Cheap Broadway Tickets: How to Save on Any Show

Buying cheap Broadway tickets is possible. Keep reading and you'll learn how to enjoy a Broadway musical without mortgaging your house 😉

Musical tickets are not cheap. But it's something every New York lover should see at least once in their life.

True, they're commercial and all that, but there's no denying how these shows have shaped New York's character over the decades.

Broadway musicals we recommend

In the Theater District, known as Broadway, there are more than 40 theaters staging world-famous shows all year long.

Here's the list of the most recommended musicals:

🧙‍♀️ Wicked the Musical: you'll find out what happened in the land of Oz before Dorothy arrived from Kansas. In my opinion it's far more thrilling than Wicked on the big screen.

🪄Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: you'll see the eighth story in the Harry Potter series on stage!

👞🎶 At MJ the Musical you'll get to know the life and musical legacy of Michael Jackson.

🔵 Blue Man Group: an off-Broadway show that's worth seeing once

🦁 The Lion King: the box office record holder, perfect for the whole family

🎷 Chicago: the show for jazz lovers

🧞‍♂️ Aladdin: a show full of magic for the whole family

🎩🇺🇸 Hamilton: Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical, told through hip-hop, about the man on the 10 dollar bill, one of the founders of the United States unfairly forgotten by history. Sounds boring, but it isn't. It's a Broadway juggernaut!

🎅 Radio City Christmas Spectacular: although it's off Broadway, the Radio City Christmas show is a can't-miss during the holiday season.

Tips for buying Broadway tickets

There are several ways to buy Broadway tickets:

1. Buy online and pick your seats

If you want to see a specific show, on a specific date and with good seats, you need to buy your tickets online as early as possible.

I'll say it again: the key is booking your tickets in advance through reliable musical ticket search engines, where you can compare prices. Here are 2 safe platforms for buying your tickets:

• Tiqets: a very versatile Broadway show search engine, and you can also buy tickets to museums, exhibitions and other iconic NYC attractions.
• Superboletería: one of the most popular ticket resellers available in Spanish. Because they buy tickets in large blocks, they sometimes have better prices than the theaters themselves.

In the United States it's very common to find cheaper Broadway tickets on trustworthy reseller sites like the ones above.

But while you'll often find good deals, other times prices on these resale platforms come in above face value. That's why I recommend comparing ticket prices with the show's official website before you buy.

Recommendations

⏰ The key is to buy as early as possible, because the closer the show date gets, the higher every price goes.

☀️ If showtime doesn't matter to you, go for morning performances or matinees, which are cheaper than evening shows.

❄️ During January, February and September, the low seasons, prices are the cheapest of the year.

Another way to save is to buy directly on the show's official website. That way you avoid a lot of the extra fees that third-party sites tack on.

Better yet, if you're already in New York, stop by the theater box office, where you might find lower-priced seats with no added fees.

The important thing is to always compare first, since some online sales platforms have very competitive prices.

2. Buy at the TKTS Booths

At the TKTS booth you can buy same-day show tickets for up to 50% off.

TKTS is an excellent option if you just want the experience of seeing a Broadway musical, whichever one it happens to be, and you're not picky about seats (if you're lucky you could land fantastic ones).

This is where unsold seats for that day's shows get unloaded, so there's no guarantee you'll find tickets for the most famous musicals (and when they do show up, those tickets fly).

There are several TKTS booths:

TKTS Times Square

The most famous and busiest one, located right under the red steps in Times Square.

Address: 47th St between Broadway and 7th Avenue.

Daytime (matinee) ticket sales: Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 am to 2 pm / Sunday 11 am to 3 pm

Evening ticket sales: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 3 pm to 8 pm / Tuesday 2 pm to 8 pm / Sunday 3 pm to 7 pm

TKTS Lincoln Center

(To my mind this one has the best location, at the gateway to the Upper West Side, steps from Lincoln Center)

Address:  David Rubenstein Atrium, between West 61st and 62nd Streets

They sell tickets for same-day evening performances and next-day matinees: Tuesday to Saturday 12 am to 7 pm / Sunday 12 pm to 5 pm

TKTS South Street Seaport

Address: South Street Seaport historic district (between Front and John Street)

They sell tickets for same-day evening performances and next-day matinees: Monday to Saturday 11 am to 6 pm / Sunday 11 am to 4 pm

TKTS Downtown Brooklyn

Address:  1 Metro Tech Center, at Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue Promenade, Brooklyn.

