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SCHENECTADY
Scalpers snap up ‘Wicked’ tickets
Choices of seats limited for buyers at regular price
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    “Wicked” is giving scalpers a great Christmas.
    Thousands of tickets for the month-long run at Proctors have wound up online, at eBay and StubHub, for two to four times the face value.
    The widespread purchasing by scalpers has limited the choices for customers who are only now trying to buy tickets — but there are still 10,000 seats available at the Proctors box office, so it may be weeks before anyone has to resort to paying $112 or more for a $55 seat.
    Still, customers need to act soon — Proctors h a s s o l d 70,000 of the 80,000 seats available from Dec. 9 to Jan. 3. Many remaining tickets are singles only.
    Selection is already so limited that Ken Wakeman of Albany ended up buying tickets for the last day of the show when he walked into the box office last week.
    “There aren’t a lot of tickets left,” he said, but he added philosophically that he didn’t want to buy earlier tickets anyway.
    “Things are so busy around Christmas,” he said.
    Other customers at the Proctors box office expressed hope that the scalpers’ gamble — buying large blocks of tickets to sell at a profit — would backfire.
    “I got my tickets,” one man said after picking out the best available seats to surprise his wife. “What they’re doing is not real nice, but maybe it means there will be an empty seat next to me because they aren’t going to be able to sell them all.”
    Some scalpers seem to have the same fear. Already, one of the biggest scalping companies has lowered its per-ticket price from $112 to $86.25 — but that was for seats one row from the very back of the balcony.
    Customers can buy the same seats for $55 at Proctors.
    Other companies are still trying to sell similar tickets for $112. More than 400 such tickets were on sale one day last week on eBay. On StubHub, seats in the middle of the theater were on sale for $471 to $577 each. That’s more than four times their face value.
LEGAL SCHEMING
    Scalping at this scale is new for Proctors, but CEO Philip Morris wasn’t surprised. Other theaters hosting popular new shows like “Wicked” have seen their tickets scalped regularly.
    “It’s gotten worse as states like New York have made it legal to scalp,” Morris said.
    Some Proctors customers think it should be legal — even if it hurts their chances to buy good seats. ......................................>>>>.........................>>>>....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01102&AppName=1

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SCHENECTADY
We witch you a merry Christmas?
Businesses work to mix decorations for holidays, ‘Wicked’
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    How do you incorporate witches into Christmas decorations?
    Having “Wicked” arrive at Christmas may lead to a holiday bonanza for downtown sales, but the decorating is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare.
    “It would have been more appropriate for Halloween,” said Ambition cafe owner Mark Reston “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
    For now, he’s going for hard rock and Christmas lights, hoping that people make the connection.
    “We put some Oz up,” he said, referring to heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne. He quickly added, “Which has nothing to do with ‘Wicked,’ but it will add to the ambience. We’re just going to play with it. We aren’t afraid to have fun here and make fun of ourselves.”
    Using Ozzy as inspiration is not completely out of left field — “Wicked” is a retelling of “The Wizard of Oz,” from the point of view of the Wicked Witch. But Reston hopes the decorations will evolve over the course of the month-long run.
    “We do make a lot of changes,” he said, suggesting that customers stop by regularly to see how “Wicked” is turned into wicked drinks, wizardly specials and other playful devices.
    Other businesses have hung up green-only Christmas lights, since that at least that refers to both events. (The Wicked Witch’s skin is green.) One store has hung a small witch in the window. Others have given up and gone back to multi-colored Christmas lights. ....................>>>>....................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01301&AppName=1

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Countywide cooperation paved way for ‘Wicked’

    "Wicked" coming to Proctors for its month-long run is a huge win for Schenectady County. Like the visit by "Phantom" in 2006, which the Chamber of Schenectady estimated brought in over $10 million to local businesses, downtown merchants are sure to be filled during this holiday season.
    Considering the national economy, we need to pause and remember what made this economic renaissance possible. In 2004, Democrats on the Schenectady County Legislature, led by [Chairwoman] Susan Savage, brought in Ray Gillen, a well-known and respected economic development expert, and set out a new plan for countywide economic development.
    Proctors became the centerpiece of a rebuilt downtown, with Metroplex investing $10 million, and the Schenectady County Legislature kicking off the fundraising drive with a grant of $1 million and capping it with a $450,000 grant, along with a 15-year, $200,000-per-year agreement to sustain the centerpiece. It was this support and the theater expansion that made shows like "Phantom" and "Wicked" possible.
    The new plan has paid major dividends. From the new Clinton Square, Hampton Inn, and Aperitivo [Bistro] to a rejuvenated Jay Street and Parker Inn, what was a struggling downtown is now the thriving heart of a resurgent county.
    While the current economic climate is difficult, we know we have leadership that can weather the economic storms to come because they have a proven track record of doing it before.

