The best ways to get last-minute Broadway tickets

Getting seats to the best Broadway shows usually requires quite a bit of advance planning. But that doesn’t mean you can’t wake up and desperately desire to attend a Broadway show tonight. In that case, you have plenty of options as long as you’re willing to put in the time to get last-minute tickets. It all depends on how much you are willing to pay and how much risk you are willing to take. If everything goes your way, you might even luck into cheap Broadway tickets, great seats or a chance to see hit shows that you would never have been able to get into earlier. Here is our insider guide for buying last-minute Broadway tickets.

Insider tips

Scour the internet for options before you do the legwork. Check the digital rush apps like TodayTix, look for a day-of digital lottery and check for last-minute tickets added to sites like Telecharge. Then make the rounds of the Broadway theaters to see if they have any rush tickets or tickets for standing-room only available. That way, you’ve done your homework before the TKTS booths even open, and you’ll know the range of available discounts and ticket prices. And remember, tickets to a weekday matinee are often easier to buy than for an evening performance.

Start by checking for digital rush tickets.

Before you get too invested in how to get Broadway tickets tonight, see if there’s anything available on the handy TodayTix app, which provides same-day discounted tickets (as well as up to a week in advance). You may also be able to take advantage of discount codes offered by individual shows. One reliable online source for cheap tickets is nytix.com; good discount codes can also be found at BroadwayBox.

Play the digital lottery.

Great news, you still don’t have to leave your apartment or stand in line to score tickets to tonight’s Broadway show! Most Broadway shows now conduct digital lotteries on the day before each performance (including Aladdin, The Book of Mormon, and Hadestown. In some rare cases, the digital lotteries are held the day of the performance. Others have drawings once a week, notably the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child $40 ticket lottery and the $10 Hamilton lottery, both of which happen on Fridays and cover the week ahead. 

Go in person for rush tickets or standing room only (SRO)

OK, so the digital rush prices are too steep and you can’t wait until tomorrow. Go straight to the theater of the Broadway show you want to see tonight when it opens (typically 10 a.m. except Sundays, when it opens at 11 a.m. or noon) and see if they have any rush tickets available for that night’s performance. 

Many shows offer special same-day rush tickets; in some cases, they're the only way to get tickets at a reasonable price for shows that are otherwise sold out. Rush tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows can sell for as little as $39 apiece; student rush tickets can be even less. 

Rush tickets are also a more consistent offer than what you might see on TodayTix or TKTS (more on that in a moment). Among the Broadway shows with a rush policy are Chicago, Death Becomes Her, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Oh, Mary!. Many Broadway shows also offer cheap day-of tickets for standing room only if you don’t need to sit. Chicago, Hadestown, Maybe Happy Ending and The Outsiders, among others, all offer SRO tickets.

For a full list of shows that offer rush tickets and lotteries (see below), consult the guide at Playbill or at Broadway on a Budget.

Check the TKTS Booths

The day is half over, but you still have options! Next, get a peek at what’s happening over at the TKTS booths. All but the biggest Broadway smashes are on sale there, many at 50 percent off; if you are not looking to see a musical, there is a "Play Only" window that will cut down your wait time. 

The websites for the booths at Times Square (Broadway at 47th Street) and Lincoln Center (the indoor David Rubenstein Atrium) list up-to-the-minute offerings, so you can see the discount on tonight’s Broadway tickets as well as a full list of available shows. 

The Times Square website usually updates tonight’s Broadway tickets a few minutes before the booth opens at 3 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. (It closes just before 8 p.m., if you really want to push the concept of last-minute tickets to the extreme.) The booth at Lincoln Center is open Tuesday–Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

But just because a show you want to see tonight is listed at a price you can afford doesn’t mean it still will be by the time you’ve gotten through the TKTS Booth line. So consider entering in digital lotteries while you wait, just in case.

If at first you don't succeed, look again

If there's a specific show you want to see on a certain date, but you've looked online in the past 

and no tickets were available, check that same show's Telecharge or Ticketmaster again closer to the date of the performance; you may find that some of the best seats in the theater are suddenly up for grabs. All Broadway shows have allotments called house seats, which are set aside for friends of the production. But if those house tickets aren't used, they go back into the pool for general sale between 96 hours and 24 hours before the show. The same applies to premium seats, which are reserved for sale at higher prices but get bumped down to regular price if they haven’t been sold. If possible, visit the box office in person to find out when house seats and premium seats might wind up for sale at normal prices. If you’re nice, the box office manager might give you some tips. (Bonus: If you buy directly at the theater, you’ll save the big fees that the websites tack on.)

Hit the cancellation line

At most performances, at least a few seats go unclaimed. It's worth lining up at the theater on the day of the show to buy cancelled seats right before curtain-up. Of course, there's no guarantee you'll get in, but it's worth a shot if you've got the time (and perseverance) for it. Get to the theater a couple of hours early and keep your fingers crossed, as cancellation lines are first come, first served. You may see touts lurking around the theater selling tickets; be wary of fakes, because there won't be any chance to get your money back if you fall for one.

Try the secondary market

For better or worse, the practice of buying tickets and reselling them for profit—once known as scalping, now more politely euphemized as the secondary market—has gone legit in the past 15 years. Sometimes these sellers are the only ones with tickets to the most popular productions, because they buy seats early in bulk. So if you simply must see a certain show and money is no object, see what you can find at Broadway.com, StubHub, VividSeats or even Ticketmaster itself, which has areas devoted to resale. Depending on the show and the seller, the markup can be very high indeed. But if you check the sites very close to curtain time, the prices sometimes fall dramatically, as vendors try to avoid taking a total loss on tickets they haven’t sold yet.