Broadway is about to try something it has not really tried before: a horror show that wants to actually scare a paying audience of 1,200 people in a Midtown house on West 52nd Street.
Paranormal Activity begins previews this Friday, August 14, at the August Wilson Theatre, and opens officially on Tuesday, August 25. It is a strictly limited 20-week engagement, which means it is gone in early January whether it works or not.
What it actually is
Not a staged remake of the 2007 found-footage film. It is a new story, written by Levi Holloway, following a couple who move from Chicago to London trying to outrun the thing that has been following them. Same universe, new haunting.
The name to pay attention to is the director: Felix Barrett, the artistic director of Punchdrunk — the company behind Sleep No More, which ran in a Chelsea warehouse for over a decade and taught a generation of New Yorkers that theater could happen in the dark, on your feet, with a mask on. Barrett working inside a traditional proscenium house is the interesting part of this whole thing. Illusions are by Chris Fisher, who did the magic for Cursed Child.
The cast is Cher Álvarez as Lou, Travis A. Knight as James, Shannon Cochran as Carolanne, and Andrea Syglowski as Etheline Cotgrave.
There is no lottery yet, and that is normal
As of this morning the show has no posted lottery, no rush program, and no standing-room policy. Do not read that as bad news.
Discount programs almost never exist before first preview. Producers announce them in the week around previews starting, once they know what the house looks like and how the advance is selling. We watched the same pattern with Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which now runs a $45 Broadway Direct lottery that opens at 7 AM and closes at 2 PM the day before.
So Friday is the date to watch. If a lottery is coming, it lands within a couple of weeks of it.
What a program would probably look like
This is a read, not an announcement — treat it as such.
The August Wilson has been Broadway Direct territory before, which would put the show in the same pool as Six, MJ and The Lost Boys. Broadway Direct lotteries on plays and limited runs cluster around $40 to $49, and they draw the day before with a two-ticket cap.
The other plausible route is a TodayTix rush, which is what a limited-run play with a young audience tends to reach for. Either way, the setup on your end is identical, and you can do it now: accounts on all four platforms, notifications on, entry name matching your ID.
Getting a seat before any of that exists
Previews are the window. For the next eleven days the show is unreviewed, which historically means the advance is soft and the box office is more willing to deal. Two moves work here.
Check the box office directly for the Tuesday and Wednesday performances in preview week. Midweek previews on a brand-new title are the softest inventory on Broadway, and the August Wilson box office will tell you what is actually available if you walk up and ask.
And watch the TKTS board. Limited-run plays in previews show up on the Duffy Square board more often than anything else, at 20 to 50 percent off. We wrote up how the booth actually works and when it beats entering a draw — for an unreviewed show with no lottery, this is exactly that case.
The rest of the board this week
Paranormal Activity is not the only thing moving. Ragtime plays its final performance at the Vivian Beaumont on August 16, which retires its $49 LCT lottery and the LincTix program with it. Moulin Rouge closes August 30 and keeps its $49 Lucky Seat draw until then. Titanique runs to September 20 with a $49 Lucky Seat lottery plus a $45 in-person rush at the St. James.
One piece of genuinely good news: Just in Time at Circle in the Square, which was set to close September 6, is now playing through October 18. It has no lottery, but it does have a $40 in-person rush at box office opening — which is one of the better deals on Broadway right now and one almost nobody uses.
If you want to be first
Set a reminder for Friday. When a new show’s discount program launches, the first week is when the entry pool is smallest and your odds are the best they will ever be — the whole point of entering at first preview rather than waiting for reviews.
Everything currently running with a lottery or rush is on the board, and the setup guide is here.
