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The $480 Broadway show
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October 26, 2001: 5:30 p.m. ET
"The Producers" introduces the most expensive ticket on Broadway.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - The toughest ticket on Broadway, premium seats for the musical "The Producers," has also just become the most expensive. By a lot.
The producers of "The Producers" said Friday they will set aside 50 premium seats for every performance, which will be sold for $480 each. The producers said they reached the decision because scalpers have been reselling orchestra and mezzanine seats, which have a face value of $100, for between $200 and $800.
Record high prices
The $480 price tag far exceeds the top ticket prices on Broadway, which were previously the $100 tickets for "The Producers." The show's producers likened the move to creating special the high-priced seating that exists at major sporting events and at some rock concerts.
"As the producers of 'The Producers' have watched scalpers buy and resell thousands of tickets, they have also watched those entitled to the profits being denied hundreds of thousands of dollars per week in income that is rightfully theirs," the producers said in a written statement. The new premium seats will be sold through a new business entity called Broadway Inner Circle.
The target customers for the $480 seats will be "large corporations, first-class tourists and individuals seeking prime locations, frequently on short notice" who had previously been "forced to obtain these seats through brokers unaffiliated with the show."
It is yet to be seen whether other Broadway shows will follow suit. "The Producers" has been a smash success. Even in the days and weeks following the attacks on New York's World Trade Center, while other Broadway shows had spare audiences, attendance was strong at the Mel Brooks musical comedy.
For a time, the producers will donate $150 from the higher-priced seats to the Twin Towers Fund. 
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