Unless you have your heart set on a specific oft-sold-out show, one of the best ways to acquire tickets is through one of the TKTS booths in Times Square, the less crowded one near the South Street Seaport or Brooklyn TKTS. TKTS tickets are sold with the approval of the theaters. See what's been available lately.
Even sold-out shows often have (full-price) tickets for sale the day of the show at the theater box office. You can also get cheap student and standing-room tickets for several shows.
'Next Fall' mixed reviews: best new play or Cliché City
The new drama “Next Fall” opened on Broadway on Thursday to reviews mixed with praise for its deft comic touch but criticism for clichéd characters.
Tackling religion, homsexuality and other issues about love and commitment, the play by Geoffrey Nauffts transferred from Off-Broadway with the financial backing of co-producer Elton John.
Directed by Sheryl Kaller the cast members are Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray and Cotter Smith.
“Next Fall” has an open-ended run at the Helen Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $81.50 to 116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 to $226.50. Student rush tickets are usually available at the box office two hours before curtain for $26.50.
Age advice: The story is about the romance between two gay men. It contains strong langauge and children under the age of 4 are not permitted in the theatre.
The “Next Fall” Broadway reviews:
New York Times - “‘Next Fall,’ which opened Thursday night at the Helen Hayes Theater, is that genuine rara avis, a smart, sensitive and utterly contemporary New York comedy.”
Wall Street Journal - ” Alas, “Next Fall” is cliché-infested and cloyingly sentimental, and the fact that it has transferred to Broadway after a successful Off-Broadway run means only that you can fool some of the people most of the time.”
Variety - “The laughter and sobs emanating from the audience at “Next Fall” reinforce the impression of a sure-footed return to somewhat unfashionable territory. Calling it a thoughtful, funny-sad soap opera is not intended as a putdown.”
Associated Press - “‘Next Fall’ is expertly cast, enormously entertaining and even laugh-filled despite the underlying seriousness of its subject matter.”
'Behanding' Broadway review roundup: Walken kills it
Christopher Walken last night opened to great reviews in “A Behanding in Spokane,” Martin McDonagh’s new dark comedy that nonetheless divides the critics on the overall merits of the play.
Pretty much across the board they love Walken doing Walken, but McDonagh’s writing takes hits for not fully fleshing out the characters, not telling a bigger story and missing the opportunity to say more considering it’s his first play set in America. Reviews for co-stars Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, Zoe Kazan are generally good to very good. John Crowley directs.
Be warned that some of the reviews give away a little too much of the play, which is about a very determined, one-handed man who has spent his life trying to track down his missing part. The whole play is set in a seedy hotel room visited by the receptionist and a pair of pot dealers who are trying to sell a severed hand for $500.
“A Behanding in Spokane” plays through June 6 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $61.50 to $116.50. Premium seats are $176.50 and $201.50. The $26.50 rush tickets go on sale daily at the box office only.
It runs 90 minutes without intermission.
Age advice: While producers merely warn the play “may be inappropriate for 11 and under,” the Daily News notes the “un-PC humor” and the New York Times describes the oft-uttered “racial and sexual epithets, of a nature to make David Mamet flinch. …”
The Broadway reviews for “A Behanding in Spokane”:
New York Times - “The rest of the erratically enjoyable ‘Behanding’ — directed by John Crowley and featuring Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan — never matches the strange genius of its star.”
Daily News - “Walken’s performance is amazing, the stuff Tony Awards are made of.”
Variety - “Imagine the actor’s hidden-wristwatch tale from ‘Pulp Fiction’ bulked up into a freestanding narrative and you have an approximate idea of ‘A Behanding in Spokane,’ a piece of virtuoso storytelling fashioned out of a slim anecdote. There’s no broader theme, no veiled subtext and no underlying allegory. The playwright makes no pretense of doing anything beyond spinning a good yarn. Entertaining as it is, however, the black comedy remains insubstantial. “
Wall Street Journal - “I mustn’t be too specific, this being a play full of grisly surprises, but there’s one thing about which I can be absolutely precise: ‘A Behanding in Spokane’ is the funniest new play to open in New York since I started writing this column.”
New York magazine - “Only Rockwell, one of the most underrated actors around, really finds solid purchase in his character. He’s the closest thing this story has to a storyteller—more of a story-seeker, really, a Travis Bickle type congenitally estranged from humanity, waiting desperately for something exciting to happen, an opportunity to be welcomed back into mankind a hero.”
'Miracle Worker' review roundup: Breslin and Pill shine
Stars Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill elicit mostly strong reviews for their performances in “The Miracle Worker,” which opened on Broadway last night, but critics have a lot of neggatives things to say about the theater-in-the-round staging of the Helen Keller story.
Set in Alabama in the 1880s, “The Miracle Worker” tells the true story of a child who lost her sight and hearing, and turned completely unruly until a teacher from Boston taught her how to communicate. Based on Keller’s autobiography and the letters of her teacher, Annie Sullivan, William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” first played Broadway in 1959.
