How to See Broadway Shows for Cheap
How to See Broadway Shows for Cheap
In every month’s Blankman List, I try to include one Broadway show. In some ways, it’s a little antithetical to the point of making a curated list. Like, gee, you discovered there’s a Broadway show playing in NYC. Impressive.
I still see value in my role though. There are currently 41 Broadway theaters in Manhattan. At any given time, around half of them have a show playing in them. If you’re not otherwise entrenched in the NYC theater scene, how do you know which one to see? After all, not all shows are created equal. Some have been around for decades, some just recently opened, some are plays, some are musicals, some are grandiose collaborative works of art, some are hot messes.
How Much Does Broadway Cost?
I restrict myself to at most one Broadway show every list, being mindful of what’s new, different, and of note. In my most recent list (September 2023), I call out Merrily We Roll Along, the Off-Broadway transfer starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez that starts previews on September 19. I saw it during the Off-Broadway run, and you can expect musical theater at its best: a masterful Sondheim work that shines with brilliant direction and performances. What you should not expect, however, are cheap tickets. Although the price fluctuates depending on when you buy them, many performances are already out of any tickets under $200. (!!!)
Speaking in generalities, Broadway isn’t cheap. The performers are union. The writers are union. The directors are union. The musicians are union. The lighting crew is union. The ushers are union! You are paying to see the literal best theater arguably in the world, and beyond paying for world-class talent, you’re also helping with ungodly high real estate costs, infrastructure maintenance, marketing, curtains, props, sets, and all of the details that go into making theater magical.
Broadway does NOT have to be hundreds of dollars, however! Over the years, I regularly go to in-demand Broadway shows for as little as $30–$50 per ticket, and I can recall many instances where I’ve seen shows for $10 or less. I’ll break down how I did it.
Note: This article was written in August 2023 and reflects the theater policies and shows playing as of this writing. The specific shows listed may no longer be running, but I expect the overall principles to remain true.
Choosing a Show
This is a critical detail. Right now, Hamilton sells out nearly every show. The Richard Rodgers Theatre has no incentive to offer discounted tickets, and well…they don’t. Unless you personally know someone involved with the show, the only way I know to get a deep discount to see Hamilton is to get extremely lucky and win their heavily entered lottery. I would expect Merrily We Roll Along tickets to be similarly coveted, at least as long as Daniel Radcliffe is in it.
However, if you are open to seeing any Broadway musical at all, or perhaps even any play at all, then your options open up dramatically. (Heh.) Playbill—i.e., the company that publishes Broadway’s free programs—offers an up-to-date listing of all shows currently running. Your first step should be to review the list, determine what shows are playing if you’re visiting, and decide which shows you’re interested in seeing. Broadway shows are not a monolith and are definitely not always a family-friendly, lighthearted romp. They can sometimes be intimate, dark, heady, sexual, or provocative. They are primarily musicals and plays, but Broadway theaters are also sometimes host to other genres such as concerts, magic shows, operas, or dance performances. The details that follow will differ based on the specific show, so a little legwork is required on your end to discover what options are available for shows you would actually see.
Basic Cost Savings Tactics
If buying online, make sure you are using the ticket seller linked on the show’s website. Here is Hamilton’s official site, for example. If you simply search for “buy Hamilton tickets,” the first sites that show up are often resellers, including the well-named but deceptively-branded Broadway.com. Tickets bought through resellers are genuine, but you are likely to pay steep fees in addition to the ticket costs.
The days of Hamilton selling out a year in advance are behind us. While I have no idea what the future holds in store, people are in general not planning that far out anymore post-pandemic, and there is no show with the feverish hype that Hamilton once had. That is to say, you can usually walk right up to the box office and buy tickets to a show later that night or that week. The box office will not charge sales tax, convenience fees, or anything like that. A $99 ticket will cost you exactly $99. You also get the added benefit of being able to interact with a live person who knows the theater intimately and can help you figure out what the best seats available are for your price range. This has to be done in person, as Broadway box offices generally do not have public numbers you can call.
Lottery and Rush
It’s not much of a secret that lottery and rush are a relatively reliable way to see Broadway shows for well below retail price. This is a risky plan if you’re just visiting NYC for a few days and want to see a specific show. However, if you’re open to seeing any show or live here and can be flexible with dates, this can be a consistent way to see Broadway affordably.
Every theater has its own policy, and the policy changes between shows and over time. The policies can largely be broken down by what company owns the theater:
Jujamcyn-owned theaters use Lucky Seat for their lotteries. Currently, that accounts for four shows: Hadestown, Funny Girl, Moulin Rouge!, and The Book of Mormon.
Nederlander-owned theaters use Broadway Direct, which currently accounts for eight shows: Aladdin, MJ, Shucked, Once Upon a One More Time, Sweeney Todd, Six, Wicked, and The Lion King.
Hamilton has its own app, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has a lottery through the TodayTix app.
Remaining show lotteries (mostly but not all for Shubert-owned theaters) are housed on the Telecharge website.
Lottery prices vary but are typically in the $30–$50 range. A few are pricier (a Wicked win will run you $54), and Hamilton is notably only $10. (He’s on the 10-dollar bill; get it?) Refer to the specific show for details around timing. Typically—but not always—you enter in the morning a day in advance for one or two tickets, find out that afternoon whether you win, and then have a few hours to decide whether or not to buy the ticket(s).
