Demand to See Nat King Cole Production Empowers People’s Light to Experiment with Flexible Pricing

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Dulé Hill (Image via Philly.com)

Television star Dulé Hill – known for his roles in The West Wing, among other hit shows – starred in a recent run of Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole at the People’s Light and Theatre in Malvern, writes Jonathan Takiff for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

And the demand to see Hill perform as the jazz-pop icon was incredible.

“Really, we didn’t know how hot the demand would be,” Ellen Anderson, the theatre’s general manager, said in mid-October, after two weeks of the show. “Nobody blinked at the initial $5 increase (to $42 on weekdays and $54 on weekends) we first put on single seats.

“People (seemed) OK with paying as much as $76 a ticket, plus a $7.40 box-office handling fee. That’s more than we’ve ever gotten for a show before, even for Christmas week.”

With free parking and packages that include dinner at the adjacent Farmhouse Bistro, an evening at People’s Light is affordable entertainment.

“After suffering a $20 or $30 charge just to park downtown or at the ballpark, our showgoers tell us that they really appreciate the free parking,” said producing director Zak Berkman.

Berkman hopes that People’s Light will recover a decent share of the $750,000 it has invested in the two-year nurturing of Lights Out.

Click here to read more about People’s Light and Theatre in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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