If you’re looking for a deal on a hot-ticket show, you will search in vain. The shows offering discounts may still be in previews (which means critics haven’t yet weighed in) or, having been around a while, are running low on fuel. Still, some excellent productions might be in the mix.
Box Office or Show Site
To guard against the heartbreak of counterfeit tickets, the safest bet is to buy through the show’s website or at the box office. The box office in particular has its advantages — including that you don’t have to pay the hefty service fees that are tacked onto online orders. And if you have a discount code, like the ones sometimes offered on theatermania.com or broadwaybox.com, it should work in person, too. But do check to make sure that the box office is open; prepandemic operating hours may not apply.
TodayTix App
The TodayTix app is a trustworthy source for often-discounted Broadway tickets, which users buy online. For some shows, you can choose your exact seats; for others, you pick the general section where you want to sit, and TodayTix assigns your seats. Whether you get barcoded electronic tickets delivered to your device or physical tickets that you pick up at the theater box office depends on the show. The app can also be used for entering some shows’ digital lotteries, which offer the chance to buy cheap tickets if you win, or for finding digital same-day rush tickets.
TKTS
TKTS, that discount-ticket mainstay of Times Square, sells same-day matinee and evening tickets, as well as next-day matinee tickets, at up to 50 percent off. The satellite booth at Lincoln Center is back open now, too. On the TKTS app, or online at tdf.org/tktslive, you can see in real time which shows are on sale at which location, and what tickets cost. But that doesn’t mean there will be any seats left for the show you want by the time you get up to the window, and you have to buy them in person. (For a few Off Broadway shows, sales are cash only.) Options are most plentiful right after the booths open, but new tickets are released all day, even as curtain time nears, so going later can be lucky, too.
Rush Tickets and More
Many shows, though not the monster hits, offer same-day rush tickets — either at the physical box office or online — for much less than full price. Some also sell standing-room tickets if a show is sold out. Don’t count on lucking into these, because availability varies — but it’s worth a shot. Conveniently, Playbill keeps a running online tab of individual shows’ policies on digital lotteries, rush tickets (sometimes just for students, often for everyone), standing room and other discounts.
