Cheap theater: Where to enjoy affordable shows in NYC

The civic-minded Oskar Eustis is artistic director of this local institution dedicated to the work of new American playwrights but also known for its Shakespeare productions (Shakespeare in the Park). The building, an Astor Place landmark, has five stages, plays host to the annual Under the Radar festival, nurtures productions in its Lab series and is also home to the Joe’s Pub music venue.

Opened in 1924 as the 46th Street Theatre, the space was renamed in 1990 to honor the legendary composer Richard Rodgers (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound of Music). This Nederlander-owned theater (1,319 seats) has hosted several beloved musicals including Anything Goes, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Movin' Out. Extra fun for little Broadway buffs: Check out the Richard Rodgers Gallery, featuring memorabilia from the composer’s career.

Most Broadway houses originate from the 1920s or ’30s, but the Minskoff opened its doors in 1973 with a lavish revival of the 1919 musical Irene, starring Debbie Reynolds. Today, it’s home to The Lion King. The Minskoff is distinguished by altitude: It’s located on the third floor of One Astor Plaza, a 55-story office tower. With 1,654 seats, it's the third largest house on Broadway. The lobby features hand-painted, gold-leaf-covered sculpted tableaus that adorn interior walls and showcase its panoramic views of Broadway.

A Greenwich Village landmark, the Cherry Lane is New York’s longest-continuously-operating Off Broadway theater. On occasion, children's theater companies rent its space.

This classic 1903 Art Nouveau house has seen many changes on the Main Stem over the last century: vaudeville, classics, the Ziegfeld Follies (for more than two decades) and the drastic decline of the theater district during the Great Depression, and again in the 1970s and ’80s. Renovated and reopened, in 1997, the New Amsterdam soon became home to the Disney smash hit The Lion King. Since 2006, Mary Poppins has been wowing children and adults there. (The Lion King moved to the Minksoff.) The theater is operated by Disney Theatrical Productions.

The Delacorte Theater in Central Park is the fair-weather sister of the Public Theater. When not producing Shakespeare in the East Village, the Public offers the best of the Bard outdoors during Shakespeare in the Park (May–August). Free tickets (two per person) are distributed at both theaters at 1pm on the day of the performance. It's usually good to begin waiting around 9am, although the line can start forming as early as 6am when big-name stars are on the bill. You can also enter an online lottery for tickets.

Visitors may think they know this venerable theater from TV’s Showtime at the Apollo. But as the saying goes, the small screen adds ten pounds: The city’s home of R&B and soul is actually quite cozy. Known for launching the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo, among others at its legendary Amateur Night competition, the Apollo continues to mix veteran talents like Dianne Reeves with more contemporary acts like the Roots and Lykke Li. 

Leased and reopened by the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2009, this space used to be known as Henry Miller's Theatre—until it was renamed in honor of America's greatest living composer-lyricist. The playing space itself is located below street level (as with Circle in the Square Theatre). It seats 1,055, and has the distinction of being Broadway's first green theater—having been renovated according to U.S. Green Building Council standards.

This jewel in the Shubert Organization's crown was built in 1913 by Lee and J.J. Shubert for their brother, Sam, who died in a freak railroad accident when he was just 29 years old. The space (currently seating 1,460) has seen it all: the Lunts, five Rodgers & Hart musicals, Barbra Streisand in I Can Get It for You Wholesale and the world premiere of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Most famously, it was home to the Public Theater's A Chorus Line for 15 years, until 1990.

More than 300 important contemporary plays have premiered here, among them dramas such as Driving Miss Daisy and The Heidi Chronicles and musicals such as Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and Sunday in the Park with George. Recent seasons have included works by Craig Lucas and an acclaimed musical version of the cult film Grey Gardens.

Master architect Herbert J. Krapp designed the Jacobs (formerly the Royale) in the “modern Spanish style.” The theatre's interior features a groin-vaulted ceiling supported on either side by archways decorated with two murals titled "Lovers of Spain," by Willy Pogany. The interior color scheme is cardinal red, orange and gold. It seats 1,078 and opened in 1927. Show highlights include The Entertainer (1958), Night of the Iguana (1961), Lend Me a Tenor (1989), Art (1998) and Copenhagen (2000).

