Question about buying discount broadway tickets online

techiemom · 02-19-2006, 07:16 PM

Hi,

As my son's interest in Broadway shows grows so does his desire to see more and more of them which is great .... but expensive.

I did a search on discount broadway tickets and came up with several that seem interesting - discounts of 30% and more to a number of productions. Online registration is free but required and they only have certain dates or times available. What do you think? Has anyone bought tickets this way - is there anything I should watch out for?

Buying tickets the day of the show could be an alternative but it would be nicer to show up with the tickets already in our hands.
Thanks

sac · 02-19-2006, 07:41 PM

we did this on our last trip to NYC and it was fine. the main drawback is that we're still getting e-mail from them and we're too far away to take advantage.

you might take a look at the CUArts site (Columbia University), which lists some of the online ticket sites for both on and off Broadway plays.

chrisnoo · 02-19-2006, 08:49 PM

read the fine print, because i wanted to go see dirty rotten scoundrels, but the deal wasnt good on saturday nights. every other night though. so it just depends.

chris

Melsmom · 02-19-2006, 08:56 PM

Playbill.com has a great ticket service that emails me every week or so with great deals. Currently they have spamalot (3rd row limited view), and Piazza deals. I have had great luck going through them, no lines and you know your seats right away.

alwaysamom · 02-19-2006, 09:17 PM

techiemom,

There are a few ways to get discounted tickets online. The two best known and reliable ones are playbill.com and broadwaybox.com. You will get similar discounts from both and the deals are pretty good. Sometimes there are limitations on the days offered, as you said sometimes Saturday night shows aren't included, but not always. I have ordered through both with no problems. For example, here's a list of the current shows offered from Playbill:

Avenue Q
Barefoot in the Park
Beauty and the Beast
Bridge & Tunnel
Chicago
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Doubt (All Perfs thru 3/5)
Phantom of the Opera
Ring of Fire
Sweeney Todd
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Light in the Piazza
The Producers
The Woman in White

Playbox has those plus:

Rent, Mamma Mia, Hairspray, Lestat, The Color Purple.

BrendanN · 02-19-2006, 09:45 PM

I tend to monitor discounts for Broadway shows quite a bit, even though I'm in CA. I'm a member of TDF (www.tdf.org). It costs about $25 a year and you must be either a student or teacher and get a year's membership. Although I have never used it personally, I let my friend who goes to NYU use it and she's received MANY discounted tickets. Most shows sell for about $36 or less. Right now shows like Piazza, Altar Boyz, Doubt, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ring of Fire and a large handful of off-Broadway shows are listed. It's a great program and I highly recommend it. Also, Theatremania.com and PLaybill.com have pretty good discounts. Lincoln Center has a great program for students. A student can get a membership for free and with that membership can buy one ticket to every show there for $20, any seat. I saw Piazza 5th row center on a Saturday night for a grand total of $22.50. I know that there's a waiting list for the membership right now, but it couldn't hurt to get on that. Just keep looking, there are plenty discounts out there. I go to NYC at least once a year to see all the new stuff and rarely do I pay full price. Hope that helped!

rossji · 02-20-2006, 12:19 AM

Try www.schooltix.com. It has discount codes for major shows; it's completely legit!

Melsmom · 02-20-2006, 02:17 PM

BrendanN~
Just curious about how good the seats are with the $36 tickets. I would only be interested in orchestra seats, with playbill I have no problem getting them, although the shows are usually around for a while before they are offered.
Are you able to get orchestra seats for that price wtih tdf, or are they further back?

nytheatermom · 02-20-2006, 02:29 PM

I have frequently bought tickets from tdf.org. Yes, you do not know where your seats are until you get there. Most of the time I have gotten excellent seats at these steaply discounted prices. On Satuday, we saw Chita Rivera's show (day before it closed) for $31 each. They were row 0. Just off of center section. They were perfect. The truth is when one is paying $31 one minds less that the seats might not be perfect.

My daughter went to Light in the Piazza a couple of weeks ago and had front-row center balcony for this same $31 oe $32.

Obviously, if the theater outing is a special event, you care more about getting better seats. But my daughter and I have used these tickets many many times over the last 5 years to see so many shows we would not have otherwise seen.

In most cases the seats claim to be $100 orchestra; in some cases I woud have resented paying $100 for that seat but did not mind paying $31.

nytheatermom · 06-13-2006, 06:19 PM

Bump for Lisa, but I think there is another thread (that I began) as well. The material may be redundant.

NotMamaRose · 06-14-2006, 09:30 AM

Thanks so much. I appreciate all the info, and the bump! You guys are the best

(BTW, not sure when we are coming up and what we want to see. I will be in a party of four, and two of us would love to see a play, such as "The History Boys" or "Faith Healer," but the other two are musical peeps all the way, and one of those is a younger girl, which also rules out certain shows.)

Still making arrangements, as I can ...

L

nytheatermom · 06-14-2006, 01:57 PM

History boys is all sold out, or if it is not you won't get discount tickets except perhaps at the last second.

alwaysamom · 06-14-2006, 02:10 PM

Actually, nytheatermom, it's not! I ordered three sets of tickets today for family who will be visiting the city between now and the end of August, and was able to get orchestra seats for all of them. You're right that discount seats will not be available but if people want tickets to see this wonderful show, they can still get them and should do so soon!