NY Times Review of Zoom Magic Shows

[Richard Hatch]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/theater/magic-shows-online-helder-guimares-coronavirus.html

[CraigMitchell]

Kudos to Helder who seems to have conquered the Zoom model.

$85 a ticket

A special delivery in the mail

And sold out virtual houses ...

https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/shows/the-present/

[Richard Hatch]

Wow, Helder's show extension tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. PST today and were sold out in less than 30 minutes (26 to be precise, I'm told!). That must be some kind of record. If you do the math (25 tickets per show x $85 per ticket times the number of shows), they're doing OK. I assume the overhead is pretty small (they do priority mail a box of stuff, so there's that cost and the staff involved).

[Richard Kaufman]

I tried to buy a ticket without success.

[Ross Hironaka]

I was one of the lucky ones that scored a ticket today.

The Geffen Playhouse website was clearly swamped when tickets for Helder's show went on sale. I had multiple devices and browsers open, and they were all crawling at a snail's pace. Several times I would land a ticket but would then get an aggravating "session timed out, please start over" message when the webpage proceeded too slowly, and the ticket would be lost before I had a chance to pay for it.

If Helder's run gets extended again (I especially hope it does for the Chief Genii's sake), I recommend the multiple device/browser approach. Also, I would try logging into the website before the buying frenzy starts. I neglected to do that, and wound up wasting too much time trying to log in after scoring a ticket, resulting in another timed out session and lost opportunity.

I notice that the tickets on the website (all sold out) are currently showing a price tag of $125 instead of $85.

[John Signa]

I was able to get a ticket but only after playing “Whack-A-Mole,” select a date, but by time got to purchase screen date was sold out... go back to date selection and repeat. Was strange that every time I went back to date selection, a different set of dates was available.

[Ross Hironaka]

Helder's "The Present" got extended again, this time through October 10th. On sale Monday June 15 at 10 a.m. (PDT).

https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/shows/the-present

[Ross Hironaka]

For those of you who missed this, access to the live stream of Helder's final performance of "The Present" is $25. It's happening on Saturday October 17, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. For an additional $15 you get a mystery package mailed to you in advance so you can follow along. You don't get to be one of the core group of 24 Zoom participants (there is a drawing for that if you add on a $10 donation), but you get to lurk.

https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/shows/the-present/

My wife and I enjoyed his August 9th performance. It was fun being part of a remote audience, and I enjoyed getting to see spectators reacting without having to turn around in my seat.