Broadway Legend Andrew Lloyd Webber Calls Dynamic Pricing 'Racketeering'

The infamous ticketing practice known as “dynamic pricing” has been the talk of the live event industry over the past year. Following the Oasis ticket debacle in the UK — and the duo’s promise to not use the practice for North American shows — composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is calling out dynamic pricing, condemning it as “racketeering.”

Lloyd Webber, known for hit musicals like “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” and “The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” was asked by The Sunday Times magazine if dynamic pricing would potentially be used for theatre tickets. He said that he doesn’t think theatres “should be in the business of trying to push prices up.”

“You need to break even, but I don’t like making theatre inaccessible,” Webber told the publication. “Dynamic pricing is racketeering, really — it’s completely wrong.”

Oasis and its management were slammed for messy ticket sales in the UK and Ireland for the use of dynamic pricing. Fans were met with tickets that were 3-4x the advertised “face value” price, which was chalked-up to the fact that the tickets were “in demand.” While Oasis blamed Ticketmaster and its management for the surged prices, multiple dates were announced across Ireland and the UK once the band saw fans had committed to the surged ticket prices and knew there was further interest among fans.

Oasis and Iron Maiden fans are not alone; concertgoers across all genres have felt the burn of dynamic pricing. Complaints from fans across all genres have made headlines over the past year — from Green Day and Sleep Token to Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo.