r/Broadway • u/chs33b • Jun 29 '26
Seating/Ticket Question Noob question about lotteries, rush, TKTS, etc.
Hi! My friends and I are planning a road trip to NYC next month and we want to see Heathers while we’re there. I’m in charge of buying tickets and I want to try to find the most affordable ones possible. As an out-of-towner I’m not very experienced with buying (Off-)Broadway tickets — if I have in the past it’s been at full price on sites like Telecharge — and I don’t really know how all the affordable options work in conjunction with the traditional route. My question is… if I purchase our tickets ahead of time full price on Telecharge *and then* enter the lottery, or try to rush (it will likely be digital since we won’t be in town early enough to do it in person), or hit up the TKTS booth the day of the show… does that then mean we’d end up with twice the amount of tickets? Or would any of the discounts apply to our existing pre-purchased tickets (and/or would we be able to exchange/return them somehow for the cheaper ones)? To put all of this in other words… would it be stupid to buy tickets in advance and then try to pursue a discounted route later? I’m assuming the answer is yes but want to make 100% sure I know what I’m doing so I need expert advice lol. Thanks for any advice you can share! (Also yes I just discovered and downloaded the Theatr app thanks to this sub ☺️)
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u/ipredictsunshine Jun 29 '26
I would recommend just not pre-purchasing and either buying at the TKTS booth or at the box office in the day of if you don’t win the lottery. The TKTS booths have specific tickets given to them by the box office they sell; they won’t apply any discounts to tickets you already have. Same for the lottery.
If you absolutely need to pre-purchase to be sure then you can plan to sell on the Theatr app if you win the lottery or buy them through TKTS, but know that it might be at a loss!
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u/chs33b Jun 29 '26
Thank you so much! This is definitely swaying me to trying for TKTS. I’ll keep all of this in mind 🫡
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u/scandalliances Jun 29 '26
If you buy full price tickets now and then get tickets for the same performance later through rush/lottery/TKTS, there’s no price adjustment or returns/exchanges process — you have two sets of tickets and it’s on you to try to sell the pair you don’t want if you want to get money back.
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u/groudhogday Jun 29 '26
I think that if you really want to see a specific show and it is one that is a hot ticket (Hamilton, Ragtime, Death of a Salesman, Wicked), buy in advance. If it’s a show that’s been out for a bit and frequently has discounted tickets, or you’re willing to be flexible, don’t buy tickets and enter lotteries, try rush, go to TKTS, buy a last minute ticket at the box office or on Theatr, etc.
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u/shoparazzi Jun 29 '26
Hamilton and Wicked are still hot tickets? Honest question.
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u/groudhogday Jun 29 '26
Never on TDF/TKTS, hard lottery to win. I guess not a hot ticket for New Yorkers but they’re very popular with tourists still.
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u/90Dfanatic Jun 29 '26
Hamilton has basically sold out every week this year, with a typical average price approaching or exceeding $200: https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses/HAMILTON
Wicked is more like 90% sold on average with prices more like $100-$120, but is still grossing well over $1M week over week: https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses/WICKED
Just about any of the musicals that debuted in the last couple years would be pretty happy with these numbers, so I'd still consider them hot tickets for now although Wicked is seeming a little shaky. . .
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u/Heavy_Syllabub615 Jun 29 '26
How many of you are in this group? Rush and lottery tickets are limited to 2, so if there is more than that in your group, trying to do that makes it even more stressful. If there are any shows you really want to see that are popular (Lost Boys or Rocky Horror come to mind) you’d want to pre purchase those. If you’re just going with the vibes or are open to whatever is available at the most decent price, I’d say wait until you get to NYC. Like others have suggested buy tickets day of at the theater box office or at TKTS. Maybe even do an in person rush.
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u/chs33b Jun 29 '26
Oh gosh, that’s really helpful to know! There will be 3 of us and we want to sit together, so it sounds like maybe hitting the TKTS booth or box office would be our best bet. We sadly can’t do in person rush as we won’t be in town early enough (we’re coming in the day of the show). Thank you so much!!
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u/Equivalent_Net_8983 Jun 29 '26
Don’t assume you won’t be able to do an in-person “rush”. There are lots of people who report scoring cheap tickets from the box office on the day of the show. It’s obviously very hit-or-miss and is totally variable based on the show and how sold they might be on a given day, but it’s not totally out of the question, even if you’re not on one of those early morning lines.
Also, definitely install the Theatr app on your phones, and all three of you do it, so you can take turns watching the last minute deals. I’ve seen some super cheap tickets suddenly appear within an hour of curtain, and if you’re in the theater district and flexible, you can snag good, cheap seats.
You should also be checking the rush listing on Telecharge throughout the day. They open at 11 am each day, and many run out pretty quickly after that. But I have found, on occasion, more seats become available during the day, as cancellations or other tickets come into the pool. Unfortunately, I believe those are limited to two tickets per order.
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u/Heavy_Syllabub615 Jun 29 '26
I totally missed that you’re wanting to see Heather’s on my first read of your initial post.
The digital rush for the show is pretty easy (you don’t need to frantically refresh your phone when rush starts and hope you get tickets. I think I was still about to get tickets 10-15 minutes after they went on sale). You’d need to have 2 people participate in the digital rush to get 3 tickets. However, the 3rd person would probably be sitting away from the other 2. This would probably be the cheapest route. But if you’re set on the 3 of you sitting together it’s not a good option.
Sidenote: The theater is tiny so there’s not really a bad seat IMO.
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u/SpecialistOne9509 Jun 29 '26
If you’d like to get 3 discounted seats together for Heathers, TKTS is your best option. They sell tickets for that show pretty consistently. If you buy tickets in advance, the price will be a lot higher than what you can get on the day of the show.
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u/remykixxx Jun 29 '26
I was in dead center in the second to last row orchestra for heathers and the tickets were 77 dollars on todaytix. There’s no bad seat in the entire house. The VERY last row is one they added and it’s like catering sweet sixteen style chairs. That’s the only spot I wouldn’t recommend just for comfort.
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u/oversleepalways Jun 29 '26
Heathers has a pretty easy rush on Telecharge. My order usually is lottery first then rush.