Everything in this city costs money. Free Shakespeare in the Park does not, and it has not for sixty-odd summers, and every year a fresh wave of New Yorkers decides it is too complicated to bother with.
It is not complicated. It is just that there are four separate ways in and nobody explains them in one place. So here is all four, for The Winter’s Tale, which opens at the Delacorte on Saturday, July 25 and runs through August 23.
What you are actually getting
The Winter’s Tale is directed by Daniel Sullivan, with Raúl Esparza as Leontes and Lily Rabe as Hermione, joined by Chuck Cooper, Isabela Ferrer, and Katie Griffith.
That is a cast that would run you two hundred dollars a seat in a Shubert house. It is free, outdoors, in Central Park, at the Delacorte. The play itself is the strange one — a jealousy tragedy for three acts that turns into a pastoral comedy with one of the best stage directions ever written, and then ends with something close to a miracle. Rabe has been doing this in this park for fifteen years and she is very good at it.
Way 1: the TodayTix digital lottery (do this one)
TodayTix is the official lottery partner. This is the lowest-effort path and the one I use.
- Enter between 12:01 AM and 12:00 PM on the day of the performance, in the TodayTix app.
- Winners are notified between noon and 3 PM. You have 30 minutes from that notification to confirm in the app.
- Winners get two tickets.
- Claim in person at the Delacorte Levin Ticket Office between 5:30 and 7:30 PM with valid ID. Tickets are void after 7:30 PM.
- There are three separate lotteries: General, Senior 65+, and Wheelchair Accessible Seating. Enter the one that applies to you.
That 30-minute confirmation window is the part that gets people, exactly like a Broadway lottery — turn on push notifications for the app now, not at 2 PM. The full mechanics of claim windows are in the TodayTix guide.
Way 2: the in-person line at the Delacorte
Free tickets go out at the Delacorte at 12 PM (noon) on each performance day. You need a Public Theater Patron ID — set it up in advance at publictheater.org rather than fumbling with it in line.
This is the old-school way. On a beautiful Saturday people line up early with a book and a coffee and treat the wait as part of the day, which is a completely reasonable way to spend a summer morning in Central Park. On a Tuesday in a heat wave, it is much less of a scene.
Way 3: borough distributions
This is the one almost nobody knows. Through the summer, a limited number of vouchers for that night’s performance are handed out at a rotating location in one of the five boroughs, starting at 12 PM. You redeem the voucher at the Delacorte for an actual ticket.
If a distribution lands near where you live or work, the line is a fraction of the one in Central Park. Check the Public’s site for that week’s location — it moves.
Way 4: the standby line
After the last ticket goes out for the day, anyone still without one can start a standby line at the Delacorte. Staff begin monitoring it at 6 PM, and tickets may go out any time after that, up through the start of the performance.
No guarantee at all. But people no-show constantly for an outdoor evening show, and standby moves more than you would expect. If you are already in the park on a nice night, it costs you nothing but the wait.
What to actually bring
It is outdoors and it is August. Bug spray — the park at dusk is not messing around. A layer, because the Delacorte gets genuinely cool by the second half even after a 90-degree day. Water. And check the forecast, because rain cancellations are real and they are called late.
Enter at 81st Street and Central Park West, or 79th and Fifth. Give yourself more time than the map says. The Delacorte is not near a subway and the walk in is longer than it looks.
If you strike out
Try again tomorrow. It runs a full month, the lottery resets daily, and there is no penalty for entering every single day — which, to be clear, is what I do.
And while you are already in the app: the same TodayTix account runs lotteries and rush for most of Broadway, so enter those on the same pass. Every active one is on the lottery hub, the daily routine is in how to win every Broadway lottery, and the Off-Broadway lotteries almost nobody enters are where the odds are genuinely soft. If you do win something, here is what happens next.
For the rest of the free-and-cheap summer slate, NYC summer beyond Broadway has the full list.
Distribution policies are set by The Public Theater and can change. Confirm at publictheater.org before you plan a day around it.
