When the Tony Award-winning musical Fosse danced its way into Page Auditorium Wednesday night, more than 350 students were among the sold-out crowd on hand to witness the work of legendary dancer, choreographer and director Bob Fosse.
This year, such strong student turnout is a common sight, as student ticket sales for the Broadway at Duke series have almost doubled from last year. Student leaders and University officials cite relatively lower ticket prices and a student-friendly lineup of big-name musicals as reasons for the increased interest.
Two hundred eighty season passes were sold for the four-show series, an increase of 129 over the 2000-2001 season, which featured a five-show bill. An additional 171 single-show tickets were sold for last month's The Scarlet Pimpernel. Rent, which will raise the curtain in January, has been sold out for several months. Advance sales for April's South Pacific have also been strong.
Fosse sold out as well, and along with the 280 season ticket holders, an additional 87 tickets were sold--a strong number for a production during the last week of classes, officials said.
"We especially targeted publicity specifically to students and the results were tremendous," said junior Anissa Smith, chair of Broadway at Duke, a committee of the Duke University Union. "The highlight of the year was when Rent sold out on the second day of single-ticket sales. At that point I knew the series would be a success."
Rent, the contemporary adaptation of La Boheme set in lower Manhattan's Alphabet City, is a demonstrated favorite among college students and was a major draw this year.
Another factor was stabilizing ticket prices for students. Although prices increased for faculty, employees and community members, prices for all three tiers of student seating remained the same.
Making students aware of the lineup and of those prices was just as crucial.
"We had almost no off-campus advertising this year, but had a poster in every dorm," said Peter Coyle, associate dean of university life and adviser to Broadway at Duke.
Two years ago, after bringing in a number of acts that did not actually appear on the Great White Way, the Broadway at Duke committee decided to refocus its program toward genuine Broadway musicals, Coyle said.
Last year's bill included Titanic, Annie Get Your Gun and Chicago, and student response began to increase then. Coyle noted, however, that the four or five-show seasons are a far cry from the glory days of the series, when eight or nine shows made their way to Duke.
Durham is usually a convenient stop for touring shows, which try to follow the warm weather south in the winter and sometimes give venues like Duke a break on costs for one-performance runs in between longer runs to the north and south.
Such series are not uncommon at other schools outside of major metropolitan areas like New York, Boston and Chicago. Duke is unique, however, in that it gives students the power to negotiate and choose contracts.
Junior Ashley Powell, who attended Fosse Wednesday night, said the lineup was one of the main reasons why she renewed her season tickets from last year.
"Broadway at Duke is wonderful because North Carolina needs more cultural events outside of Raleigh, and Duke students need to experience new things besides basketball," she said.
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