Rush Tickets

[ncrose2]

Saw a lot of questions about the value of rush vs TKTS.  Our experience is this past week.  Several months ago, we had the idea of going to see Colbert, spending a night in NYC and then going to a matinee the next day.  We got on the Colbert wait list, booked a hotel and got tickets to Beautiful (did not know about rush at that time.  We then learned about rush and digital lotteries through Playbill and saw several, including Hamilton that were open to lottery.  Figuring there was no guarantee that we were getting into Colbert, we decided on going to a show as a back up since were committed to going to Beautiful.  Put in for Hamilton ($30), Kinky Boots ($40) and Book of Mormon ($40).  The night before we left, we found out that we lost out on Colbert and lottery-wise on all three, but Kinky and Mormon gave us discount codes.  Kinky had Mezz for $49 and Orchestra for $69 with the discount.  We went to a site called View My Seats (or something like that) where people post pictures of the view.  Available were two seats in the orchestra at $69, one row behind the $147 seats.  Found those seats on the View site and went for it.  When we got there and saw the seats, we basically said Holy %^#*.  FWIW, TKTS has the reputation, but you have to line up at 3:00 that afternoon at their kiosks.  We wanted to enjoy some time in NYC and did not want to spend the afternoon waiting in lines.  This was a great way to do it. We are going to do this again, even if it is not an overnight.  This is an idea for the future for us, as we can get to GCS in 3 1/2 hours, drive 1 1/2 and train for two out of New Haven.  I hope this helps those who are wondering.  

[MadsonMelo]

Good to know, as I plan to watch around 15 shows in October, I've been doubting about the best options good seats between rush tickets, tkst, loterries and so on.

I guess will buy face value tickets for only 3 or 4 shows and for the rest I will try rush and/or lottery. If I can't get any, see what box office has for me hah

[UncleCharlie]

You are probably not aware that TKTS has 4 locations, not just 1 and with at least 2 of them, Brooklyn and Lincoln Center you can usually walk right up to the window and buy your ticket with no line. And you can buy matinees the day before and evening shows the morning of instead of waiting till 3.

[Browneyes142]

Another great option is TDF.org it's the same peoplevas TKTS. It is hit or miss as far as where you're going to sit, sometimes they are awesome seats and sometimes they're not as great. It is a cheap yearly membership fee (only $12 per year if over 100 miles from NYC) so even if you use it only once, you'll likely save money.
It covers Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, and Regional performances. One really cool thing is that any tickets you get through TDF are not subject to the food and beverage minimums that are required directly through the outlet (for instance, I'm seeing Spamalot at 54 Below for $25 from TDF. Through 54 Below, it would have been $35 plus a $25 food and beverage minimum.)
I use a combination of rush, lottery (only won once though), and TDF for 90% of my shows.
And Broadwayforbrokepeople.com is what I use to quickly see dates of the run and showtimes along with rush and lottery info.

Does anyone have a list of which shows offer loser discount codes for lottery "losers"?

[Jakeevan942]

Browneyes142 said: "
Does anyone have a list of which shows offer loser discount codes for lottery "losers"?"

There is no rhyme or reason to what shows offer lotto loser codes. It really depends on how well the show is sold on a particular nights, and can vary from night to night, even for the same show.