Telecharge Gift Certificates - Broadway Abridged

There used to be these Telecharge Gift Certificates things. They'd have to mail them in or bring them into the box office, but you could give the gift of a Broadway show by giving them. But really, who sends gift certificates in? That's a tad 1988.

Ken Davenport pointed out that (instead of something simple like "numbering the gift certificates for online use") Telecharge is finally making it possible to give gift cards that can be used online:

Valid for any of the following theatres:
Al Hirschfeld Theatre ( Hair )
Ambassador Theatre ( Chicago )
August Wilson Theatre ( Jersey Boys )
Belasco Theatre ( American Buffalo )
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre ( 13, a New Musical )
Booth Theatre ( Dividing the Estate )
Broadhurst Theatre ( Equus / Mary Stuart )
Broadway Theatre ( Shrek The Musical )
Cort Theatre ( 39 Steps/ You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush )
Ethel Barrymore Theatre ( Speed-the-Plow )
Eugene O'Neill Theatre ( Spring Awakening )
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre ( All My Sons )
Helen Hayes Theatre ( 39 Steps / Slava's Snowshow )
Imperial Theatre ( Billy Elliot )
John Golden Theatre ( Avenue Q )
Longacre Theatre ( Boeing-Boeing )
Lyceum Theatre ( Vanities )
Majestic Theatre ( Phantom of the Opera, The )
Music Box Theatre ( August: Osage County )
Sam S. Shubert Theatre ( Blithe Spirit /Monty Python's Spamalot )
St. James Theatre ( Gypsy )
Walter Kerr Theatre ( Seagull, The )
Winter Garden Theatre ( Mamma Mia! )
Off-Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre (but not Fuerzabruta, which is its current possibly-long-term tennant)
Whatever's playing at the Little Shubert, which I'm too lazy to look up.

So my questions to you are:
a) Would you give a telecharge gift certificate to a friend or relative instead of whatever un-creative stupid gift certificates you might give now?
b) Would you still give it to them knowing that when they use it (because of Ticketmaster or other reasons), half of the Broadway shows aren't an option?

Take a look at what the current gift certificates (and future gift cards) won't work on:

9 to 5 ( Marquis Theatre )
Accent on Youth ( Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly Biltmore Theatre) )
American Plan, The ( Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (formerly Biltmore Theatre) )
Grease ( Brooks Atkinson Theatre )
Guys and Dolls ( Nederlander Theatre )
Hairspray ( Neil Simon Theatre )
Hedda Gabler ( American Airlines Theatre )
In the Heights ( Richard Rodgers Theatre )
Irving Berlin's White Christmas ( Marquis Theatre )
Lion King, The ( Minskoff Theatre )
Little Mermaid, The ( Lunt-Fontanne Theatre )
Liza's at the Palaceâ€¦ ( Palace Theatre )
Man For All Seasons, A ( American Airlines Theatre )
Mary Poppins ( New Amsterdam Theatre )
Pal Joey ( Studio 54 )
Philanthropist, The ( American Airlines Theatre )
Soul of Shaolin ( Marquis Theatre )
South Pacific ( Vivian Beaumont Theater )
Waiting for Godot ( Studio 54 )
West Side Story ( Palace Theatre )
Wicked ( Gershwin Theatre )
Young Frankenstein ( Hilton Theatre )

3 Comments

Anonymous | November 19, 2008 9:02 AM

i believe (i'm not sure) that if you give them a gift certificate from broadway.com, there are more options. and as for the appropriateness of the gift, I would suggest you do so because the ones from broadway.com are valid for a year. So if there is nothing they like for a while, they will eventually find something :)

Anonymous | November 19, 2008 9:04 AM

yes I just checked, they are vaild for any broadway or off broadway show.

Gil | November 19, 2008 10:08 AM

Yes, Broadway.com is less restrictive in your choices, that's the upside. But let's use the services to find two orchestra Billy Elliot tickets for... say, Friday, February 27th at 8PM.TELECHARGE.COM:$126.50 per ticket + $7 "fees" per ticket + $2.50 per order = $269.50BROADWAY.COM:$126.50 per ticket + $29.50 in "fees" per ticket = $312 for two tickets. (More than a 15% increase.) And I don't get to pick the seats.On the plus side, using Broadway.com to search for the tickets for the first time, I just learned: if I pay an extra $10 a ticket for "cancellation insurance", buy tickets, and then decide the reviews are dreck, all I have to do is Priority Mail my tickets so Broadway.com gets them 2 days in advance of the show, and I get $253 back! That's, of course, only 75% out of my $337 total [$312 + $20 insurance + $5 USPS]. Still, I can imagine wanting to spend essentially the $60 premium if you're from out of town.