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Downtown TKTS booth is at South Street Seaport
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The show must go on -- and indeed it will, now that a settlement has been reached to end the recent short-lived strike by Broadway musicians. But now that theaters have raised their curtains again, how will you make up for the lost time? Consider visiting the TKTS booth at South Street Seaport, where the lines are short, the prices are right and tickets are available for many of the hottest shows in town.
TKTS, established by the Theater Development Fund in 1973, sells last-minute tickets to Broadway plays at 25 to 50 percent less than box offices prices. Though better known for its midtown booth at 47th and Broadway, TKTS has long had a home in Lower Manhattan, too. The original downtown booth, located in 2 World Trade Center, was destroyed on 9/11. In August 2002, after operating from a temporary trailer at Bowling Green Park Plaza for almost a year, TKTS found a new, permanent downtown home, at the corner of John and Front Streets in the South Street Seaport.
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| Tickets to many shows are available |
"We never considered not reopening downtown," says Victoria Bailey, Theater Development Fund executive director. "We view ourselves as part of the Lower Manhattan community."
For people who work and live downtown, the South Street Seaport booth makes getting to the theater a snap. "You can get tickets at lunch and get on the subway after work," says Bailey. "In reality, it's much more convenient than buying them from our midtown location."
The downtown booth also sells matinee tickets a day in advance, unlike the midtown booth, where all tickets sold are for same-day performances. "That's great for people who want to have a little more certainty about what they're doing," says Bailey, who finds families, in particular, to favor this option. And the downtown booth opens at 11 a.m., four hours earlier than the midtown location, again providing for greater advance planning.
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| Jim Divone mans the booth |
The Seaport booth has one other main advantage. "The lines here are shorter, without a doubt," says ticket booth employee Jim Divone. With eight years of ticket sales under his belt, Divone has seen it all -- at each of the TKTS locations. The long, snaking lines that are part of the ticket-buying experience in midtown are nowhere to be found downtown, he says.
While part of that is due to the weather -- snowy, blustery days in early March typically draw smaller crowds -- part is that people simply don't know where to go. "They know we're down here somewhere, but they just haven't found us yet," says Divone. "When they do, they're always happy."
The Theatre Development Fund has plans for greater outreach in the coming months. "We are letting offices know that we're there, working with community organizations and reaching out to local newspapers," says Bailey.
As more people discover TKTS in its new downtown home, those lines may grow. Even so, the deal on tickets will remain hard to beat.
The TKTS ticket booth at the corner of John and Front Streets is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Tickets for evening performances must be purchased the day of the show. Tickets for Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee performances must be purchased one day in advance. Electronic signs in front of the booth display the tickets available for purchase that day. TKTS accepts only cash or traveler's cheques. Tickets are sold for 25-50 percent off the box office price plus a $3 service charge per ticket. For more information about TKTS, or for a list of shows for which tickets were sold in the past week, visit the Theatre Development Fund website.
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