Ogling your smartphone during a Broadway show is extremely uncool — but it’s a different story if you’re buying tickets for the show beforehand.
That’s the message from TodayTix, a New York-based startup whose mobile app has been corralling a younger, tech-savvy crowd into theater shows both on Broadway and off.
Focusing on last-minute purchases for shows no more than seven days in advance, the app enables users to purchase unsold tickets at face value or at discounts of up to 50 percent.
The service, which includes hand ticket delivery in front of the theater by a uniformed concierge, has sent mobile purchases of Broadway tickets to 3 percent of the total, versus less than a tenth of a percent a year and a half ago, according to co-founders Brian Fenty and Merritt Baer.
The app’s average user, according to the former Broadway producers, is 32 years old, versus the average Broadway patron’s age of 44.
Inspired by services like Uber, Airbnb and HotelTonight, Fenty and Baer say they’re looking to disrupt the confusing hodgepodge of ticket sellers dominating the $50 billion global theater industry.
“You’ve got a bunch of discount sites that require codes and convoluted processes that either deliver discounts or tremendous hassle,” says Fenty. “Or you go to Ticketmaster and Telecharge where you get full prices or premiums with massive fees.”
Baer, whose producing credits include “Merchant of Venice” with Al Pacino and “Death of a Salesman” with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, says Broadway contacts were key to getting TodayTix off the ground.