Yesterday was our annual bus trip to New York City. Being the last minute person that I am, I jumped on the bus with absolutely no plans for my day in the city. I was, however, motivated to see a musical I had been dying to see: Dear Evan Hansen.

Broadway tickets can cost you an arm and a leg and possibly a second mortgage, but I am here to save the day! There is a way to save A LOT of money when you want to see a show.

The first is to see if the show has rush tickets. Rush tickets are usually released the day before the performance or morning of. These are available because the show has not been sold out and the theater needs to be filled. You can grab these tickets for as low as $30 sometimes.

The next is to download some of these phone apps: TodayTix, Headout, or Seat Geek. TodayTix offers crazy discounts on Broadway shows up to a month in advance, but you cannot see where you sitting. Sometimes they do offer to show you your seats if you get lucky. Headout offers the same discounts as TodayTix. Seat Geek is similar to StubHub, but searches all the major ticket exchange sites to find you the best deal.

I arrived in NYC and walked off the bus determined to see Dear Evan Hansen, the hottest show on Broadway. The night before our trip I went online and entered their digital tickets lottery. The lottery occurs before every performance and releases standing room only and seats that have not been sold. Some shows do an in-person lottery, but in this case, everything was online. I unfortunately did not win tickets. I was still determined.

I walked to the theater around 11:30 as the box office opened at noon. I was sixth in line and had a price in my head I knew I would spend to see this show. Now here is where it gets interesting. A woman in front of me said they have standing room only tickets. This is where you stand in the back and get to lean on a ledge for the show and at intermission fill in any empty seats.

When I approached the ticket window I asked if there were any of these “seats” left. There was, and boy was I happy. I paid $42 to stand 15 rows back in a small theater to see a show that won a crazy amount of Tony Awards. I decided to look up what the person sitting in front of me paid online. They spent around $400 for their seats!

In conclusion….NEVER PAY FULL PRICE!

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