Theater Programs - Collecting

Residents of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and cities that are visited frequently by the road show companies of Broadway plays are most likely to be theater program collectors. Visitors to New York from other parts of the United States may save their programs, but building good collections is difficult for them.

Program collectors are usually avid theater-goers and their collections grow rapidly. Of course, every New York collector does not see every show that opens on Broadway, but this does not prevent him from having a program representing every play. If a play does not appeal to a collector enough to warrant the outrageously high cost of a ticket, he wanders down to the theater at intermission time, mingles with the crowd in the lobby, walks into the theater, picks up his program and wanders on to another theater. Once upon a time, a patron was handed a return check when he left a Broadway theater at intermission, but New York's theaters haven't seen a return check for many years. The above suggestion may seem a slightly sneaky way of indulging in a hobby, but it surely can be justified in view of current theater prices. And collectors must be allowed their little foibles.

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