Five new Broadway shows start previews between now and Columbus Day, and every one of them will eventually have some kind of cheap door. The word that matters is eventually. A lottery is usually the last thing a production announces, weeks after tickets go on sale, sometimes not until opening night. So this is the mid-September read: which of the fall class has a live lottery or rush entry right now, which has only a house program, and which has nothing posted at all. I pulled the offers as they sit in our lottery hub today, then checked each show's own ticket page.
One rule before the list. A house program is not a lottery. Hiptix, LincTix and MTC's under-35 tickets are membership discounts you buy in advance if you fit the age bracket. They are the better deal when you qualify, because there is no draw to lose. They are also the reason a new play at a nonprofit house can look "lottery-free" for a month and still be the cheapest ticket on the block.
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play — live, two doors
Previews started September 8 at the Samuel J. Friedman, opening night is September 28. Jocelyn Bioh's play is the one fall show that already has a same-day entry: a $49 digital rush through TodayTix, unlocked in the app, subject to availability. Manhattan Theatre Club also runs its $35 tickets for 35 and under program, which covers this show. No lottery as of today, and with a $49 rush plus a $35 age program I would not hold my breath for one. Show page: School Girls.
The Imaginary Invalid — house program only
Roundabout's Molière revival with Bill Irwin and Rachel Bloom starts previews September 25 at the Todd Haimes Theatre and opens October 22. The door today is Hiptix: $30 including the facility fee, ages 18 to 40, free to join, two per production. Roundabout has been putting a TodayTix lottery on its Broadway shows (Rocky Horror has a $30 one right now), so a digital lottery here is a reasonable expectation. It is not posted. Read that as "wait" rather than "no." Show page: The Imaginary Invalid.
Other Desert Cities — announced, not yet posted
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris and Allison Janney at the Hudson Theatre, previews from September 29, opening October 18, closing January 17. The production's own tickets page says it plainly: "Rush and Lottery options will be announced at a later date." That sentence is good news. A commercial star-driven revival does not write it unless something is coming. Nothing to enter today. Show page: Other Desert Cities.
860 — nothing posted
Billy Crystal's solo show at the Imperial, previews October 1, opening October 21, closing January 2. Telecharge is the ticketing house, and Telecharge shows tend to get a Telecharge digital lottery (The Outsiders and Operation Mincemeat both run one). As of this week there is no lottery, rush or age program on the show's pages. A 13-week solo run by a name this size may simply never need one. I will keep checking. Show page: 860.
A Few Good Men — house program only
Lincoln Center Theater's revival with Bradley Whitford, previews October 8 at the Vivian Beaumont, opening October 29, thirteen weeks. LCT does not do lotteries. It does LincTix: ages 18 to 35, $37 at the box office or $40.50 online with fees, a limited number for every performance, free to join. Sign up now if you qualify, because the ID takes up to 48 hours to arrive and the first previews are the cheap ones. Show page: A Few Good Men.
The rest of October, in one paragraph
Wanted (previews October 15) has a Telecharge rush link up with no price attached yet. Downstate (October 17) has nothing. Neither is a surprise this far out. Both will show up in the hub the day a price is posted, because that is what the hub is for.
How to read a fall like this
Pattern from the last two seasons: the nonprofit houses (MTC, Roundabout, LCT) lead with their age programs and add a digital lottery around opening if the run is selling. The commercial houses announce a lottery when previews are a week or two in and the producers can see the house. So the useful moves this month are: join Hiptix and LincTix now if you are in the brackets, set the TodayTix rush alert for School Girls, and check back on Other Desert Cities and 860 the week they open. For the shows that already have a lottery, the rules of entry have not changed since How to Win Every Broadway Lottery, and the complete list of who draws what is in the Lottery and Rush Census.
Earlier in the season I wrote up the first-preview dates for the fall class and the block-by-block dinner map for the houses these shows are in. Between those two and this one, you have the fall covered.
