Hey, Big Spender! Want a Sippy Cup With That Cocktail? Theatre Concessions Business Booming

There's a scene in Mel Brooks' original 1968 film, THE PRODUCERS that must seem strange to contemporary Broadway patrons. While their questionably tasteful production of "Springtime For Hitler" is giving its opening night performance, Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, memorably played by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, sit in a nearby, near-empty bar.

Suddenly, act one has finished and a thirsty mob rushes from the theatre to quickly order and down intermission cocktails before heading back for the second act.

Nowadays, in-house theatre concessions are a big business that keeps thirsty customers hydrated and hungry ones satiated throughout the play-going experience.

"Definitely a growth industry," Kenneth Happel, general manager of Sandbar Concessions, which handles food and beverages at all the theaters owned by the Nederlander Organization, tells the Wall Street Journal.

Over at the St. James, owned by Jujamcyn Theaters, Brad Oscar gets a big laugh eight times a week when, as SOMETHING ROTTEN!'s soothsayer Thomas Nostradamus, he looks into the future of theatre and quizzically asks, "That much for a glass of wine?"

While his audience members pay up to $24 for a pour, business appears to be booming, especially during the holiday season when visitors are in a more festive mood. Happel says an operator can do as many as 500 transactions a performance. A transaction might typically include two drinks and two snacks totaling over $50.

The attraction of being able to take drinks back to your seats with sippy cups is another factor that has increased sales, with customers equating it with being as much a part of the show as it is to munch on popcorn during a movie.

Themed cocktails also help to drive sales. Mixologist Michael De Mono is employed by Sweet Hospitality Group, a concession company operating in more than 25 Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, to craft such drinks as the Shadow Kiss (a margarita flavored with green curry and pineapple) for THE KING AND I and the Almigh-tea (an ice tea with a boost of bourbon and a rhubarb liqueur) for THE BOOK OF MORMON.

Sweet Hospitality also provides HAMILTON fans offerings from the Aaron Burr Cidery, an upstate producer of craft hard cider. At Lincoln Center's Off-Broadway Claire Tow Theater, the lobby bar stays open after performances and serves noshes such as artisanal cheese plates and Portobello mushroom sandwiches.

The Lyric Theatre, which handles its own concessions, sends vendors up and down the aisles before the show and during intermission to take food and drink orders, while others, such as Off-Broadway's New World Stages, has staff members roaming the aisles loaded up with snacks, like venders at a ballpark.

While many certainly enjoy this addition to the play-going experience, there are customers and actors alike who complain about the increased noise during performances caused by rattling ice and crunching wrappers.

"When people don't do things with some degree of discretion, it can be really distracting," said Broadway veteran Betty Buckley.

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