Inflated prices for sports events and pop concerts are nothing new. The Disney Channel's "Hannah Montana," 14-year-old singer Miley Cyrus, made headlines this month with reports of brokers offering single tickets to her upcoming concert tour for as much as $3,000. At the upper end of the spectrum, premium seating for next year's Super Bowl is available for $75,000.
Shakespeare at $1,700 a seat, however, is heady for L.A.
Yet single tickets are being peddled for more than $1,000 for the sole West Coast engagement of England's Royal Shakespeare Company in "King Lear," starring Ian McKellen, to be presented at UCLA's Royce Hall for six performances beginning Friday.
Spending at "Lear" levels is rare for arts attractions. The closest that L.A. comes may be such gala events as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's annual fundraising season opener, with a minimum of $1,500 per person.
The big draw this time is McKellen, widely regarded as one of the world's leading stage actors but far better known as the bearded wizard Gandalf in the Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings" films.
The RSC's touring double bill, "Lear" and Chekhov's "The Seagull," marks the first time he has performed with the company in 17 years.
The entire run of "Lear" at Royce Hall and most of the seats for the three "Seagulls" in which McKellen appears were sold out July 23, the day that tickets went on sale to the public with a top price of $90, according to David Sefton, executive and artistic director of UCLA Live, which is presenting the performances.
"This is obviously the kind of problem that you want," Sefton said. "But it's to the point where you've closed your waiting list and you know you can't even accommodate all the people that are on that, so it is really sold out."
Tickets withheld by UCLA from the initial public sale until the theater's final seating allowance was determined -- after reconfiguration to accommodate the RSC productions -- are gone as well, he said.
Stubhub, a major online ticket marketplace, is now listing single orchestra seats to "Lear" at $936 to $1,706; balcony tickets start at $442. (McKellen's "Seagull" performances are going for a relatively paltry $325 to $548.) On EBay, where bidding for one pair of "Lear" tickets topped $800, a pair of orchestra seats for the final show Oct. 28 has a starting bid of $3,000, with a "buy it now" price of $3,500.
