We are seeing Beautiful at the end of April…11 of us! Tickets were about $130 each for excellent seats. Can’t wait.
Seconding @mathmom on Curious Incident. Something Rotten is a fun romp with lots of inside jokes about musical theatre and Shakespeare and has an outstanding cast (Christian Borle, John Cariani, and Brian D’Arcy James – you may have seen Borle and D’Arcy James in Spotlight and TV’s Smash and Peter Pan even if you don’t know them by name). Both shows often have discount tickets available through TKTS. There is an app called TodayTix that gets good reviews (haven’t used it personally) and is a source for full price and discount tickets within a week of the performance date. Catch is you can’t select your seats, so if that is important to you then I’d suck it up and pay full price. Curious Incident is in one of the smaller theatres, so your seat location may be less important there than at Something Rotten. Don’t buy tickets from street scalpers – chances of fraud are too high. We tend to splurge on shows, though; I’d rather economize on meals and take the subway or walk instead of taxis. YMMV.
Hamilton is a great show. We saw it in September (got tix as soon as the Broadway transfer was announced), and I’d pay $450 to see it again, especially with this cast. If your American Revolutionary history is rusty, you’ll follow the show better if you skim the Chernow biography that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda or get the soundtrack before you go.
Follow any shows you might like to see on Twitter or like them on Facebook. You will sometimes find discount codes there, although I’d be surprised if that happens in May. There are also good off-Broadway shows; check MTC, MCC, and the Public Theatre to see what’s playing.
@thumper1 I thought I typed a good idea! Arghhh!
Whatever you do, do not buy tickets for Hamilton on Craigslist. My friend’s daughter was scammed by bogus tickets she bought and there is a good deal of that for Hamilton tickets.
TKTS is good usually can get tickets for plays as much shorter line although not likely for Eclipsed which I saw a few weeks ago. It transferred from the Public Theater. It is a searing drama and Lupita N’Yongo is making her Broadway debut. I also saw "the Crucilble’ which is still in previews, opening this week… pretty intense play directed by Ivo Van Hoven who directed the acclaimed View from the Bridge revival earlier this winter.
Matilda is a good deal of fun and you can probably get a discount code now for that show from Broadway Box or Playbill. Wicked is of course still going strong, no discounts but a great show to see… My recommendation for an outstanding show but non-traditional musical is Fun Home.
The King & I will lose Kelli O’Hara in the lead role sometime in April I recently read, not sure who is taking over. Waitress is soon to open with Jesse Mueller in the lead, she was the original Carole King in Beautiful.
I highly recommend a site called www.show-score.com It’s like Rotten Tomatoes for plays. It summarizes critics’ scores and the scores of regular theatre goers–like ME!!! It has some parameters; you choose the adjectives from a list. You also add a “See this show if…” and “Don’t See this Show If…” Sometimes it has a few legitimate outlets that offer discounts If you “follow” the show, you can set a price at which you’d go. So if any outlet offers tickets at that price, you’ll be notified. I am trying it out for a few shows, with a price of $25. We’ll see what happens.
I see mostly Off and Off Off Broadway these days. I have seen The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mathilda, An American In Paris. I disliked the Mathilda, but I seem to be in a small minority. The others were excellent.
Daughter and I have birthdays in April too. A weekend trip to New York sounds like a great idea. I will be following this thread for more ideas on what to see in New York. We have buses that travel to and from New York daily. We would love to see a Broadway show.
^ I have taken the bus to NYC several times, raclut. It’s a great deal and if you need a recommendation I suggest Vamoose.
Also for tickets, go to playbill.com. They have information about rush ticket lotteries. Generally you have to do this the day of the show, and you have to be willing to wait in line (and risk not getting a ticket), but if you win you can get good seats cheap. D did this all the time when she was a student. I saw Lin Manuel Miranda’s first show “in The Heights” this way.
Thanks @fallgirl
There’s NOTHING like a Broadway show!! But I will just pick up on @jonri’s mention of Off Broadway…do not overlook those options, as well as they may be cheaper. 
You can buy them months ahead, pay asked prices through secondary market or through corporate connections.
I saw Hamilton with my D’s friend who said she got the tickets through a corporate connection. She and her parents came from Cleveland and she was able to get 6 tickets all seated together on a busy Thanksgiving weekend.
Oh my! Those Hamilton tickets are way expensive. (just checked stubhub)
Still curious on the Hamilton tickets. Even at $450 I doubt you could get four tickets to the same show for a family.
I still like Les Mis and Alfie Bowie is a great Jean Val Jeane. Not sure when he leaves though.
seatgeek has pretty cheap resale tickets, i’d highly recommend matilda and the tickets aren’t too expensive
Alfie Boe has left Les Mis, but pretty soon you will be able to see him in Finding Neverland.
We took a trip from California to NYC in February just to see Alfie in Les Mis - he is a god!! Anyway, while we were there, we (15-year old DD and I) also saw and LOVED the following:
Something Rotten (went twice!)
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
The King and I
We also saw An American in Paris, which we enjoyed (fabulous dancing) but thought the plot etc. was just OK.
We used the TodayTix app for our second pair of Something Rotten Tix - we sat in the 7th row on a Weds night - $99 per ticket. It was the best theater experience of my life! We waited outside the stage door & got photos/autographs with Brian D’arcy James, Christian Borle and Brad Oscar. DD was in heaven!!
We will be seeing Hamilton twice next weekend. Bought the tickets through Ticketmaster’s verified tickets option. Paid a fortune for orchestra tickets the first night. Paid a smaller fortune for mez tickets for the second night. I’m taking Son to NYC before he gets married.
I’ll let you guys know how much we end up paying for our tickets using the same ole line dudes. They tell me they will be in the cancellation line at the theater from 6pm Friday to 6 pm Saturday in order to get us the Saturday evening tickets…
thanks for the advice fort he other shows, I think we’ll play it by ear and check out the tkts booth when we arrive and see what kind of mood we are in. Lots of great ideas for shows!
Put me in the very small minority that disliked Matilda. Left at intermission after buying expensive Stubhub tickets. Didn’t want to waste any more of my time.
Was in NY last week for 6 days. Used TodaysTix app for Beautiful (fantastic if you like Carol King) and Kinky Boots (very good). At both shows, asked people around me where they got their seats - all through TKTS for about $25/average more than I paid and I didn’t have to stand in line.
Also saw Book of Mormon again - great seats on Stubhub for about $220/seat.
I couldn’t pay the the approx. $1000/seat Stubhub price for Hamilton but hope to see soon.
If you’re a relative newcomer - Wicked and Aladdin are both great.
Have fun and let us know how the Hamilton tickets go !
You can also check for good deals on theatre packages on Broadwayworld.com!
Your timing is very good as Jonathan Groff’s last show is April 9. It would be a shame to miss him in the role of King George. Although the fact that, I believe, Lin-Manuel is on vacation this week may be disappointing for you.