Need Tickets for London Theatre? Check out Tracy Schiller

These days the West End is booming, with one of the busiest slates of shows to open in recent memory. To shed some light on what's hot right now in London, as well as on the business side of the ticket broker industry - on both sides of the pond - I sat to chat with Tracy Schiller, the Managing Director for Keith Prowse, one of the leading authorized ticket agencies in the world. Schiller is in charge of all US operations for the firm, which has been in existence for more than 200 years, with 36 offices in 21 countries.

Based in Keith Prowse's New York office, Tracy Schiller is a 17-year vet of the ticketing industry, where she first got her start working for a different UK-based agency. "I first began in this business, working for another old English ticket agency called Edwards & Edwards. It was English owned, and I started in 1989." Schiller's educational background had her graduating as a Spanish major from the University of Connecticut, but the theatre industry was always her first love. "I know, you're thinking Spanish major - lame, but I also took a lot of classes in the Drama Department. The Drama Department was very kind, and very cool, and I always got to take classes even though it wasn't my major. I had an interest in theatre, and I performed, but I had no interest to pursue it professionally because I knew that I simply didn't have what it took."

After graduation, Schiller answered an ad placed by Edwards & Edwards, who were looking for US-based representatives to answer phones and to assist American customers who were interested in purchasing tickets. This being 1989, all of the orders were then faxed over from the US office to the UK office where they were then processed and sent on to the appropriate theatre. So what memories does she have of her first year in the business? "They sent us over to London to meet our UK counterparts and basically to see theatre, so when Americans were looking to book their theatre before they left home, and called us, they would get someone that knew what was going on. That gave us a notion of what was hot, and what wasn't. I got started with Cameron Mackintosh's Miss Saigon, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love which were the two big hits of 1989. Everybody that was calling was asking for tickets to Aspects of Love, which we heard was OK, but we knew that the real big hit of that season was going to be Saigon. So, while we could certainly assist them with Aspects, we could also recommend that they check out Miss Saigon telling them that it was really great, and that we had been over to see it."

Those recommendations certainly paid off, and year to year she continues the tradition of catching London's hottest shows so she can give firsthand advice - even if people are travelling a bit less just for theatre these days. "Maybe it's because it was the 80s, and it seems like a long time ago now, so I remember it very fondly, but I remember that people were motivated to travel literally based on what was playing on London. One of the reasons might be that Americans now expect an inevitable transfer. I'm also not sure that if, for example, there were a new (Andrew Lloyd) Webber show now that people would travel to see it. Though I'm always excited when he's got something new on the boards, I'm not sure that's the case anymore. I also think that over the years, the critics have received his works so poorly, so perhaps some of that excitement about there being a new Webber show, has left. By the way, I don't agree with those critics, but such is life. There's a new production now of Whistle Down the Wind in London, directed by Bill Kenwright for example, that I love."

Fast forwarding to 1996, Tracy was promoted to running the New York office for Edwards & Edwards, and then the company was acquired by Keith Prowse. After the merger, Schiller was put in charge of the company's United States operations. So what's Keith Prowse's business model all about? "The core business from this side of the pond is theatre tickets, and we also are the largest seller of attraction tickets, like theme parks. We don't touch pop, rock, etc. over here, but we're booking Rolling Stones packages, Bon Jovi packages for example, all for Europe."

Overall, the company sells more tickets for London theatre than it does for Broadway, but Broadway is their second biggest market. "In London, our agency was founded by Mr. Keith and Mr. Prowse in 1781, and it is an old, old time ticket agency. In London allocations or blocks of seats are given to the agencies who then have distribution channels in markets that the producers might not be able to reach successfully on their own. So, one of Keith Prowse's attractions to the producers is that we have wholly owned offices outside of the UK. If they don't have the money to penetrate the American market for example, Keith Prowse has an office and a budget in the US so we can help them do that. That way, they give us some great seats, and great rates, and we'll encourage Americans to go to their shows, and to go on a weekday vs. a weekend. Knowing the business like we do, we're able to help producers in the smartest way possible."

In London, they have direct access to ticket inventory, but on Broadway it's more complicated, and not the case. "Here, we're labeled as a 'ticket broker' which might not be so bad if someone bothered to define the difference between a ticket broker and a scalper which I don't believe anyone has. Keith Prowse plays by the rules and sells with a 20% margin, which is the legal limit on a Broadway ticket. It's much more difficult to sell Broadway theatre tickets because we don't have access to inventory, so you have to buy tickets up front, which we do. I don't feel as though the distinction is as easy because of the ticket broker label on this side of the pond. We also operate a group sales business, which is different from our individual tickets, which we buy from the theatre before they go on sale to the general public."

One question that many have always wondered about, myself included, is what happens to unused tickets that brokers have purchased? "Tickets that we don't sell go 'dead' as they're called in the business. Sometimes the theatre will take them back if they have a line, and other times they won't, and the ticket goes 'dead.' That can mean an empty seat, but we try to give them to good customers that are in the area so they don't just go unused. It's always about 20% of Broadway tickets that go unused. For London, we operate on a flat fee of $9.50 which in most cases is less than 10%. The reason that we can do that is because we sell more so we can operate on smaller margins."

