Stimulating Entertainment

Center Theatre Group has announced its Entertainment Stimulus Package... AKA lots and lotsa $20 tickets to shows at the Ahmanson, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatres.

CTG is trying to put more rears in seats and offering deeply discounted seats as an incentive. Nice deal. The same seat that, under other circumstances would run up to $40 or $50 now sets you back the price of a couple of movie tickets.

Here it is in CTG's own words (from their website, www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.)

We've created a new ticket discount program - the Center Theatre Group Entertainment Stimulus Package - which will make 100,000 tickets available at a $20 ticket price.

These $20 tickets will be available at all performances in CTG's three theatres -- Ahmanson, Taper and Douglas -- for CTG's 2008-2009 season.

"We hope this offers a little escape from all the bad economic news," said Michael Ritchie, CTG Artistic Director. "We recognize that the days ahead are belt-tightening days for all of us and we want to reach out to theatregoers to say you can be frugal and still see good theatre."

"We have opened up our existing Hot-Tix discount program for this season," said Ritchie, "increasing the number of $20 tickets available and also increasing the access to these tickets."

The $20 tickets will be available from the first day of sale for each individual show -- noted in the right column. The tickets can be purchased online, by phone or in person at the box office. Unlike the Hot-Tix program, there is not a two-ticket limit to the number of $20 tickets that can be purchased.

The $20 tickets will be available for all productions listed on this page. Click on each icon to learn more about each production.

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Now, a careful browse of the CTG website turns up seats for all three of the upcoming CTG shows: "Spring Awakening" at the Ahmanson," "The School of Night" at the Taper and "The Little Dog Laughed" at the Douglas. You can buy 'em right now at the aforementioned website.

There are, of course, a few hitches.

For "Spring Awakening," a potentially hot show playing an enormous house, $20 puts you in the balcony and you have to go to a Monday through Thursday performance. Yeah, the price is right, but I'm not certain the view is. You might do better to buy one of those on stage seats for $30. Different view, different experience.

"School of Night" seats are also for Monday-Thursday performances (not sure why they keep saying Monday. That's a dark day, but whatever). You'll be on the side, so not primo, but certainly closer to the action than at the Ahmanson.

The "Little Dog Laughed" engagement allows you to buy a $20 seat for any performance regardless of the date (assuming there are seats available.). You'll be in the back two rows, but the Douglas is a small house which doesn't really have any bad seats. And you'll get to see a much honored performance by Julie White playing a hell-on-wheels agent trying to keep her star client from outing himself.

I'll keep my eye out for -- and pass on -- other discount measures at other theaters. In this climate, they are decidedly available.