Six weeks ago I wrote that the Off-Broadway lotteries nobody enters are where your odds actually live. The board has turned over most of its inventory since then, so here is the September version — all twenty-six shows running Off-Broadway, and every cheap door attached to them.
The headline number: the cheapest theater ticket in New York City right now is $28, and it is not a lottery. It is a rush seat, and the show closes this weekend.
The cheapest doors on the board
- $28 — The House of the Negro Insane, 59E59 Theaters. TodayTix digital rush, day of performance, while seats last. Closes September 6.
- $20 — Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo, New World Stages. Telecharge digital lottery, and the $20 is fee-inclusive, which almost nothing on this board can say. No announced closing date.
- Free — Free Shakespeare in the Park has ended for the season at the Delacorte, so the $0 line is gone until next summer. Worth knowing so you stop refreshing it.
- $32 — The Circuit: An Immersive Silent Disco Ballet in Dumbo. TodayTix lottery, with a $43 rush behind it if the draw goes badly.
The shows with both a lottery and a rush
These are the ones worth building a routine around, because a loss in the morning still leaves you a door in the afternoon.
- Heathers: The Musical, New World Stages — $38 Telecharge lottery, $38 Telecharge rush from late morning on the day. Same price either way, which makes it the simplest decision on the board. It closes November 8 after a fourth extension, then goes out on tour.
- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, New World Stages — $39 lottery, $49 rush. Closing October 11, with Ali Stroker and Laurie Hernandez joining the cast September 7.
- Jamie Allan’s Amaze, New World Stages — $49 lottery and $49 rush, both through Telecharge, both fee-inclusive. Running to the end of January.
- Perfect Crime, The Theater Center — $39 Lucky Seat lottery, $35 TodayTix rush, and a $35 student rush at the box office. Three doors on a show that has been running since 1987.
- Friends! The Musical Parody, Jerry Orbach Theater — $39 Lucky Seat lottery, $35 TodayTix rush, plus a same-day box office rush you can walk up for.
- Singfeld! A Musical About Nothing, Jerry Orbach Theatre — $39 Lucky Seat lottery, $35 TodayTix rush.
- Heated Rivalry, 6th Floor Theater — TodayTix lottery, $49 TodayTix rush. Running to November 1.
Note what four of those have in common: New World Stages. One building on W 50th holds four shows with lotteries. If you are indifferent about what you see and just want to be in a theater on a Tuesday, that address is the highest-percentage play in the city.
Lottery only
- Little Shop of Horrors, Westside Theatre — $40 Telecharge digital lottery. No announced closing date.
- The Play That Goes Wrong, New World Stages — $35, run on the production’s own site rather than a platform. The entry window closes two days before the performance, not the day before, and that alone is why most people have never won it. Set the reminder differently for this one.
- Masquerade, W 57th St — the $66.60 Lotto 666 is drawn in person at the venue on a quarterly basis, announced on the show’s Instagram. Entries open two hours before the performance, drawn an hour before curtain, cash or card, limit two. There is also a $178 TodayTix cancellation line, which is a different kind of animal.
Rush only
No draw, no waiting for an email. Open the app or walk up.
- The Real Ivanov, Classic Stage Company — $35 TodayTix rush. Closes September 19.
- Broad Strokes, Lucille Lortel — $35 TodayTix rush including a $5 per-ticket fee. Closes September 25.
- An American Daughter, Pershing Square Signature Center — $35 TodayTix rush, released each morning, first come first served. Closes September 20.
- Music City, St. Luke’s Theatre — $35 TodayTix rush. Runs to October 31.
- The Pass, La MaMa — $39 TodayTix rush including an $8 fee. Closes September 4, so this is a this-week decision.
- Disruption, Pershing Square Signature Center — $48 TodayTix rush from the morning. Closes September 13.
The membership doors
Two Off-Broadway shows have no lottery and no rush, and both are covered by an age-based program instead. These are worth joining once and using for years.
- The Whoopi Monologues, Mitzi E. Newhouse — LincTix, $35 to $40 for ages 18 to 35, free to join at Lincoln Center Theater. The catch: your seatmate has to be a LincTix member too, which is the opposite of how MTC35 works.
- Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, New York City Center — MTC35, $35 for anyone 35 and under, guest of any age. Closes September 11.
What this board tells you
Two things, and they both cut against the Broadway habit.
Off-Broadway is a rush town, not a lottery town. Fourteen of the twenty-six running shows offer a rush and only ten offer a lottery. If your whole routine is built on morning entries, you are ignoring most of the inventory downtown.
The dates are short. Six of the shows above close within three weeks. Off-Broadway runs are measured in weeks where Broadway runs are measured in years, so a list like this decays fast — which is also why the odds are better. Fewer people are paying attention.
The live board is on the lottery hub, filterable by platform. For the Broadway half of the picture, all twenty-five running shows and their doors are here, and the platform mechanics are in the platform guide.