A few shows have an online rush option, generally through either Telecharge or TodayTix, where discounted rush tickets become available at a specified time and then anyone can buy them online until they sell out. Some theaters also (or instead) have in-person rush, an option that’s currently available for Back to the Future, Chicago, Kimberly Akimbo, and Some Like It Hot, to name a few. For these, there is an in-person line that forms at the theater before the box office opens, and the discounted tickets are available first come, first served. The website B’way Rush has a particularly good roundup of current lottery and rush options.
Broadway Promotions
Unlike, say, vacuum cleaners, there is a strictly limited supply of tickets to a specific show. Coupons can be hard to come by and may not exist. A show only has so much time to recoup its investment, and once it closes, that’s it. The ship has sailed. That said, many Broadway shows do usually have some kind of ticket promotion going if you’re persistent and know where to look.
Many shows create printed ads that are physically sent in the mail right when a show begins previews. They often contain a code that the recipient can use for a limited time to get discounted tickets. If you’re a resident, don’t throw out Broadway ads that get mailed to you! Of course, you’re likely more interested in codes available online. There are a few places worth looking:
Broadway World has a forum that has been around since the pandemic, where people post discount codes that they come across.
Playbill has a discount page with a few select shows available.
The Broadway subreddit of Reddit typically has a pinned post with discount codes that people share.
NYC’s official tourism organization puts together biannual Broadway Weeks, where theatergoers can buy discounted tickets. (It’s often advertised as Broadway 2-for-1 Week, but read the fine print, as the discount is more complicated than that.)
Additionally, many theaters have their own quirks, such as offering dates with special ticket pricing, discounted tickets for being under a certain age (e.g., Roundabout Theatre’s Hiptix program for theatergoers under 40), military or student discounts, and so on. Many shows, like & Juliet, Chicago, and MJ, have discounted standing room only tickets that are only available for shows that are sold out. If you know what specific show you want to see, go to that show’s official website and look for any options unique to that show. Another shoutout to B’way Rush, which aggregates all available discounts for shows currently playing.
Discount Sellers
There are various funds, organizations, and institutions that help to subsidize ticket prices. Many people qualify for a membership to the Theatre Development Fund, or TDF, including students, artists and art professionals, union members, non-exempt employees, people under 30, and plenty of other categories. A membership costs $42 per year and gives access to many theater tickets for $60 and less.
TDF also runs in-person same-day and next-day TKTS ticket booths in Times Square and Lincoln Center, which offer tickets to many shows at approximately 50% off. There is no guarantee that any specific show will be available, however, and in-demand shows do not usually have TKTS tickets available.
Many companies subscribe to a workplace discount program, such as Working Advantage, which can occasionally include discounted theater tickets. Additionally, schools—especially those in NYC—may have discount programs, for example ScholasTix with NYU. Lastly, this is an edge case, but having a library card in the city enables you to reserve a free(!) Culture Pass to various cultural institutions. In the past, Second Stage Theater—home to Broadway’s Hayes Theater—has participated.
Networking
This might seem like a cop-out, but the literal cheapest way I’ve gotten tickets was simply by knowing people with tickets they gave to me. Sometimes they can’t or don’t want to go at the last minute, and sometimes they’re given tickets and are in search of a plus one. Make sure any friends you have in NYC know that you love theater so the opportunity is at least there.
This doesn’t even have to be with people you previously knew! I have occasionally seen people post on the Broadway subreddit on Reddit or the Broadway Show Tickets Group on Facebook that they have tickets they can’t use anymore and are looking for someone to give them to. I’ve also seen people who won Broadway lottery tickets but can’t go try to sell them on the relatively new Theatr app. Obviously, a lot of this comes down to happenstance, but forums like these are worth monitoring closely if your goal is just to see any show.
Papering Services
To “paper the house” means to give away tickets to fill out a theater’s house. This typically doesn’t apply to in-demand shows, but even then, there are occasional pushes just to get butts in seats and spread word of mouth. Theaters are not looking to make it obvious or well-known that a seat is comped. I use papering services occasionally, and by signing up for them, I’m agreeing to some discretion myself. I recommend searching for “seat filling service nyc” or “papering service nyc.” There are a few. You pay $20–$100 per year to subscribe depending on the company, and then you get access to their listings. When reserving tickets, you then pay about $5 per ticket. These services include much more than Broadway and are in fact a consistent way to get exposed to offbeat, experimental, and unusual performances. They also generally include more than theater, for example concerts, comedy, or sports events. They often include shows that are not selling seats with good reason, so exercise caution.
This is only reliable if you are a resident and can check available shows throughout the year. This is no guaranteed way to see a $5 Broadway show if you’re only in town for a few days. Over the course of any given year, I usually see around 7 or 8 Broadway shows pop up on these sites, sometimes just for a day, sometimes for several weeks. There is a lot of overlap among these sites, so it is generally not necessarily to subscribe to more than one or two.
Summing It Up: Seeing a Broadway Show
To me, the effort has been worth it. I proudly share with friends that I see practically every musical that comes to Broadway, although not all of them realize that my tickets are nearly always under $50 and occasionally under $10.
If you’ll allow me to fanboy for a moment, theater in New York City is special. It doesn’t always come together perfectly, and there have been some pretty horrendous flops. But even in the worst shows, the cast and crew are consummate professionals and among the best in the world. The musicians are virtuosic. Set pieces and costumes are works of art. Broadway may be a tourist destination, but it’s with good reason. I encourage residents and tourists alike, no matter their background, to take advantage of the world-class theater right in their backyard—no matter their budget!