How much does a night out in the big city cost? You may answer: How long is a piece of string?
Well, let’s narrow it done. How much for a meal, a show and a few beverages?
Well, if that show is the Sting musical The Last Ship, at the new Glasshouse Theatre, QPAC, from April 9 to May 3, it alone will cost you at least $199 a ticket. Add dinner, drinks and a cab or parking, and you’re sneaking up towards a four-figure sum for a night out for two.
That’s a big investment — especially in a show that is pretty much an unknown quantity. All we really know about it is that it was written by, and stars, Sting and that Shaggy has recently been added to the cast. The adverts feature some positive vox pops from overseas productions (but they were hardly going to include negative ones, if there were any).
So, it was a bit of a punt for those who signed up for the not-so-cheap cheap seats, let alone those who’ve splashed out $299 or, at some performances, $500 per ticket.
Judging by their comments on social media, some people were far from happy when, after already securing their $199 tickets early, they heard that others (including me) had been offered a limited-time special price of $129 for similar seats.
One commenter noted that the ticket prices for Brisbane were much higher than the prices when the show was in the United States and the Netherlands. I guess there could be valid reasons for that.
I did some quick research for tickets for other shows in Brisbane around the same time, and found they were mostly much more affordable. You could see Speed: the Movie, the Play at the Brisbane Powerhouse Forecourt between March 26 and April 10 for $48 a ticket; La Boite’s Eat Slay Zombie at the Roundhouse in May from $65; or The Sapphires at the Bille Brown Theatre from April 28 to May 24 from $72.*
None of those shows star Sting, of course. And if you’re going out as a couple and you want to eat and have a few drinks, it’s still the kind of expensive night out that you’ll have to budget for.
But prices are what they are, and everything is going up at the moment.
And it’s worth remembering that a lot of theatre is cheaper than it might otherwise be thanks to government funding and commercial sponsorships.
Back to The Last Ship… Of course, all sorts of products are offered on sale at various times. But, as the cost of living is biting harder than ever, it doesn’t look good when you sell the same tickets to some people cheaper than you do to others.
That’s especially so when the people who paid full freight are the ones who got in early, presumably because they are fans either of the artist or the genre — the kind of people who might just come again. Or not, if they feel hard done by.
Footnote: Yes, I do know that the venue generally does not set the ticket price.
‘Random’ radio
After spelling out the sequence of ever-lower ratings results in the 4BC Breakfast slot — noting the downward trend from Neil Breen to Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine, and then Peter Fegan — The Australian’s media diarist Steve Jackson concluded:
The latest brainwave in at 4BasketCase? Installing the station’s least-listened-to presenter, Sofie Formica, in its most important timeslot, alongside random ring-in sidekick Dean Miller ... only for them to – surprise, surprise – fare even worse and pull just 3.4 in last weeks survey. And that isn't good enough. The question is, who will be blown up over this latest debacle? The hosts? Or the bosses?
It’s a theme not unfamiliar to readers of this blog.
However, I should point out that Formica’s old Afternoon show was not the least-listened-to program out of Cannon Hill. That would be the now-axed local version of Wide World of Sports.
Also, the demise of the Laurel, Gary and Mark show was, at least partly, an inside job. They were hired to do what they had done successfully at the now-defunct 4KQ and, when that started to show results, the bosses switched the format on them.
And Miller, a veteran of Triple M and local TV shows including Creek to Coast, is not just a random bloke, he’s well known to Brisbane audiences of a certain vintage.
The show clearly has problems, but Miller and Formica ought to be given more than one survey to prove their mettle.
It’s a hard job to bring people back to a station that has seen such a revolving door of shows. Many once-loyal listeners have simply given up on it. Making another change so soon could make the job of luring them back even more difficult.
And yet, as I’ve said before, if anyone has to pay the price of failure, I fear it will, once again, be the talent not the Sydney suits who have got it wrong in Brisbane time and time again.
Footnote: As I reported on Monday, when the sale of 4BC parent company Nine Radio goes through at the end of April, it will be renamed Tapt Media. Because, why not?
Mister Brisbane is free to read but you if you really like it, you
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P.S.
Unless something happens between the time of writing and the time of publication, many ABC journalists and other staff will be on strike from 11am today (Wednesday, March 25). For those involved, it’s part of a campaign to get better pay and conditions. For the rest of us, I guess it will mean hearing and seeing different people on our radios and TV screens. Oh, and an industry insider tells me that the strike will save the ABC about $1.2 million in wages.
*These are just examples of shows on around the same time as The Last Ship. There are many other live entertainment options to choose from, and long may that be the case.
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz used to be a producer at 4BC, working on shows that rated a lot better than their equivalents do now.
I'm keen to see Paddington in London. Whilst London ticket prices are understandably high, Paddington tickets are next level.
A seat down the front for a Saturday matinee performance in June (it's completely sold out until then) will set you back £253 ($500)!
There are "cheaper" seats upstairs, which is where I'll end up one day, but they aren't particularly cheap either (and many come with an obstructed view... why bother?).
There is a solitary £70 seat at the very back, way up high, in mid July, with the disclaimer "Seat by the wall, safety rail visible". That's the back wall, not the side wall.
I'll get to see it one day. Probably not this year though.