabling Disney to do exactly that on a targeted, as-needed basis.”
KRISTIN CHENOWETH VOLUNTEERS FOR DOLLY PARTON BROADWAY ADAPTATION
Disney’s Aladdin will become the first show to use the new software, which will target the most flexible theatergoers in an effort to fill more seats, Barodawala said. The technology will automatically look for guests from outside the tri-state area via their billing address and offer a different and less crowded performance within a few days of the initial showing.
The new option aims to fill empty seats, as productions of shows such as Aladdin and The Lion King have a 97% occupancy during peak performances, according to Nicholas Falzon, the vice president of sales and analytics at Disney Theatrical.
“Being able to siphon people from really high-demand performances to, say, a 95%-occupied performance has real material benefit to us,” Falzon said.
The program is completely optional and helps consumers by lowering the costs of tickets, the Disney Theatrical representative said.
“There’s no such thing as an oversell in a theater, and, ultimately, we want people to understand this is nothing more than a net benefit — a free opportunity. Nobody is impacted if they say no,” Falzon said.
More than 60% of attendees would upgrade their seats in exchange for the flexible show dates, while 48% would likely upgrade their seats if they had more than 24 hours’ notice, a survey of 260 theatergoers found.
The new program is the latest change the theater world has made because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before 2020, Broadway had a “no refund, no exchange, no question” policy that has since been scrapped in favor of full refunds.
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Prior to the pandemic, if a show was nearly sold out, the price of tickets increased.
The trial program is expected to be extended to all Disney shows on Broadway if the Aladdin trial is successful.