They sell tickets for same-day evening performances and next-day matinees: Tuesday to Saturday 11 am to 6 pm

Bottom line: if you're leaving your choice of musical and your seat location up to luck, get to the TKTS booth early to line up (and if you have limited time in the city, keep in mind you'll spend a couple of hours here during high season).

Go for the South Street Seaport and Brooklyn booths, which draw smaller crowds.

3. Broadway Week 2025: 2-for-1 tickets

If you're lucky enough for your trip to line up with Broadway Week, you can buy tickets to the most famous musicals for up to 50% off.

Broadway Week happens twice a year, during the low seasons:

Broadway Week January 2025

January 2025's Broadway Week already ran, from January 21 to February 9. If you're thinking of traveling in September, keep an eye out, because they usually announce a second edition around then.

You can read more about this event and the shows available on the event's official website.

Broadway Week September 2025

We're still waiting on confirmation of the dates for Broadway Week September 2025. It's usually scheduled for the first half of September in NYC.

4. Buy Broadway rush tickets

If you're feeling lucky, get to the box office of the musical you want to see bright and early. You could land tickets for just a few dollars for that same day's show.

Not every musical offers rush tickets, and some only sell them for certain performances. They're often sold online through apps like TodayTix or Lucky Seat, while other shows offer them only at the box office and in cash. Best to confirm before you get in line.

5. Standing Room Only tickets

There's another option for the brave: many Broadway theaters sell very cheap tickets to watch the show standing up, just like a medieval theater.

These are called «Standing Room Only» (SRO) tickets and they go on sale for that same day's performance as soon as the box office opens.

The same advice as rush tickets applies: stop by the theater box office ahead of time to check whether they sell SRO and what time they start. Then put on your most comfortable shoes and get in line.

In some cases these tickets are sold only to students, or only for completely sold-out performances, and they usually have to be paid for in cash. Ask about all of that too so you don't waste your time.

One more detail: they only sell one SRO ticket per person, so if there are several of you, everybody gets in line!

6. Broadway ticket apps

There are apps that promise to find discounted tickets.

One of the most widely used is the TodayTix app. You sign up, pick your date and the shows you'd like to see, and the app notifies you when discounted tickets go live.

Personally I haven't found discounts for the shows I want, but TodayTix is still useful: it runs seasonal sales, has a rewards system, and lets you enter lotteries and digital rushes for several musicals.

Another little-known tool is Audience Rewards, a free loyalty program that gives you points every time you buy tickets, and those points can be redeemed for discounts. It works really well if you travel to New York often.

And if you'd rather avoid markups, the Theatr app lets you buy tickets person to person with no extra fees. Make sense? These are tickets somebody already bought and can't use. Sharing economy 🙂

Which Broadway musical is worth it?

To help you pick the best musical for you, we've put together short reviews of the most popular ones so you can decide with all the information:

Family shows

• Read why The Lion King has broken box office records on Broadway
• Enjoy Disney's take on the classic Arabian Nights story with the kids: Aladdin

Shows for lovers of great music

• The jazz and the choreography of Chicago will win you over
• MJ the Musical dives into the life and musical legacy of Michael Jackson.

New Broadway classics

• The story of Wicked is a Broadway smash. Here you'll find out what happened in the Land of Oz before Dorothy and Toto came along

Christmas musicals

• Radio City Christmas Spectacular: Although it's off Broadway proper, the Radio City Christmas show is one of New York's most traditional musicals. It's been running since 1933!

What does Off-Broadway mean?

The term “Off-Broadway” was coined in the 1940s to group together the more experimental works staged in New York theaters located in other neighborhoods, like Greenwich Village.

Today Off-Broadway refers to smaller theaters with fewer than 500 seats, so you can even have Off-Broadway performances on Broadway itself. Make sense?

What makes Off-Broadway productions important is that these theaters often premiere shows that go on to become Broadway hits, as happened with Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's mega-famous musical, plus Stomp and Rent.

There's no one particular place to buy tickets for these Off-Broadway shows. You can do it through online search sites like Tiqets, on each show's website, or at the TKTS booth in Times Square, which also unloads the day's unsold seats for Off-Broadway productions.