Theater ticket app TodayTix hits Silicon Valley stage

A last-minute theater ticket smartphone application that has been a hit on Broadway and London's West End is taking on the Silicon Valley crowd.

Young startup TodayTix on Wednesday boasted an array of partners, ranging from the American Conservatory Theater and Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco to the Improv Comedy Club in San Jose and the Marin Theater to the north.

Tickets to the San Francisco Opera were also available using the smartphone application.

"When we launched TodayTix two years ago, we did so with inspiration from the great mobile tech companies of our generation: Uber, HotelTonight and Airbnb," TodayTix co-founder Brian Fenty told AFP.

"By being the first mobile-only theater app hitting squarely at the younger, tech-savvy demographic, we're incredibly excited to launch TodayTix in the heart of the millennial revolution and enhance access to some of the world's premiere performing arts."

TodayTix got its start in New York City.

The app offers deals on theater tickets bought any time from seven days to an hour before performances. It came out of a test phase and went public in the iconic London theater district early this year.

"Hopefully, by making it easier to see theater, and affordable, we are re-engaging an audience that hasn't been to the theater in a while and also bringing new people to the theater," TodayTix co-founder and chief executive Merritt Baer told AFP at the time.

Since being launched in 2013 by childhood friends-turned-adult business partners Baer and Fenty, TodayTix has met with rave reviews and now claims to sell about 3.5 percent of all Broadway theater tickets.

TodayTix boasts more than 425,000 users, with a typical ticket buyer being about 32 years old, more than a decade younger than the average overall theater goer, according to Baer.

Baer, a theater producer who won a Tony Award in 2012 for a revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, said he was inspired by the way online services such as Uber and Airbnb have shaken up the taxi and hotel industries.

"We thought why is something like this not happening in the theater world?," Baer said.

Versions of the TodayTix application are available for smartphones powered by Apple or Android software.
Source: AFP