If You Make Theater Affordable, Will It Bring a More Diverse Crowd?

It’s no secret that people who attend the theater are more likely to be white, older, and have more money than the average New Yorker. So more than a decade ago, one performing arts group took note of this situation, and made a bold move to diversify its audiences. The theory: you could get a broader mix of patrons by lowering one of the biggest barriers to attending a play — high prices.

This experiment was the brainchild of Jim Houghton, the founder of Signature Theatre, an off-Broadway house on far West 42nd Street.

“The dream for him was to literally take a subway car and dump it inside a theater,” said Erika Mallin, Signature’s Executive Director.

In 2005, Signature did a very hard-to-do thing. They convinced a big corporation, Time Warner, to hand the theater $500,000 to try to chip away at the price barrier.

Before that grant, tickets to Signature’s shows had cost around $55. After the grant, they cost just $15. All seats, all shows in their initial run, all year. Signature kicked off the low prices with a season of plays by August Wilson, a respected black playwright who had recently died.

What happened next was a revelation.

“We had lines around the block," said Mallin. "We saw generations of families sitting in the theater. It really opened our eyes.”

Eleven years later, Signature has sold 700,000 subsidized tickets. Single seats are a bit more expensive in 2016 — $25 ($31.50 with fees), and the lead sponsor is now the Pershing Square Foundation, a charity tied with the hedge fund run by Bill Ackman.

But while the experiment continues, it's hard to say how well it's working. One reason for this: Signature only began tracking its own audience demographics after lowering ticket prices. Furthermore, there is no yardstick for Off-Broadway audiences. Unlike Broadway, Off-Broadway doesn’t collect detailed demographic data.

Signature's most recent survey of its audience (last year) found that more than half of its ticket buyers had household incomes below $100,000, and almost 20 percent said they were not white. That’s a long way from the subway car. Median household income in New York City for 2010-2014 was $52,737, according to the US Census Bureau, while just 44% of New York City residents reported their race as “white alone.”

Mallin said Signature is proud that it has made theater accessible. But she acknowledged that sometimes it takes more than lower prices to reach diverse audiences. She said her theater has come closest to the subway car after doing targeted outreach.

“Honestly, business to business, block to block, putting up posters, flyers,” she said.