While the stars in this production get mostly kind reviews, the supporting cast is dinged, though more than one critic chalks that up to the writing. Kate Whoriskey’s direction does not fare well as multiple reviewers complain about poor sightlines, distracting furniture hovering above the stage and a slow-moving story. (The New York Times calles it “sadly pedestrian.”)
Breslin and Pill share the stage with Matthew Modine, Jennifer Morrison, Tobias Segal and Elizabeth Franz.
“The Miracle Worker” has an open-ended run at the Circle in the Square Theater, located at 235 W. 50th St., map. Regular tickets are priced at $117. Premium seats are $202. There is a daily lottery for $26 seats.
Post-show talkbacks with the cast are scheduled for March 9, 16, 23 and 30.
Age-appropriate advice: Children under 4 are not allowed in the theater. The play “contains no objectionable content; the content might best be understood/enjoyed by children who have started elementary school,” producers advise. The review from Variety notes the large number of well-behaved children in the audience during previews, which “indicates that the half-century-old play and Keller’s struggle still exert a hold on young imaginations.”
The “The Miracle Worker” Broadway reviews:
Variety - “Kate Whoriskey directs William Gibson’s midcentury chestnut with sensitivity, if not with any startling new insight. But the volatile battle of wills between the young Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, remains dramatically and emotionally effective, played with conviction by Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill.”
New York Times - “You are likely to feel, though, that the tears haven’t been truly earned by a production that delivers full emotional frissons only in its final, fail-safe scene. “
NY1 - “‘The Miracle Worker’ is likely emblazoned in your mind with the images of Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke slugging it out. And while it’s doubtful that Alison Pill and Abigail Breslin will erase the memory of those two Oscar-winning performances, they certainly put their own one-two punch on the roles in what I have to say is a touchingly faithful revival of the great William Gibson drama.”
Daily News - “But Broadway’s first revival of William Gibson’s 1959 biodrama seldom summons high stakes or deep feelings. It’s a respectable production, but it’s often wan. Occasionally it’s d-u-l-l.”
Opening night on Broadway tickets available to public
On occasion, even the avarage joe gets to walk the red carpet.
Opening night on Broadway performances are often for invited guests only, but now and then seats go on sale to the general public at regular prices. More than a dozen shows are scheduled to open on Broadway in the next few months, but currently only two have seats for sale:
Of course there is some risk that producers may change the date of opening night, and then you may be out of luck. To keep track of the dates, see The Broadway League’s opening night calendar and the Playbill listings.
'South Pacific' revival to close on Broadway on Aug. 22
The Tony-award winning revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” will close Aug. 22, Lincoln Center Theater announced this week.
By the time it closes, “South Pacific” will have played 37 previews and 1,000 regular performances. At the 2008 Tony Awards, “South Pacific” took home seven statues, including best revival, Paulo Szot as best leading actor in a musical, Bartlett Sher as best direction of a musical, and best costumes and scenic design.
The original stars of the musical — Szot and Kelli O’Hara — are no longer in the production. The current stars are David Pittsinger and Laura Osnes (who got her start on Broadway via the “grease” reality casting shoe show “You’re the One That I Want.”
“South Pacific” plays at Lincoln Center’s Theater-Vivian Beaumont, located at 150 W. 65th St., map. Tickets are priced from $75 to $125. Student rush tickets may be available for $20. Lincoln Center’s new David Rubenstein Atrium also offers day-of discounts to many productions.
The six-week residency will use a stage that will be “a full-scale replica of the award-winning Courtyard Theatre where the Company currently performs,” organizers announced last week.
In New York, the RSC will stage five (as yet undetermined) of the seven plays from its 2009-2010 season: “Antony and Cleopatra,” “As You Like It,” “Julius Caesar,” “King Lear,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Winter’s Tale.”
Organizers announced that first dibs on tickets will go to Executive Producers, Producers, or Supporters Circle members of Lincoln Center. “All other tickets will go on sale in the spring of 2011.”
TimeOut NY, noting ticket prices are likely to be nothing like the free Shakespeare in the Park, contacted Lincoln Center for a follow up: “A festival official says they have not set single ticket prices yet. And depending on ticket availability, they will offer student tickets, and they do plan to have an affordable ticket price. Of course, affordable is a relative term in this town.”
The Park Avenue Armory is located at 643 Park Ave., map.
He’ll share the Broadway stage with Stark Sands, Michael Esper, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Christina Sajous, Mary Faber and Tony Vincent.
Producers describe the show like this:
AMERICAN IDIOT follows the exhilarating journey of a new generation of young Americans as they struggle to find meaning in a post 9/11 world, borne along by Green Day’s electrifying score. This high-octane show includes every song from the acclaimed album American Idiot, as well as several songs from the band’s three-time GRAMMY®-nominated new release, 21st Century Breakdown
Broadway previews will begin March 24 with opening night planned for April 20.
