There’s a starry production of “Othello” opening on Broadway tonight. And if you’re among the many people who really, really want to see Denzel Washington as a jealous general, opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as a scheming Iago, it’s going to cost you: Most of the center orchestra seats, as well as a few rows in the mezzanine, are being sold for $921 apiece.

The high prices for this Shakespeare classic are setting records. During its second week of previews, “Othello” grossed more at the box office than any other nonmusical play had ever grossed on Broadway.

Tickets for the hottest Broadway shows are now out of reach for many. And the same is true for other sought-after live events, such as pop concerts (which now cost hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars per ticket) and big sports games. (A few weeks before the Super Bowl, the cheapest available tickets were reselling for more than the average monthly mortgage payment.)

In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how Broadway seats became so eye-poppingly pricey.

Trying to break even

Producing Broadway shows has become more expensive since the pandemic, and a vast majority of them lose money. So producers have been staging more short runs of plays with stars in lead roles — the stars attract ticket buyers, and the short runs allow those stars to more quickly return to filmmaking, which pays better than Broadway. Limited runs also seem to incentivize potential ticket buyers, because people find the now-or-never aspect motivating.

There is, of course, a tension between profitability and accessibility. These prices are preventing some potential theatergoers from seeing high-profile productions of important work.

Investors who spend money to bring shows to Broadway embrace high ticket prices because they want at least a shot at recouping their expenses. But many theater lovers, as they reminded me in a rollicking comments thread on the story I wrote about this subject last week, find these prices upsetting, because they want to see the shows they want to see at price points they consider reasonable.

“Othello,” with an average ticket price last week of $338.83, is the most expensive show on Broadway right now, but it’s not the only costly ticket. A stage adaptation of “Good Night, and Good Luck” starring George Clooney had an average ticket price of $303.75 last week, and a revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross” featuring Bill Burr, Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk had an average price of $207.40.

It’s important to be aware that most shows cost far less. The overall average ticket price on Broadway last week was $134.96. There were nine shows selling seats for under $50, including Tony-winning productions of “Chicago” and “Hadestown” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

Bargain hunters can often get even better deals by purchasing discounted tickets at a TKTS booth, entering an online lottery, lining up for rush tickets, finding a promo code or just sitting in seats that aren’t quite as close to the stage.

Supply and demand

Some people don’t like it when I say this, but ticket prices are set to reflect market demand. Tickets cost more for shows that have high demand and limited supply (there are 1,042 seats in the theater where “Othello” is playing); prices are higher for performances at the most desirable times and for seats in the most desirable locations. And if you wait until the last minute to look for tickets to a buzzy show, you’re probably going to pay more.

Broadway producers hire consultants to advise them on pricing strategy, and some engage in dynamic pricing, adjusting prices to reflect shifting demand in real time. Producers often remind me that if they underprice tickets, those tickets will get scooped up by speculators who then seek to make a profit on the resale market, effectively redirecting a show’s financial upside away from artists and investors and toward de facto scalpers.

What happens next? Reviews for “Othello” should start rolling out in the wee hours of Monday morning. (The show gave critics free tickets under the condition that reviews be published after midnight, so the company can enjoy its opening night party without worrying about notices.) If the reviews are great, prices could rise; if they are terrible, they could fall — although the show is already pretty well sold, so there’s not a ton of remaining inventory. Meantime, expect prices for the most in-demand shows, on Broadway and beyond, to remain high as long as there are people willing to pay those prices.

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THE SUNDAY DEBATE

Do the released John F. Kennedy files disprove the conspiracy theories?

Yes. Though some will continue to believe in a second gunman, they rely on nothing more than rumors. “It will be appropriate if the final revelation is that there is no revelation at all,” The Irish Times’s editorial board writes.

No. The files aren’t the re-investigation of the facts that skeptics of the official narrative have called for. “It will not mean case closed. Too late in the game for that,” Bob Katz writes for The Boston Globe.

FROM OPINION

The U.S. keeps a seed vault in case of disease or disaster. If the government fires the scientists who maintain the collection, it could jeopardize the future of agriculture, Iago Hale and Michael Kantar write.

A large part of Canadian identity is about not being American. Americans don’t realize how much we mean it, Glynnis MacNicol writes.

Here’s a column by Nicholas Kristof on a Sudanese refugee.

Just for fun: Immersive theater productions are taking jury service and packaging it as entertainment.

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Most clicked yesterday: How Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who wants to live forever, has used confidentiality agreements to control his image.

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

“Sunrise on the Reaping,” by Suzanne Collins: It’s been nearly two decades since Suzanne Collins introduced readers to Katniss Everdeen, to the brutal nation of Panem and to the televised adolescent death match known as the Hunger Games. Five books later, she returns to this dystopian world with a propulsive new prequel, “Sunrise on the Reaping,” which unspools the story of Katniss’s louche, loyal mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. Readers of the original “Hunger Games” trilogy will remember that a teenage Haymitch won the 50th Hunger Games and, when he returned home, found a government-inflicted tragedy that would haunt him for the rest of his life. In this new installment, Collins fills in the details — and, in doing so, explores with devastating precision how disinformation and authoritarianism work. There is so much that is out of Haymitch’s control: With the odds stacked against him 47-1, he certainly doesn’t expect to make it out of the Games alive. But he and the vibrant cast of new and familiar characters find ways to resist the government’s script, clinging to a piece of advice from Haymitch’s father: “Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood.”

This week’s subject for The Interview is the clinical psychologist Dr. Lindsay Gibson, author of the best-selling book “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.”

What might your book’s ongoing popularity say about the culture now?

I think the book’s ongoing popularity has been due to the fact that it said something about the cultural stereotype that we’ve had about parents for eons: that all parents love their children; all parents only want the best for their children. I think people’s actual experience is that these stereotypes don’t match up with their emotional experience.

One of the problems with contemporary life is how we label other people in ways that are reductive. Is there any part of you that thinks it’s not a good thing for the people who have read your book to be thinking about a parent, “Oh, you’re emotionally immature, and that is what defines you now?”

Absolutely, I think it’s a danger. That is the problem with the categorizing part of our mind. Once we call something something, we think we know all about it. I’ve tried to moderate that by helping people see more of the big picture about why these people became emotionally immature, what they’re trying to do with that kind of behavior and what you can do about it.

Do children owe parents anything?

I look at that question differently. I look at it as, do any of us owe anybody else anything?

What’s the answer?

Yes, I think we do. If I’m walking down the street and somebody trips and falls, I’m going to help them get up. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where that wasn’t there, but what has happened is that there has been such an assumption that because you’re my child, you owe me something. That’s where you get to a point where there should be a boundary. Know what it’s going to cost you to respond. Think about yourself too, and then make your best decision.

Read more of the interview here.

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

In this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein suggests making a spiced roast chicken with tangy yogurt sauce, a pasta with garlicky spinach and buttered pistachios, and a pan-seared salmon.