Lincoln Center to debut 'choose what you pay' pricing for spring series

BySonia Rincon WABC logo

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Lincoln Center to debut 'choose what you pay' pricing for spring series

Sonia Rincon has more on the 'choose what you pay' pricing from Lincoln Center.

UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- On a cold and rainy night, spring can't come soon enough.

Spring at Lincoln Center will mean a return of some of the programming that was canceled when the pandemic hit in 2020 and again in 2021. The American Songbook Series is coming back in April with pay-what-you-can pricing when tickets go on sale later in February.

"Five dollars to 35 dollars, so it's choose what you want, it's all up to you," said Leah Johnson.

Lincoln Center is building on the success of programming over Summer on the Green, welcoming anyone who reserved a free ticket.

"23 percent had never been to Lincoln Center before, so we also wanted to start thinking about when we come back indoors, how can we make sure we are still extending that welcome, and one of the levers you can pull is the ticket price," Johnson said.

That is music to the ears of patrons who came to the Philharmonic and ballet performances on Friday, who want to see more shows come back to life.

"I think it's great that it opens up to more people to allow them to come and experience the magic that Lincoln Center offers," said Lauren Gulotta.

"As I see more and more people who are in the arts themselves, people who are in plays and shows and have been forced to just not perform and do what they love for so long, it just like brings me a lot of joy to see people doing that, back again now," added Marnie Vaughan.

Lincoln Center may not have had shows on all of its stages during the pandemic, but it put those spaces to good use. The David Rubenstein Atrium, for instance, hosted early voting, blood drives, and food distribution.

"We really would like to be not only a performing arts organization, but also a civic organization, so we've been doing many things in the community that we serve," said Johnson.

Now, they are finding more ways to be creative as the drop in COVID cases raises hope for rising curtains on a spring of memorable and safe performances.

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