Interesting...

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As an Usher at the Hilton Theatre during the run of Young Frankenstein I learned a lot about this subject from daily interaction with the patrons. I remember this one time a woman was so upset about Rodger Bart being out that she walked up waving the notice and screamed that the paper in her hand was a problem. Then she demanded to know why he wasn't going to be on stage that night. Which we were not allowed to tell even if we did know; if they were sick sometimes I would bend that rule but it depended on how I thought the person would react.
I never realized just how much patrons cared about the subject until almost every time there was an understudy on patrons would ask me, "Is Sutton Foster's Understudy any good? I paid a lot of money for these seats.” Which for that show some groups paid about $450.00 per ticket.

For Young Frankenstein we were lucky that all of the understudies were very talented (except for one of Igor’s but Christopher Fitzgerald was hardly ever out). Rodger Bart’s understudy Jon Patrick Walker was the best!

I think that audience members are very sensitive to what they paid for. For many patrons going to the theatre is a special event with family and friends. In my opinion the problem is the psychology behind when you plan something and things don't go exactly the way you imagined, it's in our nature to get disappointed. Therefore I think the main perception that needs to be changed is at the point of sales. Personally I think in an ideal world the audiences would be built around the show concepts. People should be paying to see the show not the stars in the show.

I think it would help if audience members were more informed about policies and procedures (i.e. If the actor's name is above the Title and they are out you can get your money back), of course within reason. I found once I explained to an audience member certain things that they were much more content and willing to accept the situation. An uninformed audience is one most likely to get fed up and tell their distant cousins about it. That's why I love that telecharge.com will sometimes let you know if a big name star will be on vacation before you purchase the tickets. Also for day of information we now have www.broadwayunderstudies.com (there is also a West End version).

Something to ponder: What would be some good ways to keep an audience informed though?

Ticketmaster or Telecharge sending out a mass e-mail if there are any changes 24 hours before the show?

Making the fine print larger?

Broadway for Dummies book? (I wonder if they have one already) Broadway 101 pamphlets?

Promoting the informative sites like broadwayunderstudy.com?