IS THE BROADWAY LOTTERY WORTH IT?
For those who love Broadway as much as I do, there is a hack that not many people know of for getting cheap tickets to pretty much every show in most all cities: the Broadway Lottery. But the real question is: Is it worth it?
What it is:
The Broadway Lottery is exactly as it sounds: a lottery for winning the opportunity to buy really cheap tickets. The catch? You don’t know what you are getting until you show up. This is not dissimilar to rush tickets, where you don’t know what you are getting until you get there, the key difference is that the purchase is made in advance and an in-person presence is not usually required.
How it started:
While discounted tickets were a thing long before, the first Broadway Lottery can be attributed back to Jonathan Larson, the creator of RENT. Recognizing the exponential growth in ticket prices, Larson created the first official Rush. For those unfamiliar, Larson’s show depicts a slew of bohemians and artists who are just scraping by in NYC. In the spirit of his show, Larson wanted to make Broadway accessible to the real artists and bohemians of New York—thus the birth of the Rush.
Fun Fact: The first Rush seats were for the first two rows of RENT and ticket prices were $20 each!
What Larson and producers couldn’t predict was the intense popularity of both the show and his same day Rush. Eager theater goers would stand for hours in lines that stretched for multiple blocks for a chance to purchase the coveted tickets. To combat this, the lottery system was formed and has continued on to this day.
How it works:
There are four main sites that run the Broadway Lottery: Lucky Seat, Broadway Direct, Telecharge, and TodayTix. To use the lottery, go onto the website and sign up—no payment needed unless you win! If you win, you will receive notification via email and/or text. If you don’t there are two possibilities: you lost (pretty self explanatory) or waitlisted.
Waitlisted means that while you did not win, you are in line if the winners do not claim their tickets. If you are waitlisted, don’t lose hope! I have been waitlisted quite a few times and ended up winning tickets.
Caveats to the Broadway Lottery sites:
Be aware that these four sites are not all encompassing. Many shows run their own private lotteries on their own sites (like Hamilton) while some shows don’t use the lottery system at all.
Only certain sites run lotteries in specific cities (think Lucky Seat running the lottery in Boston).
Each site has different rules for signing up. Some require you to follow their social media, some require basic information to create an account, others don’t require anything at all!
In addition, each site has different rules as to when to sign up for the lottery. For example: Lucky Seat will let you enter weeks in advance depending on the show but Broadway Direct only allows you to enter one to two days in advance.
Is it worth it?:
Short answer: Yes.
Let’s address the elephant in the room: Broadway is expensive. Like way too expensive. Which makes going to the theater a near impossible dream for many. So while you may not get the best seats in the house or be able to plan too far in advance, getting the opportunity to sit in a broadway audience for such a low price is worth the inconveniences in my opinion.
That being said, if there is a show you are dying to see, you are taking a trip where you want a guaranteed seat, you are incredibly picky about where you sit (not including accessibility related seat choices), or need more than two tickets, then it might make more sense to skip the lottery and opt for the traditional ticket purchase method.