    STEVE SMITH
    Glenville

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03204&AppName=1

One show does not a make a resurgence. What about the high taxes that help fund this so called resurgence that's forcing people out of the city, the lack of repair for the infrastructure, roads, empty houses all over the city, and let's not forget the high crime rate. Yes Metroplex has done a real fine job and we'll be left with a beautiful 2 block area of State Street and an empty city to fund it.

Shadow you are probably right.  BUT have you seen Wicked?  It's GREAT!!!!!  Actually it's better here on the Proctor's stage than it was in NYC.  People should beg, borrow or steal to get tickets to go.  Just watching the witch melt was worth the bucks.  This show here for this duration of time IS a winner for Schenectady.  Unfortunately it just can't carry everything else that is wrong in the city.  City is an embarrassment.

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Packing them in SCHENECTADY
Proctors flying high as ‘Wicked’ run ends
BY BILL BUELL Gazette Reporter

    A month of Broadway in downtown Schenectady has once again proven to be an unqualified success.
    At least that’s the way Philip Morris feels as the national touring production of “Wicked,” still going strong in New York City, concludes its month-long run at Proctors with shows today at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
    “My guess is we’re going to hit 79,000 tickets or so, and if we do that, we will beat ‘Phantom,’ ” said Morris, Proctors CEO. “That’s a number we’re absolutely happy with. That’s great news.”
    It was in February of 2006 that Morris and Proctors lured the national touring production of “The Phantom of the Opera” for a month-long stay in Schenectady instead of the typical six-day run practiced by most big productions. “Phantom” sold 77,105 tickets out of a possible 82,000, a remarkable 96 percent of the seats available for the 32 performances. “Wicked,” which will also have been performed 32 times after today’s two shows, had sold approximately 78,000 tickets as of last Wednesday, according to unofficial numbers provided by Morris.
    Despite its overwhelming popularity with fans, “Wicked,” as was the case with the original Broadway production, was not a complete artistic success, according to some critics.
    “I think the show was terrific,” said Morris, “and while some people may have left the theater scratching their heads a little, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Nobody’s come up to me and said they didn’t like it.”
    Morris said that any number of tickets sold over 64,000 would have made the show a success financially.
    “We budget things a bit conservatively, and I think our budgeted figure was around 64- to 65,000,” he said. “That was about 83 percent, and while people from the show kept telling us ‘you’re going to do better than that,’ we were being conservative. We just weren’t sure what to expect with the economy being what it is.” ............>>>>....................>>>>.........................................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1

That's great that Wicked did so well, now how about Proctors start paying their own bills and stop sucking the tax dollars from the taxpayer to subsidize them.

Art is not the lightbulb that Schenectady can sustain itself with....can it exist on it's own next to the lightbulb-----of course....where is our lightbulb?????

Quoted from Shadow

That's great that Wicked did so well, now how about Proctors start paying their own bills and stop sucking the tax dollars from the taxpayer to subsidize them.

Hip Hip Horay for Wicked! Endless fake "news articles". Since Proctor's is now rolling in dough {lol} the County must increase the measly PILOT from $150,000 to $500,000-Maybe this can offset loses on empty parking lots and dozens of empty storefronts on State St? Didn't you hear they want another $900,000 tax dollars for "green energy" generation? Schumer said this is a top Federal priority. Not tackling the deficit?

     More "renaissance" news...There is an auction for the old Goldstock's building can we expect move than one bidder at the minimum bid?

Quoted from benny salami

Hip Hip Horay for Wicked! Endless fake "news articles". Since Proctor's is now rolling in dough {lol} the County must increase the measly PILOT from $150,000 to $500,000-Maybe this can offset loses on empty parking lots and dozens of empty storefronts on State St? Didn't you hear they want another $900,000 tax dollars for "green energy" generation? Schumer said this is a top Federal priority. Not tackling the deficit?

     More "renaissance" news...There is an auction for the old Goldstock's building can we expect move than one bidder at the minimum bid?

esplain this to me......GE is what? a researching corporation,,,,,,international......with all the F'EN tarp/bailout $$ all these
'self-reliant' pioneering American corps can sit on their lazy laurels and just fork it in.....

-------GET OFF MY BACK------

Quoted from senders

Art is not the lightbulb that Schenectady can sustain itself with....can it exist on it's own next to the lightbulb-----of course....where is our lightbulb?????

Hopefully you don't let half of the "Republicans" left on the County Legislature hear you say that.  Remember that towns / cities are built around the arts.

I was never against art...but to buy/live off of art alone is just a podium puck at best....