Lotteries

The idea behind a lottery is simple: you submit your name and cross your fingers that it gets drawn. There are two types of lotteries: in-person and digital. For in-person lotteries, you show up about two hours before the start of the show and put your name in a bucket. When names are drawn, you need to be present to claim your seats. Digital lotteries are offered by shows themselves or via an app, like TodayTix. A digital lottery is your best chance to see “Hamilton” for cheap, as in $10 tickets kind of cheap. And your chances to see “Hamilton” just got better: the show recently began offering double the number of $10 seats for each performance. Show-score.com keeps an updated list of digital lotteries, and we’ve got a guide to the best ways to navigate them.

Read The New York Times Guide to Broadway Lotteries

Apps

Cheap seats are a touch away with mobile ticketing apps. The most prominent is TodayTix, which offers discounted and full-price last-minute tickets. After you purchase your tickets using the app, agents dressed in branded red outside the theater doors deliver them in person. TodayTix sells tickets only within a week of a performance date, and there are fees to watch for. (Keep in mind, too, that not every show in New York is offered, and you don’t always know exactly which seats you’ll get.) Besides New York, TodayTix sells tickets in other markets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Washington and London.