Rushing the Stage
Broadway Lovers Camp Out in Midtown
Approaching the Eugene O’Neil Theater at 8:30 a.m., it’s no surprise to see a line already forming in front of the theater, composed of young students waiting for tickets to the evening performance of Spring Awakening. First in line are Billy Archiello and Lauren Bufalini, old hats at student rush, who parked themselves there at 5:50 that morning.
Reminiscing about previous rush experiences, Bufalini fesses up to having seen The Wedding Singer a total of 24 times. In fact, she says that she was in the student rush line so often that the lead actress of the show noticed when she wasn’t there. “She came up and slapped my arm the next time she saw me in line,” Bufalini says. “She was screaming at me ‘Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you!’”
Diehard student rushers such as these eagerly boast about the relationships they develop with the cast members they cheer for multiple times a week. Much like Bufalini, Archiello remembers rushing the last show of The Wedding Singer. Archiello says that after the penultimate performance of the show last December, “I got out of the show and jumped in line ... pulled an all-nighter. It was like camping out. ... Felicia Finley [supporting actress in Wedding Singer] even brought out her mattress for us.”
You couldn’t make these stories up, and just 12 years ago you wouldn’t have heard any like them, either. In 1996 student rush emerged with the intent of making theater more accessible to a variety of audiences. Normally priced at about $120 a pop, orchestra seats do not exactly fall in the affordable price range for many people, especially students.
Rent was the first show to address the cost issue by offering $20 tickets for seats in the first two rows of the theater on a first-come, first-serve basis. But soon, the managerial staff of Rent realized that the same people were consistently buying seats and so a lottery rush was formed.
In a lottery rush, “rushers” put their names into a drawing two and a half hours before the show, in hopes that they will win up to two tickets for the day’s performance. Glenda Colebrook, an avid theatergoer from Sanford, North Carolina, likes the idea of a lottery rush. “It’s great, especially for people who don’t have their schedule reserved ahead of time,” Colebrook says.
Rent’s initiative has swelled to incorporate almost all of the current Broadway shows. Popular shows like Wicked and Avenue Q jumped on the bandwagon, offering lottery rush for each performance during the week. Other shows, such as Legally Blonde: The Musical and Spring Awakening, offer rush seats in the orchestra for patrons with a valid student ID for a mere $26.50 on the day of the show.
“There really is a system,” Bufalini says adamantly, which newbies quickly pick up on. Rushers take turns standing in line year-round holding spots while their friends go on quick bathroom breaks or hop inside a nearby store to heat up or cool down, depending on the season.
“The first time we rushed Spring Awakening, it was so cold, about 10 degrees outside,” Bufalini says. “I couldn’t feel my legs.” Rushers are willing to go to extremes for the shows they love, the seats they crave, and the prices they can afford.
Fanatics have learned that sometimes the best seats are the cheapest, if you are willing to wait. Waiting is a guarantee when it comes to rushing, and because of this necessity, Bufalini says, “There is definitely a group that specifically rushes.” Considering that both Archiello and Bufalini are longtime members of this group, it seems only fitting that they met on a student rush line.
Tony Weaver, a successful Rent lottery winner, says that before discovering rush, “I just didn’t see shows.” But Weaver did a complete 180 when he found out about rush last summer. “I realized I had wasted six months of my life,” he says.
Now a pro at ticket rushing, Weaver has learned the system. He knows that it’s better to rush on a Thursday “because Friday/Saturday is so crazy that the chances [of winning] are slim.” Once you’ve rushed a few times, you learn the tricks of the trade, even if that means taking extreme measures.
“There was a month where we showed up every day [at The Color Purple] before 6 a.m. in the freezing cold,” Weaver says. “You would imagine that you are the first one there, but then there is that one person who’s already there with their chair, bundled in their blanket.”
It seems each rusher is more intense than the next. Bufalini met a man whose ‘count’ is 1100 for Rent. “He comes in a couple times a year and sees every performance for a straight week since the show began its run.” For outrageous theatergoers like these, “People’s play count matters,” Bufalini says. “It’s a big deal.”
For others, “play count” can be more of an embarrassment than a badge of honor. The young college girls outside Legally Blonde: The Musical were reluctant to admit that they had seen the show 18 times. “It’s so embarrassing,” says one rusher who wishes to remain anonymous. “I really don’t like to tell people.”
With the emergence of student rush came the emergence of a culture. Each show represents a subculture of the larger rushing community. It seems as though student rush has become much more than any of the originators ever intended.
Rushers at Spring Awakening definitely reflect the younger demographic that the cast of the show represents. Patrick Coakley of the University of Massachusetts says that he feels “they are trying to keep it [the theater] full of people who can relate to the show.”
Interestingly enough, the Legally Blonde rushers describe the rush scene as intense and drama-filled, words that could arguably describe the show itself. A competitive atmosphere surrounds this rush crowd. “People are obsessed,” one rusher says recounting her overnight experience. When they arrived the night before, there were girls already lined up to sleep with their moms outside the theater.
“Rentheads,” as they have been dubbed, are often considered the most passionate rushers. “There is so much life and meaning and philosophy that you can take out of the show,” says Danielle Herrington of Michigan outside the Nederlander Theater.
Even as the names of the lottery winners are being called, rushers cheer each other on, shouts of congratulations and exuberant applause bewildering passersby. Those who were less than lucky appear enthusiastic for their fellow rushers, rather than overly disappointed for themselves.
The consensus of all the rushers is that this system is the best way to make Broadway more accessible to the general public. “You expose people who aren’t really into theater and get them involved and hopefully seeing more shows,” Coakley says.
“Rushing becomes part of the experience,” Archiello says. “You enjoy the show more when you’ve waited that long. You feel like you deserve the seats you’re in.”