How to pay under $50 for Broadway tickets
Visiting New York City and not seeing a show on Broadway would be just wrong, don’t you agree? However, with the city itself being so expensive, you’ll soon find yourself searching for new options to save some dollars. Or maybe you have the whole list of shows you need to see.
When I was there, I choose a comedy called A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and it was fantastic! Jefferson Mays amazingly portrayed 9 different characters, songs were extremely catchy and the plot was ridiculous. Unfortunately, the final performance of the show on Broadway was January 17, 2016. The price we paid was $42 per person, all fees included. We bought our tickets on Goldstar, a reliable website that offers discounted tickets for various events. The discounts are typically 20-50% and they also have off-Broadway offerings. The great thing is you can buy them last minute, if still avaliable. We bought ours a day before the show.
If you want a list of all shows currently played and you wish to know what’s the lowest price you can get, visit Broadway For Broke People. As you can see, they are mentioning “Lotery”, “SRO” (meaning standing-only) and “Rush” tickets. Many Broadway shows have implented these kind of tickets to make tickets more affordable. Let’s start with so called Lotery tickets. This means you have to go to theater earlier (read policy of the show you’re interested in for the exact amount of time, the avarage is around 2 hours before the show). Names are drawn at random and you have to physically be there to claim them, if you score. Rush tickets do not require as much luck, but you still have to be organized. They sold first come, first serve when the box office opens. Queues can get quite long, so try to google a little to see how popular the show is and when it’s the best to get there. And lastly, Standing-only tickets. There are numbered spaces that are the width of a regular seat, usually located at the back of the orchestra. The disadvantage is, they’re only sold when the show sells out, so keep that in mind. Note that all Student Rush ticket purchases require a valid and current student ID and Lottery Rush ticket purchases require a photo ID. Some theatres may not accept cards, so take some cash with you.
Discounted tickets are also sold at TKTS boots. Try to avoid the one in Times Square and go to one of the other two instead. They offer 30-50% off of the retail price. In our case, this meant we could get one for $80, as I was told. For pretty much any show I was interested in. It’s still a way to avoid the queues and pay less.
Then there’s Broadway Box. Their sicounts are 20-50%. They also offer a lottery for free tickets from midnight until 3pm each weekday. Enter here. I tried several times while in NYC, but didn’t win anything.
Last, yet still one of my top three picks, TodayTix. Created by Broadway producers, TodayTix is an app for buying last-minute theater tickets at the best prices in New York. Apple and Android users can get it for free here. If you ender the code “CWFVA” when purchasing your first ticket, you can get $10 off of the ticket price (which equals their fee for every purchase, so you will avoid that). The app features discounts and lotteries users can enter as many times as they want.
Now you have no more excuses to miss a Broadway show.
The photo was taken by me.