Cheaper broadway tickets
 

I will be in New York for a few weekends in June and July and wanted to see a Broadway show. Would love to see Wicked or the Lion King. One of my children is a college student (but not from NY). I have seen lots of posts on student discounts. How can we access that? I've been on theatremania and playbill. Broadwaybox has free codes only for a few shows. Is there anything else out there? Thanks so much.

Lion King and Wicked are never discounted since they regularly sell out. Wicked has a lottery that you can try if there are just 2 of you. http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuz...-Only-Policies

The Lion King is sometimes discounted, though rarely in the summer. Wicked is never discounted, so the cheap rush tickets are probably the best alternative. You can, of course, always buy same-day discounted tickets from TKTS. Expect long lines on weekends.

But I've never seen either of those shows at the TKTS booth. tdf.org/tkts will list which shows were available last week.

You're right mclaurie. Neither show has been at TKTS!
Look again at broadwaybox.com, minsin. Though A Lion King and Wicked are not among them, there are a lot of shows discounted on the site.

The Lion King and Wicked are still doing VERY well at the box office so no discounted tickets are generally available, since they don't need to discount.

The TKTS booth in lower Manhattan is a better choice since it opens at 10am I think and the lines are short. Head there and then walk up to Chinatown for some Dim Sum.

The booth is on the back side of the Prudential Building (at the South St. Seaport) at Fulton and Water St. Subway is just a few blocks away. Most of the subway lines stop in the area.

Since your son is a student, you could join TDF. It costs $12 per year for out-of-towners.

As members, we just paid $74 for two tix to South Pacific. (No, I do not know the seat location and it might not be great)


http://www.tdf.org/TDF_SupportPage.aspx?id=76

http://www.tdf.org/TDF_ServicePage.aspx?id=59&%20do=v

Also, the TKTS booth downtown, sells matinee tickets the day before (evening the day of).

Fear not, ekscrunchy, there are no "bad seats" in that theater. The sight lines are fine, even from the last row in the balcony.

Have never seen Wicked disocunted - it sells out every night. Lion King also has a policy of not discounting. If those are the only shows you want I would get tickets immediately - at full price - or you might have to buy from a scalper at a premium. If you ant better dealslookat showsdiscounting on broadwaybox.com orplaybill,com - which will be few in summer due to the huge numberof tourists.

And the only time I have seen student discounts is when a show is discounting heavily.

Not so, nytraveler. Student discounts are indeed available for a lot of shows, including big hits like Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot and A Little Night Music, plus other popular shows including Mamma Mia, Fela and La Cage Aux Folles. Info on all sorts of discounts and lotteries is available on playboy.com.
Further, while there may be fewer discounts in the summer, there will still be a goodly number to choose from.

I kind of wish Wicked would slow down some so they'd make the movie...but don't expect any Wicked discounts any time soon.

I've seen Lion King for sale at TKTS but it's nothing you can count on. I agree - if you really want to see these two shows buy your tix ASAP.

I think HowardR meant to say playbill.com

Ooops, I did. Thanks for the correction, MFNYC. (But, then, maybe playboy.com has something better to offer!)

;)

HowardR: Right you are! What a great theatre! Our TDF South Pacific tickets ($35 each) were 6th row orchestra, on the far left side. I thought they were fabulous and I loved the show. That music certainly stands up after all this time! I did not think any of the performers were superstars (understudy in the Frenchman's role; Nellie a little weak maybe) but it hardly mattered. Wonderful evening! Thanks for your comments.

ek, glad you loved it. I did too! Because of the stage, you feel like you are "right there!". The show was a favorite since childhood but I still didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. In fact, I gave away my tickets to the national tour when they were in my city. I just knew I'd be disappointed after the Lincoln Center show. I want to check my Playbill but I think the Matthew Morrison from Glee was the Lt when I saw it. I've fallen in love with that theatre now. :-)

Yes, Starrs, you are correct about Matthew Morrison. He was also the original boyfriend in Hairspray, which was his first major role.

When we were in NYC for a month last year, we joined Theater Development Fund, which is the best source of low-priced theater tickets. You won't find Wicked or Lion King, but you will find much much more: http://www.tdf.org/TDF_ServicePage.aspx?id=59

After we joined, I discovered there is a lower rate for out-of-towners.

HTTY

Yes, I mentioned that and gave the links above. $12 a year if you live more than 100 miles from NYC.

TDF is an unbelievable deal. In addition to Broadway and off-Broadway, I paid $26 for orchestra seats at the Met for American Ballet theater at at Avery Fisher Hall for the New York Philharmonic. Other treats included a night at the atmospheric Iridium Jazz Club, Upright Citizen's Brigade--and much more.

Thanks so much for all this great information. We'll definitely look into the TDF as soon as I post this. I mentioned those two shows because even after living in the area for 6 years, we did not see these. Perhaps I am doing what every tourist does, and not what every New Yorker does! But will definitely look up the others too.

Now that we have the theater bit sorted out, what are the best cheap eats for pre or post-theater? Thanks...

No longer true, Daniel, if it ever was. Now you can buy cheap Jersey Boy tickets using the various codes fully discussed above. Good seats are available at discount. No need to use one of those scalping rip off sites like "goodseattickets". Sorry to rain on your parade.

Patrick, happily, Daniel's posting was deleted. The website he "recommended" is not what he claims it to be!

Well, I'm especially glad that his ad for GoodSeatTickets disappeared, but my telling it like it is -- a scalping rip off site -- remains. I don't think that's how he meant it to end!

I had reported it early this am as advtng and a scam. He's posting it all over the place.

We're on the same wave length, nytraveler. I reported it as well.

Speaking of cheaper tickets, I can strongly recommend a legitimate outlet, named the Theater Development Fund (otherwise known at TDF). It's the same organization that runs TKTS and you can get some great bargains. We joined earlier this year. (I think the membership fee is $25 a year.) Anyway, we got tickets to see the latest version of Forbidden Broadway this weekend, and the total price for the two of us was $65!

Howard, I have many friends who use TDF religiously and are very happy with it.
The only negative I have with it is that (I'm pretty sure) you can't choose seats. We attended the same performance of Ghost with two friends. They paid approximately the same for their tickets we did. But we were in the front row mezzanine (tickets bought via BroadwayBox discoutn) while their TDF tickets were about the fourth row from the back in the balcony! Sometimes they get really good seats -- sometimes not at all.

I think they are usually happiest with their savings on offBroadway shows, usually in smaller venues where the exact seats don't mean so much -- things like Forbidden Broadway would be perfect (which I think has the lowest code discounted price on weekends of $55 each!)

YOu're absolutely right, Patrick. I'd be a little uncertain about getting tickets for a musical in one of the larger Broadway theaters just for the reason you stated. I wouldn't have that fear for a non-musical in a smaller Broadway house or, as you noted, for any off-Broadway show

PS: Patrick, you are also correct about being happy with the savings. The amount I saved on these tickets alone more than paid for the membership fee.
Incidentally, there are tons of choices available to tdf members...and not just for Broadway and off-Broadway.

Anyone wanting tickets for Forbidden Broadway, fear not. The theater is very small (about 180-200 seats), with 10 rows in the orchestra (12 seats in each row) and a small balcony. Our bargain seats were right on the aisle in the 10th row and were fine.
PS: The show was wonderful. See my review on the Broadway Banter thread.