It will play at the St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., map. Tickets, which will go on sale to the general public starting Feb. 14, are priced from $32 to $127. Premium seats, including aisle seats which must be purchased in pairs, range from $142 to $177.
The musical, which is getting a pre-Broadway run at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, has already been reviewed by the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood. His conclusion:
Mournful as it is about the prospects of 21st-century Americans, the show possesses a stimulating energy and a vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip. And to ring a variation on the Woody Allen joke about sex being dirty if you’re doing it right, the only thing sadder than wasting your youth is not wasting it.
Review roundup: praise for Linney in 'Time Stands Still'
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies’ new drama, “Time Stands Still,” last night opened on Broadway to generally strong reviews, especially for Laura Linney as the injured war photographer uncomfortably at home.
She shares the stage — and critics’ praise — with Brian d’Arcy James as her freelance reporter boyfriend ready to pack it in, as well as Eric Bogosian as her editor who is dating the younger but not-altogether clueless Alicia Silverstone. (Even Variety even refers to “Silverstone’s enormously likable performance.”)
Daniel Sullivan’s directing of the Manhattan Theatre Club production elicits wide praise from the critics as well.
But for all the great reviews, they are not unanimous. The Wall Street Journal hates it, and others short Margulies for not delving deeper to break new ground.
“Time Stands Still” plays through March 21 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $57 to $111. Student rush tickets are sold for $27 at the box office on the day of the performance.
Producers advise the show may be inappropriate for 12 and under.
The reviews for “Time Stands Still” on Broadway:
New York Times - “‘Time Stands Still,’ which opened Thursday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in a flawless Manhattan Theater Club production directed by Daniel Sullivan, is handily Mr. Margulies’s finest play since the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Dinner With Friends.’ Like that keenly observed drama about the growing pains of adulthood, the new play explores the relationship between two couples at a crucial juncture in their lives, when the desire to move forward clashes with the instinct to stay comfortably — or even uncomfortably — in place.”
Variety - “Donald Margulies’ new play is a thoughtful, absorbing work, its strengths maximized in the crystalline naturalism of Daniel Sullivan’s production and the incisive interpretations of four astute actors. Reflecting on the divergent growth paths and changing needs of long-term relationships, “Time Stands Still” tends to tack on ethical debate points that reveal as much of the playwright’s voice as those of his characters. This makes the drama somewhat amorphous and less satisfying than it could be. But there’s a ring of truth to the emotional experience being thrashed out onstage that keeps it compelling.”
Post - “Unfortunately for Linney — and the audience at ‘Time Stands Still’ — Sarah also is a holier-than-thou, joyless prig. Had she been written better, Sarah would have been an interesting challenge for the actress — and she could have handled it — but author Donald Margulies (‘Sight Unseen,’ ‘Dinner With Friends’) only looks at murky waters, afraid to dive in.”
NY1 - “For all its virtues, the play doesn’t wholly succeed. It’s a situation drama with a narrow premise that tends to contrive its conflicts and the characters don’t always seem true to nature. But given the Manhattan Theatre Club’s impeccable production, audiences will find a visit to ‘Time Stands Still’ is time well spent.”
The New York Theater Workshop did not disclose details of the project, but the NY Post reported in July that Parker, Stone and Lopez were shopping around a script for “Mormon Musical” - and they had tapped Cheyenne Jackson to star.
Today’s report in the Times says the musical will be staged in August and September.
Update: In 2001, Parker’s comedy “Cannibal! The Musical” played an extended stint Off-Off-Broadway, according to the Playbill archives. It’s scheduled to play this summer at London’s Leicester Square Theatre.
Update as of 1:15 p.m.: On Twitter, we asked New York Theatre Workshop if it is indeed the “Mormon Musical.” The reply: ” ummm…we’re not at liberty to discuss. it’s a “new musical”. how’s that? …”
'Avenue Q' and more Off-Broadway go 2-for-1 Feb. 8-28
The sale on Off-Broadway has been extended.
Currently, theater tickets for Off-Broadway can be purchased for $20 through the 20at20 program, which sells all remaining tickets for $20 starting 20 minutes before curtain. There are 25 shows to choose from, such as critical favorites “The Emperor Jones” and “Zero Hour.”
While the “On the House” program is less of a bargain, it does let you buy your tickets in advance rather than taking your last-minute chances at the box office. The 25 shows taking part in the two-for-one offer include “Avenue Q,” “Venus in Fur,” “Ages of the Moon,” “The Fantasticks,” “Mr. & Mrs. Fitch,” “Stomp” and “The Gazillion Bubble Show.”
Regular-priced tickets for the shows are generally in the $50 to $75 range. To get the two-for-one deal, see the NYC & Co. website for the promotional codes, which are often, though not always HOUSE.
Correction as of Feb. 8: When first published, the links to the 20at20 and On The House programs were transposed. They have been swapped.