Even selling at a margin of only 20%, ticket brokers are often accused of contributing to the ever-rising cost of a Broadway ticket, as well as exploiting consumers. Schiller naturally disagrees. "Well, I think that it's all about availability and if you're charging a reasonable fee. 20% is dictated by law as being reasonable, and I think that most people don't care what they pay to be honest if they get the seat that they want to the show that they want, on the night that they want to go and see it. So, no one at 20% balks at that price if they can get exactly what they want. There are other brokers that are more like scalpers that start to sell a readily available ticket to a long running show like Beauty & the Beast for $250 and that's just ridiculous on a Wednesday night. Why would you or anyone pay that? I think that many people would balk when they get that ticket and see the price on it at the theatre. Also what's interesting is that theatre tickets are big business for concierges and typically concierges are charging a minimum of 25% and probably much more. I think that a 20% charge really is reasonable in the scheme of things."

Keith Prowse sells their tickets through a variety of venues, most notably through retail travel agents. Prowse's biggest advantage is their focus on the consumer, and their expert knowledge of theatre. "We will encourage clients, like a cruise ship might say - this is available, contact your travel agent to book, we do the same thing. Theatre can be a very personal thing, and clients like to chat it over. 'I'm bringing my 5 year old, or my 7 year old, what's appropriate?' So often agents will say 'why don't you just call them direct so you can chat it over.' We've built a consumer direct business on agent referrals. Most of our agents, about 50% now, book through B2B (business to business) platforms and the other 50% still ring us. It's A VERY OLD-fashioned, antiquated business and we've been doing it for years. There are relationships there and they'll call the same person that's been there for 17 years and knows that they won't lead them wrong when they're booking a good client. Certainly the Internet has changed things, whereas in 1982 we were the only company that you could ring stateside to purchase a theatre ticket, now you can Google it, and many different sources will come up."

So how does Prowse differ from the competition? "What's still kind of nice about my company and I know that it may sound old fashioned, but sometimes old fashioned ideas sound brand new again. I guess that I reached the age, and I'm not all that old! I'm proud that my company is one of those companies that if you rang Monday through Saturday from 9am till 8pm, or on Sunday from noon to 7pm that you wouldn't get an automated attendant, or a voice mail greeting, it's picked up by a live person. We've continued the tradition that the people that pick up the phone really have seen the shows, and can make personal recommendations to help steer somebody into the show that's best for them. While www.keithprowse.com is a great, easy way to book a theatre ticket, we like that we offer the ability to call and speak to someone."

Being part of the tourism industry, they can feel many of the effects of tourism issues just like the rest of the travel business. Schiller shared some of those factors with us. "I still think that if there's a successful season that you're going to see a bigger turnout in terms of audience. For London, the exchange rate affects things, and in general when the dollar is low against the pound it takes time for consumers to figure that out. That can impact travel, leisure travel and incidentals, so that obviously impacts us as does terrorism or anything else that slows down travel. We really feel like we're in the travel business so anything that would affect travel to a particular destination would affect our West End or Broadway attendance."

Being on the forefront of the ticket market also gives Schiller and her team insight on where the hits lie, often before anyone else. "What can be fun is for example a show like Billy Elliott. I mean it's still really about reviews, and notices, and about web sites like BroadwayWorld.com where people can go and read. We really are another one of those sources if you know to call us. We'll know before anybody knows if it's good or not because we've got a building in London full of 300 Keith Prowse employees and have offices at London visitor centers, Harrod's Department store, etc. so our people are out there. For Billy Elliot, we knew that it was really good, so we would try to push the show before the reviews came out. When you're booking for London, the lead time is generally greater than on Broadway. That gives you the opportunity to tell people something that no one knows yet. We would try to sell the show, and I really loved the film, but apparently the film was a bit of a sleeper. We'd start telling people that there's a new musical, with music by Elton John, that was based on the film by the same name and that's when we lose them. If you get out of New York City, or an urban center, most people didn't see that film, and if they didn't, they figure that it couldn't have been all that good so they had no desire to see it staged. And now of course, a year and a half later, we don't have enough tickets to sell."

Wicked.jpg" align="right" vspace="8" border="1" /> Given the presence and position in the London ticket market, I had to ask what they considered to be the hottest shows at the moment in the West End. "For musicals right now, the big sellout show is really Billy Elliot. We're very excited, and there's a lot of buzz about the new production of Evita in June, and obviously we're getting Wicked and Spamalot in September / October, and those will do well. We think both will do very well, even though it's always difficult to tell how a show will do when it makes its way over the pond. Otherwise, Whistle Down the Wind at the moment is doing very well, even though the reviews weren't great. We're very excited about Hay Fever with Judi Dench, Christian Slater in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which is doing well. Claire Higgens at the Donmar is another hot seller, as is Jeremy Irons in Embers because he hasn't been on stage in 25 years." Celebrities are clearly just as hot a ticket over there as here.

The average day in Schiller's life begins at around 10am in her office at the heart of midtown, as she looks at the 3 clocks on her desk which show New York, Paris and London time, she usually starts her day talking with her European counterparts before working her way across the country. She spends her days on the front line, as well as behind the scenes often dealing with the company's larger clients.

So, why should customers book through Keith Prowse? "First of all because of the service which can't be beat, and for London, our fee is only $9.50 which is absurdly cheap, it's less than 10%. We have a great cancellation policy because most tickets that you buy are non-refundable, but we take them back on a resell basis, and 95% of the time the tickets are resold, and the money is refunded. The tickets that we sell for London shows are actual tickets of admittance, so you can go straight in, you don't have any sort of exchange process. Naturally, if you're leaving tomorrow, we can leave them at the box office. The nice thing about booking with us, is that once you travel all that distance, if you lose the tickets, or need to change dates, or met a friend and want another ticket, there's a local office which can assist you. Those are some of the biggest of the many, many reasons. There is also someone that you can call that can help and steer you right. That's what we're here for!" Sounds good to us.

For more information on Keith Prowse, visit http://keithprowse.com/