Two for tonight? No problem

In the unpredictable world of live performing arts, the determined ticket buyer should never take “sold out” for an answer.

Most fans of classical music, theater and dance know the scenario all too well: Here you are, enjoying an aerial view of that perennial favorite “Phantom of the Opera” at the Ahmanson Theatre from the balcony’s back row because you were told these were the only tickets available, when suddenly, your binoculars focus on four plush, unoccupied seats -- third row center.

The next morning, you complain to a colleague about those lousy tickets you bought more than a month ago. The colleague’s eyes widen. “Oh, really? I was at the show last night too! Bought the tickets at the door an hour before the performance! Can’t believe you didn’t see me, I was right down in front, behind Halle Berry.”

It could happen tonight at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where Los Angeles Opera’s “Romeo et Juliette,” featuring reigning diva Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazon, is expected to sell out. Or at next weekend’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring music director Esa-Pekka Salonen’s recent composition “Wing on Wing.”

It’s enough to make you buy into a conspiracy theory even if you’re not Oliver Stone (or sitting behind him at the opera).

The no-shows are not -- as Barry Humphries (“Dame Edna”) famously jokes in his Broadway show -- dead subscribers, but people who forget, come down with a cold, get stuck in traffic or decide they’re not interested after reading a negative review. Some who have misplaced their tickets don’t realize that in most cases the box office can reissue them with proper ID.

“In awful cases, a group’s bus will break down and you’ll have 40 empty seats in the middle of a sold-out performance,” says Martin Wiviott, who heads the Broadway/L.A. musicals headquartered at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre. The producers get their money, but some of that full-house crowd magic disappears.

What is bad news for theaters can be good news for last-minute ticket buyers: Especially at nonprofit performing arts venues, there are ways to get into at least some of those empty seats if you know how to play the game.

Wiviott says that, no matter what’s onstage, about 10% of ticket buyers don’t show up. Frier McCollister, a local theatrical producer and general manager, says the no-show percentage is even higher, about 30%, for the under-99-seat houses -- but most of those theaters operate with reservation lists instead of tickets, so they may admit the next comer if a person shows up too late.

The percentage of no-shows drops as the ticket price goes up, says Gary Murphy, director of public relations for Los Angeles Opera, where a top ticket sells for $190. Still, the problem remains so pervasive that some local venues are considering sending e-mail reminders.

For commercial productions -- including most performances at the Pantages, Wilshire Theatre, Coronet Theatre and Burbank’s Falcon Theater -- paid-for tickets cannot be resold, so those no-show seats will stay empty unless brave souls from the nosebleed rows slither into them after curtain time.

But a number of nonprofit performing arts companies or theaters will resell a ticket and provide the buyer with a tax voucher or letter confirming a donation for the face value. The process does not occur automatically, however: If you want to release your seats, you must remember to call in or return the tickets.

Included on the list of those that will take donated tickets are Los Angeles Opera; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Center Theatre Group, which programs the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Culver City’s Kirk Douglas Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; and Geffen Playhouse.

For CTG venues, one must be a subscriber to get a tax voucher, but the opera, the Philharmonic, Pasadena Playhouse and the Geffen give them out for single-ticket sales too. (The Geffen will send you a donation letter for your tax files.) The Philharmonic’s website recently added the option of donating tickets online. Many nonprofit theaters also offer ticket exchanges.

Donated tickets and those returned for exchange usually go on sale as soon as they reenter the computer system, which may explain those great seats your colleague got at the last minute.

And both commercial and nonprofit theaters usually reserve some “house seats” for VIPs including, say, casting directors or potential donors. Unfortunately, unless you’re a VIP, you can’t get them on the first round.

Jim Royce, director of marketing and communications for CTG, says that members of the cast often have in their contract a certain number of seats they can save for friends and family. This is less of a problem for a small-cast show than when all of the “Cats” want to invite the litter. “In a place like the Ahmanson, when they have a big-cast show, it can be as many as 50 or 60 seats per performance,” Royce says.

House seats, however, should not be confused with “comp” seats; the VIPs, or their hosts, have to pay for them. And the good news is that, if said VIP does not purchase house seats within a certain time frame, they can be sold to the public.

The window for releasing house seats varies. In Los Angeles, many larger theaters use a staggered schedule whereby, for example, a handful will be released 48 hours before the performance, then another handful 24 hours before the show. It’s all a matter of calling in, logging on or showing up at the right time.

On Broadway, where there is more walk-up traffic, many theaters release house seats at the box office any time from two hours to just minutes before curtain. Policy is determined by the show’s producers, not the theater, so it varies widely.

Along with releasing those last-minute house seats when possible, one of Broadway’s hottest shows, “Wicked,” at the Gershwin Theatre, holds a ticket lottery for $25 front-row seats two hours before show time; names are literally drawn out of a hat. The Neil Simon Theater also holds a lottery for low-price “Hairspray” tickets, but a theater website warns that there is an average of 200 to 400 hopefuls for any given performance.

Theaters on both coasts -- and in between -- also usually reserve a few “emergency” seats, held until the last minute for special cases, such as a patron who may not have informed management that he or she would be using a wheelchair.

It’s a guessing game for house managers as to when it’s safe to release those seats. House managers acknowledge that once disabled patrons are taken care of, those few seats are often still hoarded for last-minute VIPs. L.A. Opera’s Murphy recalls visiting a Los Angeles playhouse where he was told he could have an emergency seat if no one showed up who was “more of an emergency than you.”

At Los Angeles Opera, there is another last-minute option for some: A varying number of senior and student rush tickets go on sale at the box office for selected performances for $20 -- cash only -- 90 minutes before curtain. And in Southern California, there are also several online sources for discount tickets, including goldstarevents.com and the L.A. Stage Alliance website, theatrela.org.

Of course, the desperate may always turn to a ticket broker and pay an often-hefty service fee. There is usually a limit to how many tickets an individual can buy, but brokers hire multiple “diggers” to stand in line to buy up dozens of tickets, or subscribe under multiple names.

Ticket brokering is legal, but theaters don’t like it, because instead of donating their tickets, patrons can make more money through a broker. “The brokers are very clever,” Royce says. “If you go online to Google and put in ‘Ahmanson Theatre,’ in the right-hand column you see the national brokers and what they have available, even the location.

“And you can see that your subscriber, Mrs. Got-Rocks, has sold her tickets.”