Broadway’s Big Tix

The Great White Way has learned that if you can’t stop the scalpers, you might as well beat them.

Premium tickets to Broadway plays have become commonplace since “The Producers” made waves with a $480 ticket, according to The New York Times. One of the show’s producers, Richard Frankel, said if anyone should get the money from the good seats, it might as well be those involved in the production.

Even in expensive New York City, a pair of good tickets used to go for $200. Now it costs about that for one ducat to popular shows like “Three Days of Rain” with Julia Roberts and “The Odd Couple” with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, the Times said.

Even “Well,” which has been playing most nights to a house that is two-thirds empty, has $201.25 tickets, the paper said, and 64 premium tickets have been sold.

The result is a 4 percent increase in attendance this season, but a 12 percent increase in box office receipts.

The demographic may have shifted, too: buyers of premium tix are now people who want great seats at the last minute, people with expense accounts, people who are not regular theatregoers and are looking for a special occasion and folks who just want to buy expensive ducats for the fun of it, industry insiders told the Times.