First Night entertainment options just got cooler, but also potentially more expensive. The great Bettye LaVette (right) will be singing selections from her album "Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook" at Symphony Hall on New Year's Eve, while Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips will bring their "13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests" to the Paramount Mainstage. Plus jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke from Benin will lead his trio into the Berklee Performance Center. That's three kinds of awesome, especially the sui generis LaVette. But there's a wrinkle.
Until Dec. 15, for the first time you'll be able to buy $35 reserved seats for each of these three shows; about 30 percent of each hall will be set aside for reserved seating, and those will be the good seats down front. An $18 First Night button still gets you into these and all other indoor events when there's room, but at these three shows buttonholders will be looking at the backs of the heads of people who paid more. All outdoor events continue to be free. (Buttons are available for just $15 at www.firstnight.org through Dec. 24.)
Word from the First Night folks is that there are good reasons for the reserved seating plan. The extra $17 will help offset the higher cost of getting these performers, as well as replace shrinking corporate and foundation support. They're also hoping to bring in folks who might have stayed home rather than risk not getting into an event. It's difficult to argue with a plan that will help keep First Night healthy without bumping up the cost of the button for everyone. And Bettye LaVette for $18 is a pretty good deal, wherever you sit.
Still, I'm not liking the precedent, even though I'd pay the $35 myself. It goes against the egalitarian nature of First Night. And it's not just symbolic. I bet there will be one or two folks in the back rows at Symphony who just couldn't spare the extra dollars. How are they going to feel? Maybe bumping the buttons up to $20 for everyone would have been a better move.
(Photo by Carol Friedman via First Night)
Seems to me that bumping up the cost of the button for everyone so that a few people get better seats to Betttye is much less egalitarian than keeping First Night healthy and keeping the button cost down for all the other First Night events.
Seeing Bettye LaVette from a reserved seat for $17 (since the button still gets you into everything else) is a bargain. Seeing her (and everything else) for only the cost of a button - priceless.
Posted by: Bernie Anderson | November 18, 2010 at 10:55 AM