Called the New York Improv when it opened in 1963, this club showcased legends such as Bill Cosby, Andy Kaufman and Robin Williams during its first stint. After being closed for years, former collaborators opened this basement joint a few blocks from the original, and they showcase TV faces and other regulars from the club circuit. 

Imported to the U.S. from Sweden in 1876, this venue is the coziest in all of NYC. Employing handmade marionettes and beautiful sets, the resident company mounts citified versions of well-known stories.

The Tank, an adventurous multimedia performing-arts collaborative and talent incubator, spent years wandering from venue to venue, including a long stint in a small upstairs space on 46th Street. In 2017, it moved into the Midtown digs formerly occupied by Abingdon Theatre Company. Its two main spaces are the 98-seat June Havoc Theater and the 56-seat Dorothy Strelsin Theater. Meghan Finn is the company's longtime artistic director.

After losing the lease on his Soho space in 2010, after nearly three decades there, Robert Lyons moved to the landmarked Archive building in teh West Village. The new space, home to the summer Ice Factory Festival and much more, remains an indispensable theatrical crucible.

Formerly a movie multiplex, this center—one of the last bastions of commercial Off Broadway in New York—impresses with its shiny, space-age interior and five stages, were it presents such campy revues as The Gazillion Bubble Show.

Best known as an avant-garde theater space, the Kitchen also offers experimental dance by inventive, often provocative artists.

With only 60 seats, this East Village hole-in-the wall has become both a rehearsal and performance space for New York Theatre Workshop, whose offices and mainstage are just next door. The black box frequently hosts smaller-scale shows by both NYTW and outside companies.

This chic, state-of-the-art venue, which comprises an Off Broadway space and two smaller theaters, is home to a lot of worthy programming, such as the annual Brits Off Broadway festival, which imports some of the U.K.’s best work for brief summer runs. The venue boasts three separate playing spaces. Theater A, on the ground floor, seats 196 people; upstairs are the 98-seat Theater B and a 70-seat black-box space, Theater C.

Prospect Park's Imagination Playground encourages inventive play with fixtures like a bronze dragon statue that spews water instead of fire, a sculpture of a boy reading while reaching down to pet his dog, cutout animal masks that kids can set their faces in, and a stage with multiple platforms of different heights for little ones to play on. In the summer, programs including storytelling, plays, music and crafts are available.

Built in 1924 to be a deluxe movie theater, this is one of the roomier venues on the Great White Way, with 1,761 seats. It's also one of only five playhouses that faces Broadway. A favorite locale for big, fat musicals (The Color Purple, Shrek), the Broadway features some of the most prominent signage around. The Ed Sullivan Theater—where David Letterman tapes his show—is located just down the street. The original façade (like the interior) was built in the Italian Renaissance style.

Built on the site of the Capitol Theatre movie palace as part of the new Uris Building (also home to the Gershwin Theatre), this venue served as the third home of the Circle in the Square theater company. It's a rare example of theater (almost) in the round in the Theater District, which makes it highly desirable for unconventional stagings. The seating also provides kids with unobstructed views of the stage, from virtually any seat.

Broadway's biggest venue with approximately 1,938 seats, the Lyric was created in 1996-98 by combining the adjacent Apollo and Lyric Theatres (themselves built in 1903 and 1920, respectively). Originally named the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, the Lyric was previously known as Foxwoods Theatre and before that, the Hilton. Among its noteworthy resident shows have been Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Young Frankenstein, On the Town and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Its spacious, winding, gilded lobby is one of the most beautiful on the Great White Way. The theater has two main entrance spaces; for its current production, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is using the one on 43rd Street.

This homey 60-seat black box (up some seriously steep stairs) is a mere block and a half from the subway, and only 15 minutes on the L train from Union Square. The space has become one of the best curated spots in the city; it supports up-and-coming stage talent like William Burke and avant-garde veterans such as Target Margin Theater and Cynthia Hopkins, as well as a variety of performance art and multimedia performances.

Founded in 2012, this arts center is led by artistic director Alec Duffy (Three Pianos, Shadows). The space's mission is to serve as a cultural hub in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, presenting cutting-edge theater, music and dance performances, expanding access to the arts, bridging audiences and educating youth.