Rush Tickets: The Cheapest Broadway Tickets With The Best Seats

General rush tickets are discounted Broadway tickets sold for day-of performances at shows' box offices. I've found that these tickets have the cheapest prices with the best seats compared to TKTS tickets and resale tickets on StubHub. The tickets are usually for orchestra level seating (the closest section to the stage) which sell for $100+ when bought in advance. Rush tickets are around $30-40 and are sold in limited quantities for certain shows that are aiming to attract a younger audience who may not be able to afford full price tickets.  

General rush tickets, also known as student rush tickets or simply rush tickets, go on sale when box offices open in the morning; for most theaters, this means 10am on Mondays through Saturdays and 12pm on Sundays. Each show has different prices and policies regarding rush tickets which can be found here. For popular shows with a lot of media attention such as BeetleJuice or Mean Girls, people line up for tickets more than three hours before the box office opens because there are a limited amount of general rush tickets sold each day and tickets for those shows in advance are very expensive For shows such as Chicago, which has been on broadway for over 8,000 performances, it can be easier to get rush tickets later in the day because people are not hurrying to the box office early in the morning to get them. For the best bet on knowing what time to get in line, reading discussions on the Broadway Message Board are usually helpful in giving time estimates and rush testimonials. 

 Most recently, I rushed Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theater and King Kong at the Broadway Theater. Be More Chill is a contemporary show that was highly popular because of its relatable story about an awkward teenager willing to do anything to fit in. I rushed on a Wednesday and arrived at the Lyceum Theater box office at 9am, an hour before it opened at 10. I was about fifteenth in line. I chose to get to the box office an hour early because the most recent posts on the Broadway Message Board about Be More Chill general rush were about people waiting in line for less than an hour and getting full view orchestra seats. The posts also reported the show having many rush tickets so even being fifteenth in line, my chances were fairly high. My tickets were $40 each and I sat in the middle of orchestra right. For comparison, Be More Chill orchestra seats at full price were around $180.

King Kong, on the other hand, was a less popular show and was nearing its closing dates when I rushed. The show was having a hard time filling the audience since it was competing with other big name shows tailored toward children such as Hamilton and The Lion King. I got to the box office at noon on the Thursday I rushed, two hours after the Broadway Theater box office had opened. Again, I had chosen this time because the Broadway Message Board showed people going to the box office only a few hours before showtime at 7pm and still scoring great rush seats. The tickets were $49 and were for orchestra left.  

 The earliest I ever got to a box office for rush tickets was when I rushed Waitress. I got to the Brooks Atkinson theater at 7:30 am, two and a half hours before the box office opened; I was first in line and the next two people got to the box office right after me. This was when I was living in New York and it was pretty easy for me to walk fifteen minutes to the theater where I could do homework for the 2.5 hours in line. When the box office opened at 10, I got two, orchestra right tickets that were close to the center of the theater. I was toward the back of the orchestra section but I had an amazing full view. The tickets were $40 each, compared to the $169 price of online tickets for the same section. Waitress was a very popular musical at the time which is why I had to get to the box office so early; the people behind me had also rushed the show a few weeks prior when Jason Mraz and Sara Bareilles were in the show and waited 6 hours in the rain for tickets.

 Ultimately, rushing a show is the best way to get cheap tickets for great seats. By checking Broadway Message Boards and staying updated on shows' rush policies, the rush process can be easy and stress-free. Plus, it can be fun to meet other Broadway fans while waiting in line for tickets.