Broadway on the Cheap: How To Get Rush and Lottery Tickets

Below is a chart showing a list of discounted tickets via lottery and rush for each current Broadway show, presented in the tradition of the useful (but sadly no longer updated) website Broadway for Broke People. The practice of discounted rush tickets (where you line up, usually on the morning of the performance) began with the musical “Rent” in 1997, when theater lovers often camped out in front of the theater overnight, for a chance at $20 tickets in the first two rows, at a time when regular ticket prices for Broadway shows had already begun their steep ascent to prohibitively expensive. Now most rush tickets cost at least twice as much — even, outrageously, for the shows at the non-profit Broadway theaters. (The exceptions: Hamilton and Prima Facie, where lottery winners pay just $10.) Now most (but not all) of the opportunities for rush and lottery tickets are digital (via website or app.) There is also the in-person line at TKTS, where tickets on the day of the performance are generally half off. (But that’s still twice as much as most of the individual shows’ rush and lottery tickets.)

In 2015, Lin-Manuel Miranda addressed the crowd waiting for the results of the “Ham4Ham” $10 ticket lottery to his musical “Hamilton.” Lottery tickets to “Hamilton” are still $10 (an exception!), but (like most Broadway ticket lotteries) they’re now digital.

For each show in the chart below, I link the show’s title to its website, and I include a link to my review at the time of opening or other relevant post, as well as a link to the details of the show’s discount offerings. Click here, for the full page of all the current Broadway shows’ digital and lottery details.


Show
&Juliet

my & Juliet review
Digital Rush
Price: $39


details
Aladdin

myAladdin review
Digital Lottery
$30


details

Bad Cinderella

my review
Digital Lottery
Price: $30


Digital Rush
Price: $30


General Rush
Price: $30


details

A Beautiful Noise,
The Neil Diamond Musical


My A Beautiful Noise Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $55

details
The Book of Mormon
Official website

My The Book of Mormon Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45


details
Camelot. 

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $44


details
Chicago

Official website

my review
General Rush
Price: $49

Standing Room
Price: $27

details
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’
through May 14

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

Digital Rush
Price: $40

General Rush
Price: $40

details
A Doll’s House
through June 10
My review
Digital Rush
Price: $35

details
Fat Ham
through August 6

My review
Digital Rush
Price: $39

details
Funny Girl

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $47.50 (including fees)

Standing Room
Price: $42.50

details
Good Night, Oscar
through August 27

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

General Rush
Price: $35

details
Hadestown

My Hadestown Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $47.50 (including fees)

details
Hamilton

My Hamilton review
Digital Lottery
Price: $10 

details
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

My Harry Potter. and the Cursed Child.. Review
The Friday Forty
Price: $40

details

Kimberly Akimbo

My Kimberly Akimbo Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45

General Rush
Price: $40

details
Leopoldstadt
through July 2

My Leopoldstadt Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $47

General Rush
Price: $35
.
Student Rush
Price: $25

details
Life of Pi

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45

General Rush
Price: $40

details
The Lion King

Official website

My The Lion King Review
Digital Lottery
Price: $35 

details

MJ The Musical

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

details
Moulin Rouge

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $47.5

Digital Rush (Satine Seats)
Price: $55

details
New York, New York

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45 (including fees)

General Rush
Price: $30

details
Parade
through August 6

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45

General Rush
Price: $45

Standing Room
Price: $45

details
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
through July 9

my review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

General Rush
Price: $45

details
Prima Facie
through July 2

My Prima Facie review
Digital Lottery
Price: $10

details
Shucked

My Shucked review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

General Rush
Price: $35

details
The Sign in Sydney Brustein’s Window
through July 2

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $40

Digital Rush
Price: $40

General Rush
Price: $47

details
Six The Musical

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $35

Standing Room
Price: $49

details
Some Like It Hot

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $45

General Rush
Price: $40

Standing Room
Price: $39

details
Summer, 1976
through June 18

My review
Digital Rush
Price: $43

details
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $30

Standing Room
Price: $40

details
The Thanksgiving Play
through June 11

My review of The Thanksgiving Play on Broadway
Digital Rush
Price: $43

details
Wicked

Official website

My review
Digital Lottery
Price: $49 or $59 (weekends)

In-Person Lottery
Price: $30

Student Tickets
Price: $69

Military Tickets
Price: $79

details

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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