A Full-Service TKTS Booth from August to October, 2016
The TKTS Booths in New York City have been providing on-the-day discount theatre ticket options for New Yorkers and tourists alike since 1961. With the original TKTS "temporary" truck being parked at Broadway and West 47th Street in 1961 and a more permanent pavilion being built in 1973 (which copied the format developed by Broadway Impresario, Joe LeBlang in 1895) TKTS has become a staple for tourists in Times Square. With its attention-grabbing vista, with its large set of red stairs in the middle of Times Square, TKTS has become more than a discount ticket option; it is also a visual mainstay of Broadway. With tourists lining up for what is often a very long queue in all kinds of weather, TKTS has become a go-to option for discount tickets, even if it by no means offers the best deal available for many of the shows on the list, its is the place that tourists gravitate to, as they often do not know any better. In addition to the principal booth in midtown, there are also TKTS booths at the South Street Seaport and in Downtown Brooklyn. The phenomenon has even traveled to London, where the Society of London Theatre operates a booth in Leicester Square, formerly known as the Half-Price Ticket Booth. As of August 2, 2016, yet another TKTS booth option is available in New York, located at Lincoln Center on West 62nd Street and Columbus Avenue. The venue will remain open until October 29, 2016.
Lincoln Center: the Northern Tip of Broadway
The Lincoln Center complex encompasses three theatres: the small Claire Tow Theatre, often reserved for new works through the LCT3 program, the Off-Broadway Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, and the larger Vivian Beaumont Theatre, which is considered a Broadway house, despite its location north of all the other Broadway venues. This means that shows in the Beaumont are eligible for Tony consideration. While Lincoln Center is not the only not-for-profit theatre institution to operate a Broadway house – Roundabout has the American Airlines Theatre and Studio 54, Manhattan Theatre Club programs in the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and Second Stage has recently purchased the Helen Hayes Theatre – it is the only theatre to do so on its home turf. Lincoln Center already does offer discount tickets to its own shows at its Zucker box office inside the David Rubinstein Atrium, but now it will also offer the same deals to a wide array of shows offered at all TKTS booths. TKTS is well known for offering same-day discount tickets to shows on Broadway and Off-Broadway, advertised as up to 50% off. Sometimes the discounts are less, such as 40% or 30% off. In general, same-day tickets are available, and matinee tickets are available from the day before (as well as the day of the performance).