To Get Those Summer Tickets in New York, Strategize
WITH the unofficial start of summer this weekend, there are several hot tickets to be had. But to get to the front of the line, you need to know your way around.
Earl Wilson/The New York Times
The main TKTS booth has streamlined its system with a Play Express line.
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That line may be especially long this season, because Al Pacino is starring as Shylock in “Merchant,” and the repertory cast for both plays features names like Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Jesse L. Martin.
Last year the Public started virtual ticketing — you still have to wait to find out if you’re getting tickets, but just not in person. To try for two free tickets, go to shakespeareinthepark.org by 1 p.m. on the day of the show. Older theatergoers can also take their chances on “senior virtual ticketing.”
Virtual tickets are selected at random, not in order of request, and you’ll be notified by e-mail by 5 p.m. if you’re successful. (The tickets have to be picked up in person, with identification — and proof of being 65 or older for the “senior” option — at the Delacorte.)
If neither of those strategies work, here are a few tips. Try the stand-by line, which dispenses one ticket per person and starts forming at the park after the regular tickets are handed out; previews are easier to get tickets for; keep trying.
Alas, there is no virtual option for tickets to Big Bambú, the elevated pathways within the elaborate bamboo sculpture by Doug and Mike Starn now on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With the pay-what-you-wish admission, you sign up for the 30-minute tours and wait for the first-come-first-served tickets. No matter what day you go, call the museum at (212) 396-5300 for weather-related cancellations and tour requirements, which are strictly enforced. This reporter was turned away for wearing the wrong shoes.
For the popular morning tours, arrive early — by 9:30 — at the Uris Center for Education (81st Street ground-level entrance). Afternoon tickets are released daily at noon. On Fridays and Saturdays, when museum hours are extended to 9 p.m., there are 17 tours instead of the usual 12, so you have a better chance of getting a ticket; on those days, evening tickets are available beginning at 3:30 p.m. But budget time for the coat check and admissions lines.
It’s no secret that theatergoers can get discounted tickets for Broadway and Off Broadway shows at the TKTS booth near Times Square, but there are ways to avoid the throngs of waiting tourists. Try the two other booths — like the main site, both are run by the nonprofit Theater Development Fund — which almost always have shorter lines.
There’s the one in Lower Manhattan at South Street Seaport (199 Water Street) and the one in downtown Brooklyn at 1 MetroTech Center (corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue).
Both are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the South Street Seaport booth is also open Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., for tickets to that night’s shows. And, even more helpfully, they sell matinee seats the day before. Go to tdf.org/tkts for hours and more information.
One recent matinee Wednesday, at the Brooklyn booth, there was no line at 12:30, and tickets were available for several shows, including “Fela!,” “Hair” and “Billy Elliot.” Jim Burns, the booth supervisor, said that his biggest crowd that day came at 11 a.m., and that many were savvy Manhattanites.
One last tip for theatergoers who are not in the market for a musical: step up to the Play Express line at the Times Square TKTS booth. On a recent day when there were the usual long lines, only two lonely but smiling applicants had queued up for play tickets. Just look for the “P” next to the show’s title on the list outside the booth, and skip past all those musicalgoers still waiting for their turns.
