New York: Catching a Broadway Show

One of the touristy thing to do in New York is to watch a Broadway Show. However, what really puts us off watching these shows are the atrocious cost of tickets. These tickets could easily run to over $100 per person.

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Suanne and I decided we do the touristy thingy by attending a show. Just like many of the people here, we had no clear idea what we wanted to watch — we just wanted to watch a show. We are cheap people you see … and like cheap people, we went to the TKTS booth to buy “same-day” tickets. TKTS sells tickets just hours before showtime at a discount (about 25% to 50%) so that they can fill the seats which will otherwise be left empty.

When I was in London, I caught a West End theater show through TKTS too. It was just like any ticket booth with a wait of just a few minutes. But over here in NYC, the queue is total madness. I had never been in such a long queue before.

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We thought we do the smart thing by being there 15 minutes before the TKTS box office opens. It was not so smart after all because there were already HUNDREDS of people already on the queue. The queue was so bloody long that it snaked from outside of one end of the the building to the other end … SEVEN TIMES! And that was 15 minutes before the ticket booth opened. By the time the queue started to move, I was right in the middle of the maze that I had no idea how big the queue was.

The queue moved quite fast but even that it took us like over 30 minutes to get to the front. It was simply madness.

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So, while waiting, we had to decide what show to watch right? We did not want to loose our spot in the queue to go to the board to see what tickets were available (and most importantly what price!). Suanne kept the spot while I jostled with the hordes of tourists at the board. I shortlisted a few shows (on the palm of my hand) because who knows if the ones we wanted are still available by the time we got to the front. Can you read my handwriting?

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We finally landed with Young Frankenstein. Despite the discount, it was quite expensive at $62 each. Oh, they only accept cash which is kind of odd to us because how many people carry so much cash these days all the time? Suanne and I scrapped all that we had in our bag and pockets and just have enough USD for the show.

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After getting the tickets, we went sightseeing to other spots before returning to Times Square for the show in the evening.

So, was the show good? Well, it was a silly goofy show if you ask me. The plot was so predictable and it was not even funny. The show was not bad but it was just a so-so show. I bet Stomp would have been much better but did not have enough cash for the tickets.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. KimHo

    Hi Ben,

    My best guess:

    Young F(rankenstein)
    Hairspray
    Mary P(oppins)
    Legally B(londe)
    Stomp (You gave this one away)
    Xanadu

    Readable provided you know the context! ^_^

  2. Jessica

    I would have seen Legally Blonde cuz it’s one of my favorite movies! The BF seen Mary Poppins in NYC when he was there and he loved it.

  3. Broadway Show

    Great blog. Glad you got to see a show – it’s all about the ultimate Broadway experience in the end! Who knows maybe you’ll get to see stomp one day!

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