How to See It for Less, Legitimately: Broadway Lottery, Rush, Standing Room and TKTS, With Current Prices
Hamilton's lottery is $10. Wicked rush is $45 at the Gershwin box office and its digital lottery is $55. TKTS sells same-day seats at up to 50 percent off. Every route in this guide is run by the production, the theatre or TDF. Last verified October 29, 2026.
There are four legitimate ways to pay less than face value for a Broadway seat: enter a lottery, buy rush, take standing room, or buy same-day at TKTS. A fifth way, the box office itself, is not a discount route, but it removes the fees that make online resale prices look normal. Last verified October 29, 2026. Policies change mid-run, so check the show's own page on the day you plan to go.
1. The lottery: pay only if you win
A digital lottery costs nothing to enter. You enter for one or two tickets, the production draws names, and winners get a short window, usually 60 minutes, to pay. Miss the window and the tickets go to the next name. Seats are at the box office's discretion and can be partial view.
The platforms are few, and using the right one matters:
- Broadway Direct runs the lotteries for Wicked, Six, MJ, Aladdin, The Lion King, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon!
- Telecharge (Rush Telecharge) runs lotteries and digital rush for a group of shows that currently includes Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), Buena Vista Social Club, Maybe Happy Ending, Oh, Mary!, Operation Mincemeat, The Great Gatsby and The Outsiders.
- TodayTix runs the Friday Forty for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ($40) and digital rush for a group of shows including & Juliet and The Book of Mormon.
- Lucky Seat runs lotteries for touring productions in many cities, and for some Broadway titles.
- The Hamilton app and hamiltonmusical.com run the Hamilton lottery directly.
Verified prices, checked October 29, 2026:
| Show | Route | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton (Richard Rodgers) | Digital lottery | $10 | Enter from Friday 10 a.m. to the following Thursday at noon, for the next week's performances. Two tickets maximum. |
| Wicked (Gershwin) | Digital lottery, Broadway Direct | $55 | Enter the day before, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Winners have 60 minutes to pay. Two tickets maximum. |
| Aladdin (New Amsterdam) | Digital lottery, Broadway Direct | $35 | Day-before entry. |
| The Lion King (Minskoff) | Digital lottery, Broadway Direct | $35 | Day-before entry. |
| Six (Horne) | Digital lottery, Broadway Direct | $45 | Entry closes 6 p.m., the latest of the Broadway Direct group. |
| The Book of Mormon (O'Neill) | Digital lottery | $49 | Entries close 9:30 a.m. on the day of performance. |
| Two Strangers (Longacre) | Digital lottery, Telecharge | $48 | Entries open midnight the day before; drawn at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Closes on Broadway November 29, 2026. |
| A Few Good Men (Beaumont) | Digital lottery | $49 | Entries open 12:01 a.m.; drawn at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. the day before each performance. |
One rule catches people out on Broadway Direct: the number of tickets you request is the number you must buy if you win. If you might go alone, enter for one.
2. Rush: same-day, first come, at the box office
Rush tickets are released on the day of the performance, either at the box office when it opens (usually 10 a.m., noon on Sundays) or as a digital drop at a set time. The price is fixed, the quantity is limited, and when they are gone, they are gone.
The best-documented current example is Wicked. Playbill's guide to the production lists limited $45 rush tickets in person at the Gershwin Theatre box office when it opens, a maximum of two per person, seats possibly partial view, with a $2 facility fee included. The same production runs two other routes in parallel: a $45 same-day student rush with valid college ID, and $59 advance student tickets at the box office for select weekday performances, up to a month ahead.
General rush and student rush are different products. If a listing says "rush $49" with no detail, check which one it means before you queue. Prices in this guide were re-verified for this edition because older listings still circulate: several sites list Wicked's lottery at $49 or $59. The current Broadway Direct price is $55, and the current in-person rush price is $45.
3. Standing room: sold only when the house is sold out
Standing room (SRO) is a marked space behind the last row of the orchestra. Houses that offer it sell it only once the performance has sold out, usually at the box office on the day, and the number of spots is small. Not every theatre has an SRO rail, and not every production uses it.
Treat any standing-room price you find online as unconfirmed until the box office states it. Productions change SRO policy without updating the third-party sites that copied it. The reliable method is unglamorous: call or visit the box office of the specific theatre and ask whether SRO will be sold for that performance, at what price, and from what time.
4. TKTS: same-day, up to 50 percent off, in person only
TKTS is run by TDF, the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund, and has sold discount tickets since 1973. The two New York booths, Times Square (Broadway and 47th Street, under the red steps) and Lincoln Center (inside the David Rubenstein Atrium at 61 West 62nd Street), sell same-day evening performances and next-day matinees at discounts of up to 50 percent off full price. A per-ticket service charge applies; recent listings put it at $8.
Three facts define TKTS. First, you cannot buy in advance beyond the next day's matinee. Second, you cannot choose your exact seats; the booth sells the best available at the discount. Third, the board is live. The TKTS app and the TKTS Live page show, in real time, which shows are on sale that day and at what percentage. On October 29, 2026, the Times Square board listed Broadway performances at 20 to 50 percent off, with discounted prices roughly from $55 to $192 depending on the show and section.
Big hits in their first months are usually not on the board. TKTS is the strongest route when you are in New York today, flexible about which show you see, and want a guaranteed seat tonight rather than a chance at one tomorrow.
5. Under-40 and membership programmes
The nonprofit houses run age-based schemes that commercial productions mostly do not:
- LincTix (Lincoln Center Theater, ages 18–35): $37 at the box office, $40.50 online, for productions at the Beaumont, the Newhouse and the Claire Tow. Membership is free and stays active until December 31 following your 36th birthday. A Few Good Men at the Beaumont is in this programme.
- Hiptix (Roundabout Theatre Company): $30 tickets for its productions, including, this season, The Rocky Horror Show at Studio 54.
- TDF membership: members who meet eligibility criteria (which include students, teachers, union members, retirees, military and others) buy advance tickets to member shows at member prices, separate from the public TKTS booths.
The rules that keep you off the resale traps
1. Buy from the production's own seller first. For most Broadway shows that is Telecharge, Ticketmaster, SeatGeek or the theatre's box office, linked from the show's official site. If a search result's price is far above the prices in the table above for the same performance, you are looking at resale.
2. Entry to a lottery is always free. Any site charging a fee to enter a Hamilton, Broadway Direct, Telecharge, TodayTix or Lucky Seat draw is not the draw. You pay only after you win, inside the official platform, inside the claim window.
3. Check the theatre and date on the ticket against the show page. Resale listings for tours and Broadway productions of the same title sit next to each other in search results. The Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neill and The Book of Mormon at the Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas, November 4–15, 2026, are different productions on different calendars.
4. Partial view is a description, not a defect to discover later. Lottery and rush seats can be partial view and are sold as such. If a cheap ticket does not state its view, ask before paying.
5. A price that matches this guide is a signal. $10, $35, $45, $48, $49, $55: the legitimate discount prices are oddly specific because they are set by productions. Round, high prices with a "last chance" banner are the resale market's signature.
Affiliate disclosure: where this publication links to an official seller, the link may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Discount policies above are reported from the productions' own published rules regardless of any commission.