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.

The grandest of the Lincoln Center buildings, the Met is a spectacular place to experience opera and ballet. The space hosts the Metropolitan Opera from September to May, with major visiting companies appearing in summer. The majestic theater also showcases works from a range of international dance companies, from the Paris Opéra Ballet to the Kirov Ballet. In spring, the Met is home to American Ballet Theatre, which presents full-length classic story ballets, works by contemporary choreographers and special performances and workshops for children. RECOMMENDED: 101 best things do in NYC

The Lyceum is Broadway's oldest continually operating legitimate space. Built by producer-manager David Frohman in 1903, it was purchased in 1940 by a conglomerate of producers which included George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (co-authors of You Can't Take It with You and other comedies). In 1950, the Shuberts took ownership of the Lyceum, and still operate it. Alan Bates played the lovely 922-seat playhouse in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1957), and four years later, he returned in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (1961). More recently, the venue was home to I Am My Own Wife and Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty.

Known as the Theatre de Lys until 1981, this historic 299-seater has hosted many landmark premieres in its day, including the legendary 1954 production of Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera. The Lortel is now the home of MCC Theater most of the year, with family-friendly productions mounted each summer by TheatreworksUSA.

Home to the megamusical Wicked, the Gershwin is one of those large barns (more than 1,800 seats) built in the 1970s. The lobby is in the Art Deco style. The space was rechristened after the great composer George Gershwin in 1983. It shares the buidling with Circle in the Square Theatre.

The intimate space, once a cinema, is a fine setting for dance. Of the 472 seats at the Joyce, there’s not a single bad one. Companies and choreographers who present work here, including Ballet Hispanico, David Parsons and Doug Varone, tend to be more conventional than experimental. The Joyce also hosts out-of-town crowd-pleasers like Pilobolus Dance Theatre. During the summer, when many theaters are dark, the Joyce continues its programming. At the Joyce Soho, emerging companies present work nearly every weekend. • Other location: Joyce Soho, 155 Mercer St between W Houston and Prince Sts (212-431-9233). Subway: B, D, F, M to Broadway–Lafayette St; N, R to Prince St; 6 to Bleecker St. $15–$20. Cash only.

Steps on Broadway offers classes in many styles with some of the finest teachers in New York.

Opened in November 2009, this 17,000 square-foot venue serves as the performance space for the 52nd Street Project, a nonprofit theater company that invites industry pros to mentor Hells Kitchen kids.

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.

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.

Formerly a tobacco depot, St. Ann’s Warehouse—the adventurous theatergoer’s alternative to BAM—puts on an exciting slate of envelope-pushing theater and music performances. Not long ago, a thrilling production of Oklahoma! made the leap from St. Ann’s to Broadway, so watch this space for more rising stars.

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

Camp is still in session at Abrons. However, there are COVID safety protocols. Masks must be worn at all times and everyone age 12 and older must show proof of vaccination. Campers will enjoy weekly water activities, weekly field trips, and will receive daily instruction in dance, music, theater, and visual arts.

New York Live Arts was formed in 2011 by a merger of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop. Its mission is to support and showcase dance and movement-based artists through new approaches to producing, presenting and educating.

Visitors may think they know this venerable theater from TV’s Showtime at the Apollo. But you've got to see it to truly experience The Apollo. 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. 

Give youngsters a gentle introduction to overnight camp with these short sleepaway sessions in the foothills of the Poconos. Kids can opt for one- or two-week programs at the 1,250-acre facility, where they have ample time to make new friends and delight in first-time experiences like chowing down with their bunkmates in the mess hall or gathering around a campfire at dusk. Staff is always ready to help little ones struggling with homesickness, but with a private lake, Olympic-size pool, athletic facilities, art studio, and hiking and biking trails nearby, they’ll likely be having too much fun to think about what Mom and Dad are up to! Ages 6–14.

After losing the lease on his Soho space in 2010, after nearly three decades there, Robert Lyons moved his New Ohio Theatre to the landmarked Archive building in the West Village for several years. The complex is now adinisters by Out of the Box Theatrics.

Founded in 1992, LAByrinth Theare Company has built itself into one of New York's essential resources for the development and production of new plays. After several years in residence at the Public Theater, the troupe relocated in 2011 to this 90-seat space on Bank Street, formerly known as the Cherry Pit.

This smaller, classier extension of Madison Square Garden has better sound than the arena. The theater has hosted world-music celebrations, mainstream hip-hop shows, R&B extravaganzas and medium-size rock shows with Radiohead, Melissa Etheridge and Van Morrison.

Founded in 1996, this cozy, well-appointed black-box venue has presented avant-garde experimentation and politically provocative satires. After 20 years on White Street, the Flea relocated in 2017 to a new complex a few block south in Tribeca. Artistic director Niegel Smith and producing director Carol Ostrow oversee three new playing spaces: the Sam, mamed for theater agent Sam Cohn, which seats 120; the Peter, named for the late playwright A.R. Gurney, which seats 72; and the Siggy, named for actor and Flea cofounder Sigourney Weaver, which seats 44. The company is also home to the Bats, a youthful training company that performs in many of its productions. 

Brian Rogers and Sheila Lewandowski founded this 5,000-square-foot performance venue in Long Island City in 2005, converting a onetime hardware store into two spaces: a low-ceilinged downstairs room and a loftier, brighter upstairs whitebox. The Factory is not for rent: Rogers curates his season, inviting artists (from midcareer playwrights like Mac Wellman to rising directors like Alice Reagan) onboard—and the space pays them. It's a welcoming place (buy your chocolate-chip cookies at the box office), and the spot won an Obie for its programming, which tends toward the highly physical, the interdisciplinary and the avant-garde.

Called the New York Improv when it opened in 1963, this Hell's Kitchen 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. Expect to hear from a variety of NYC comics during the regular stand-up showcase, each one performing short sets. Before the show, be prepared that you may have to wait in line on a steep, narrow staircase before you're let in. Also, there's a two-drink minimum.

This full-scale, multilevel theater produces the most professional—and inventive—children’s theater in NYC. The lineup often features European imports, and spans all genres, from opera to step dancing to puppetry.

Not to be confused with 3 Legged Dog (the multimedia production group that founded this space), 3LD is a giant, low-ceilinged room with a space-age, tubular white entrance and a curating penchant for technologically adventurous, video-prone work. Since the venue can be stripped back to concrete walls (and heavy gray curtains), shows can construct entire rooms-within-the-room, as did the odd-duck musical show The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The and the gorgeous French production L'Effet de Serge.

This somewhat shabby midtown rental complex provides audition and rehearsal studios and performance space in any of its four theaters, which range from 50 to 99 seats.