Most folks are aware
that you can get same-day tickets to many Broadway and off-Broadway shows
at substantial discounts via the Times Square TKTS booth. But here are a few
things that aren't as well known:
You
don't have to wait until you arrive at a TKTS booth to get some idea of
what shows will be sold at discount. Instead, you can simply click here to view a snapshot of what the TKTS booth was selling when it sent its live feed to the website—which it does at least once a day. If you aren't familiar with TKTS, you may be shocked at the number of hit shows being offered for as much as 50% off.
If you're not sure what to see and desire some guidance, you can click here and
use the View and Type drop-down boxes to select the category of show you're after. After each selection you make, the display changes to show you all NYC
productions in the category. Click any production to view detailed information about it, including what it's about, its performance schedule, its running time, its location, what subways to take to get to it, and a link to its website.
The
Times Square TKTS booth is notorious for its long lines. But if you show
up around 7:30 pm, you'll find most of the tourists have already purchased
their tickets and run off to dinner...often shrinking the line to a wait
of 5-10 minutes. In addition, some of the most popular shows don't release
their prime vacant seats until 7:30 pm, which means your timing could
be rewarded with a VIP spot.
One
of the Times Square TKTS windows is devoted to plays. Therefore, if you're
not aiming for a musical or music-related show, go directly for this window,
which usually has shorter lines.
In addition to Times Square, there are three other TKTS booths: at the South
Street Seaport, in Downtown Brooklyn, and at Lincoln Center.
Understandably, these tend to have fewer customers than their counterpart
in the heart of the Broadway district, which means less waiting and hassle.
And they're all a mere subway ride away. For complete information on all four TKTS booths, please click here.
You can also sign up to get Off-Off-Broadway tickets for just $11 each. To learn more, please click here.
Discount Theatre Tickets via
Codes & Online Services
The TKTS booths are great
if you're okay with waiting on a potentially long line, and are open to
whatever shows and whatever seats for those shows happen to be available
when it's your turn at the ticket window.
If you want to plan an
evening, though, it's best to buy tickets in advance, which allows you
to carefully select both the show you want and your reserved seats. (In
addition, certain shows won't go through the TKTS booth but will
offer discount codes.) You usually can't nab 50% discounts this way; but
you can often get around 40% off, which for a party of four will still
be hundreds of dollars less than the retail price.
A good strategy is to get the code, go online to identify the seats available for the day and time you want, and then go to the physical box office with the code printout or screen in hand to request those seats...which will spare you from often outrageous online "service" charges.
Here are four of the best sources for theatre discounts:
BroadwayBox.com: The most comprehensive
list of theatre ticket discounts on the Web. If you aren't familiar
with this site, you may find the quality of selections & discounts
jaw-dropping.
Playbill.com's Playbill Club: There are, very
occasionally, shows discounted here that aren't on BroadwayBox.com.
In addition, this site provides discounts for restaurants, and for events
beyond Broadway. (Note: Access
to the discounts section requires joining the Club; but membership is
free.) While you're visiting, check out all the other wonderful features
of Playbill.com, which provides a world of information
about the theatre.
TheaterMania Discount Tickets: Again, there are very occasionally shows discounted here that aren't on
BroadwayBox.com. Plus, for what it's
worth, this site is way more colorful and fun to use. Also be sure to check out this site's comprehensive NYC theatrical show
listings—which
are the best on the Web—by
clicking here.
Goldstar: Goldstar makes you buy tickets directly through it. You must be a member to use this service, but signing up is entirely free. Sometimes Goldstar provides the best price for a show available anywhere; and sometimes it's the only source for discounts on a particular show. So if you can't find the deal you want on BroadwayBox.com, try checking Goldstar.
Being able to see a NYC
stage show for 50% off is fantastic. But if you want to go for near-miraculous,
join a "seat filler" theatre service, which will let you catch
a wide range of live shows for an incredible $3.50-$5.00 a ticket.
These services exist
because there are many shows that, at times, don't manage to sell out
a performance. In some cases, these productions want more people to experience
them and spread positive word of mouth (especially during the first week
or two of the run). In other cases, they simply want to fill vacant seats
so the paying customers feel like they're at a popular show and the performers
benefit from the energy of a large crowd.
By getting enthusiastic
audience members to fill empty seats, these companies are providing a
genuinely valuable service to shows...and in the bargain allow you to see
off-off-Broadway, off-Broadway, and sometimes even Broadway productions
for close to free.
The following are the
three primary theatre services for NYC:
TheaterMania Gold Club (theaterclub.com): Membership is
$99 a year or, if you'll be seeing shows sporadically, $10.99 a month. Cost per ticket is $5, charged to your credit card at the time
you make your purchase. You can buy up to two tickets per show. (Alternatively,
you can join for $169 a year, which allows you to purchase up to 4 tickets
per show.) This superb service typically has the best selection of shows. It also provides the best website, which is colorful,
informative; and highly customizable—e.g., you can view all available shows, or only shows in a certain category, and only shows in a certain time period. Plus this service often offers two tickets to a hot Broadway
show just for joining, which instantly more than covers the annual fee. If you
join and care to do me a good turn, please enter hy@hyreviews.com
as the person who referred you; I'll get
two free tickets for it. The bottom line is
that you can make up the cost of membership to the Gold Club in a single evening.
Theater Extras (theaterextras.com): Membership is $99 a
year. Cost per ticket is $4.50, which is charged to your credit card at the time
you make your purchase. You can buy up to two tickets per show. (Alternatively,
you can join for $175 a year, which allows you to purchase up to 4 tickets
per show.) This is a wonderful service that's highly competitive with TheaterMania Gold Club, offering a large and wide-ranging selection of shows (usually dozens of them). Its website is informative
and fun to use, providing a ilst of shows that's easy to contract for an "at a glace" view and to expand for details. And a poriton of its $4.50-per-ticket charge is donated to charities such as Broadway Cares and Equity Fights AIDS. If you
join and care to do me a good turn, please enter hy@hyreviews.com
as the person who referred you; I'll get
four free tickets for it.
Play-by-Play (play-by-play.com): Membership is $115
a year. Cost per ticket is $4.50. You can buy
up to 2 tickets per show. (Alternatively, if you pay nearly double the membership
fee, $222 a year, you can purchase up to 4 tickets per show.) Honestly, it was easier to make a case for this service back when it charged just $4 per ticket several years ago. At this point, though, it's a bit pricier than its two main competitors above; and back when I was a member, it didn't offer as many shows, or provide a website as enjoyable and informative, as TheaterMania Gold Club or Theater Extras. That said, the shows PBP did offer tended to be solid ones.
Bottom line: I recommend
joining TheaterMania Gold Club or Theater Extras as your primary service...or joining them both (which is what I do).
Because you can quickly
save hundreds of dollars in ticket costs using any of these services,
it can make sense to join a second one as a "backup."
While there's enormous overlap among the services, there will also be times
when your primary service isn't carrying a show but your backup service is...and
it might be a production you really want to see. Also, because each service
is allotted a set number of tickets, a show will often sell out on one service
but still be available through another.
If your only interest
is in the latest and greatest shows on Broadway, then you should probably
stick to buying from TKTS and using
discount codes...and, when necessary, paying full price.
But if you're game for
exploring all NYC has to offer—especially
the myriad of small, quirky, and occasionally breathtaking productions
beyond Broadway—joining
a theatre service is opening the door to what might prove to be unforgettable
adventures.
