My Broadway Lottery Luck

Photo: http://expertvagabond.com/cheap-broadway-tickets/

One of my absolute favorite things to do growing up was go to musicals. I've gone to a fair share of them, both in my hometown of Buffalo and on visits to Toronto and New York, but each was a special treat and I remember each vividly. There's nothing like the feeling when the lights go down, the orchestra tunes up, and the curtain rises at the beginning of a show. I've been living in New York for a few weeks now, and it dawned recently on me that I haven't even tried to go to a show yet. So yesterday, when Scott had a day off, we decided to try our luck with the lottery.



We did some research online and found some good information. This site was very helpful and we used it as a trusty guide: http://broadwayforbrokepeople.com/ It's also very aptly named.

From our personal experience, here's what we learned:

1. You need to get to the theater 2.5 hours before curtain time in order to enter the lottery. They close entries and draw names 2 hours before the show, so don't cut it too close. 
2. Popular shows draw crowds = slimmer chances for us and our dreams
3. Find a buddy. Each person in your party can enter the lottery for up to 2 tickets, meaning that if we are fate-wielding demigods and both we and our date win we've got four tickets. But let's face it: we're not that lucky. So pick a couple near you that looks the luckiest, explain the potential case of four tickets to them, offer them your extra two should the gods grace you, and ask for the same in return. 
4. Standing room is a good option. Tickets for the same price or cheaper than the lottery are available to those with comfortable shoes, if you get there in time.
5. Some shows (like The Book of Mormon) that are sold out for the night have a "cancellation line" where you can wait and snatch up any tickets that people bought, then called to cancel. I think those go for full price, but are a good last-ditch option if you really want to see the show.
6. There are rush tickets that go for usually a more expensive price than the lottery tickets, but they become available when the box office opens, which is in the morning, and first come first serve. This method seems a little more difficult to me, but is an option nonetheless! 

With this information (or at least most of it) in hand, we ventured to try our luck. We decided to go for the big time first: The Book of Mormon. This is, and has been for a few years, one of the most popular Broadway shows in recent history. The time had finally come for us to see the acclaimed hit from the minds of South Park writers! It was our day! We arrived at the theater and confidently strode past a sizable line of people waiting for the lottery to finish so they could snatch standing room tickets. Some were sitting on the pavement, and it was 4:30. The show didn't start until 7. While this may have seemed crazy at the time, looking back now I wonder if that's the route we should have taken after all... But alas we were young and naive and wrote our names on the tiny slips of paper already glowing with the anticipation of victory. We found another couple equally naive to the harsh temptress that the lottery is, and they became our "luck buddies" should either of us win two sets of tickets. We left the scene, arrogant as we were, and got a mocha frappe; the last sweet taste in my mouth for hours. But I didn't know that yet. When we returned to the theater, the crowd has multiplied. It was like an amoeba; gooing out and grabbing every passerby in sight, making its body huge, ungainly, and grotesque. The scene was not unlike the one pictured above. There must have been close to 100 people there. "Alright, people. We have 19 tickets tonight. The first 14 are front row center, and the last five are all around the theater," the man in a baseball cap with a megaphone announced. My heart sank with each name called, and we walked away empty handed.

But we had a plan! Another lottery was taking place in half an hour and after a quick stop at M&M World (I'm a real sucker for those mini M&Ms, but even I will now admit that place is way over priced) we headed over to the Hedwig and the Angry Inch lottery. This one was smaller, drawing maybe 30-40 hopefuls. We again entered our names, found some buddies, and waited. A minute before the lottery was going to be drawn, a women seemed to amble out of nowhere and wrote her name down in a very "hey-why-not" kind of manner than perturbed me. "Watch, she's going to win," Scott whispered to me out of the side of his mouth. One person is drawn, a second person is drawn, and then what do you know, last-minute-lady walks up to claim her prize with a glance behind her and a shoulder shrug, as if things like this happen to her everyday. Our buddies even won, but we walked away again. This time I was more affected by the loss, as we had no other plan. I moped over to the side of the theater, near the cast/crew entrance. I think I half-hoped I might see Darren Criss (who was starring in the musical for that run) strut by in a casual outfit. Maybe jeans and a leather jacket. But one can only dream. Scott suggested dinner or maybe a movie, the first I rejected because the M&Ms filled me up, and the second because movies in the city are almost as much as the tickets we had just lost. We meandered down the street, not sure what to do. That's when I saw it, a bright blue beacon in the distance: the sign for Matilda.

I'd seen the three tiny Matildas perform a year or so ago on TV during the Tonys and loved the number they did. We scurried back across the hellish Times Square and burst into the box office just as the security guard was putting up the velvet rope. Ok, the velvet rope was already up and we just moved it. But that isn't as dramatic, is it? Scraping the bottom of our hearts for any last dregs of hope we might find, we timidly asked the box office man if there were any standing room tickets left. The show was in half an hour. Time magazine reviewed it as the best musical of the year. What were the chances? Just good enough, it turned out. We bought two standing room tickets, totaling at $52. We couldn't believe it. We ran around the corner and inhaled a burger to help us keep on our feet for the next two and a half hours.

Photo: http://broadwaydirect.com/feature/creating-the-visual-world-of-matilda

Standing room was not as uncomfortable as I had anticipated. We stood behind the audience and had nice green velvet rests to lean on that were about chest-level. We had a great view of the stage and of the actors who were running up and down the aisles, and thus next to us, constantly. The show was whimsical, funny, and the minuscule Matilda was extremely impressive. We had a great time, and for an affordable cost! I can't wait to go and try my luck again.