1 ticket for a Madonna concert* (Berlin)
Runtime: 90 minutes long
Seat location: Not quite in the nosebleed section, but definitely "cheap"
Price: € 82
1 ticket for Gypsy** at the St. James (Broadway)
Runtime: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Seat location: Orchestra or front mezzanine
Price: $117 (ca. € 80)
1 ticket for Elisabeth - das Musical*** at the Theater des Westens (Berlin)
Runtime: 3 hours long
Seat location: Twelfth row orchestra
Price: € 83
1 ticket each for ten (10) performances of the some of the most exciting theater**** Europe has to offer (Berlin)
Runtime: 25 hours long total (approximate)
Seat locations: All excellent seats (some front row)
Price (total): € 80
It all comes down to that lovely distinction between E(rnste)-Kunst and U(nterhaltungs)-Kunst:
E-Kunst
(serious art) in German theaters (both private and state-run) is only
possible thanks to heavy governmental funding that covers high
production budgets and keeps down the price of the ticket at the box
office.
U-Kunst (entertainment) like musicals, even one about an empress of Austria***, is not considered worthy of funding. You pay the same price in New York for a musical about an American ecdysiast.** If you want to enjoy such lowbrow spectacles, it is extraordinary (to paraphrase Noel Coward) how expensive cheap music is.
Ironically, German taxpayers, the majority of whom would never set foot in a "serious" theater but flock to pop concerts*, are supporting the highbrow spectacles**** I will be devouring in my last three weeks in Berlin. I say: Danke schön.
