When buying theater ticket, do you prefer a full house or more legroom?
There’s an unmistakable electricity in a packed theater. Ticket buyers in the Benedum Center or Heinz Hall, Downtown, are pressed close, all experiencing a shared cultural moment. Exchanging glances. Chuckling together. Perhaps sobbing on a stranger’s shoulder.
Then again, perhaps this isn’t your cup of tea. Too much perfume mixing into an unsavory olfactory cocktail. People sniffling with colds you don’t want to catch. Perhaps a stranger sobbing on your shoulder.
Depending on the cultural performance in question — the symphony, the opera, the ballet, a Cultural Trust production — some nights the seats are reliably fuller than others.
Whether you prefer a fuller house or more legroom and the ability to seat hop to a better spot (always encouraged if you can do it without being caught by an usher), read on for a quick guide to which organizations’ performance days tend to fill, and which have more open seats in the house.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Post-Gazette requested information from the Pittsburgh Symphony about which nights sell best and worst on average for both the classical and pops series. The symphony’s administration did not follow up with that information.
Anecdotally, violinist Susanne Park, chair of the musician’s committee, said the Sunday matinee concerts seem to sell better for both the classical and the pops series. As classical music audiences tend to skew a bit older, she suggested ticket buyers might just be more comfortable driving during the daylight rather than the late Friday or Saturday evenings.
For anyone looking for more legroom, Friday nights tend to be more open and roomy.
Special concerts like when YoYo Ma comes to town or the symphony plays music from “Star Wars” tend to fill up far in advance, as do the PSO360 concerts, which seat just a couple hundred listeners onstage with the musicians for a more intimate concert experience.
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
What day and time is best for scoring seats to a Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre mainstage production depends upon the program.
If it’s a family-friendly production — think “Alice in
Wonderland” or “Peter Pan” — Saturday and Sunday matinees are the more in-demand shows, says Tanaz Walendziewicz, PBT’s director of marketing and communications.
Sometimes, the Sunday matinee is the only afternoon option, so expect it to fill up. On average, it reaches about 70% seating capacity, or about 2,000 people.
Another reason 2 p.m. Sunday is a desirable time for theatergoers is because of PBT’s subscribers. They can choose to attend the Friday or Saturday night performances, or the Sunday matinee.
“If it’s a production that has more than one weekend, we always put our subscribers into the first weekend for all of our productions,” Ms. Walendziewicz says. That will be the case when PBT stages “Beauty and the Beast” Feb. 14-23 at Benedum Center.
“If it’s not a story ballet, the Saturday matinee is the harder one we need to sell,” she adds.
When it comes to nighttime
shows, Fridays are typically more open than Saturdays.
These trends have held fairly steady during the past three years, explains external affairs analyst Christine Wingenfeld, whose role was created a few years ago to use data to track these sorts of trends. Four to six years ago, Saturday afternoons were slightly more popular than Sundays.
Not all seats in the Benedum Center are made available.
For example, ones closer to the stage on the sides have “weird angles,” Ms. Wingenfeld says, so PBT holds off on selling them unless the first floor is completely full. It also doesn’t sell seats in the second tier level of the balcony. More in-demand seats tend to come with higher ticket prices.
What are the best seats in the house?
“The director’s circle upstairs is really great,” Ms. Wingenfeld says. “Some people like to be in the first three rows [on the first floor] because they want to see the costumes right up close. In the center, about 10 or so rows back, we start getting a really good view. The angle of the floor goes up, and that’s my favorite row. I know I’m going to be able to see over the people in front of me more.”
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera typically programs four performances in a run with a couple of days in between shows to let the singers’ vocal cords rest up. There are three evening shows — Tuesday, Friday and Saturday — and a Sunday afternoon matinee.
The Benedum Center is a 2,800-seat hall, quite large by operatic standards, so only rarely does it fill to the brim.
Sundays performances are reliably the best attended, with nearly 2,000 theatergoers attending on average. Friday and Saturday tend to draw closer to 1,600 people, with Tuesday coming in a bit lighter at only about 1,400.
People space themselves all around the hall according to whether they most value accessibility or sight or sound. Higher up in the hall tends to sound better, but it’s more difficult to see the singer’s facial ticks and the details of the sets. Close up, you experience the visual artistry at its fullest effect but the sound doesn’t blend as well.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
A lot of the activity in the Benedum Center, Heinz Hall and Byham Theater comes to town courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, including the Pittsburgh Dance Council and the PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series.
“Pittsburgh Dance Council’s season presentations tend to be one- or two-day performances, and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust does not have significant insight into specific days being more popular,” according to an emailed statement from the trust.
“Even with a weeklong Broadway national tour from PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh series, the Cultural Trust has not identified performance days or times that seem to be more or less popular.”
Randal Miller, director of dance programming and special projects, told the Post-Gazette in April that Pittsburgh Dance Council shows have regularly attracted more than 1,000 people and that subscriptions are at their highest level in 10 years. One of its successful initiatives was the introduction of $10 seats, including some in the orchestra level at Byham Theater. Mr. Miller began offering these during the 2016-17 Dance Council season. Sara Bauknecht: sbauknecht@post-gazette.com or on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG. Jeremy Reynolds: jreynolds@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1634; twitter: @Reynolds_PG. Mr. Reynolds’ work at the Post-Gazette is supported by a grant from the San Francisco Conser-vatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.