Discounted Broadway Tickets with Lucky Seat Lottery
Want to see Broadway shows, musicals, ballets or plays without breaking the bank? Lucky Seat is a free lottery system offering steeply discounted tickets as low as $15! All you need to do is be flexible and read this guide!
What Is Lucky Seat?
Lucky Seat: Where fans get lucky.
Lucky Seat is a ticket lottery system that offers deeply discounted tickets for Broadway and other live performances, including musicals, plays, and even ballets. While many people assume it's exclusive to New York City, it's actually available in multiple cities, including:
- New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco
- Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Denver, Cincinnati
- And more!
The program allows theater lovers to enter a drawing for the chance to purchase significantly reduced-price tickets, sometimes for less than 20% of the original price!
What Type of Shows Are Available?
Lucky Seat offers discounted tickets for a wide range of performances, including:
- Musicals: The Book of Mormon, The Lion King, Hamilton, Hadestown, SIX, Wicked, Moulin Rouge, Aladdin, Chicago, Dear Evan Hansen, Mamma Mia!
- Plays: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Play That Goes Wrong, A Doll's House, Leopoldstadt
- Ballets: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle
- Cirque du Soleil Shows: O, Mystère, KÀ, Michael Jackson ONE, The Beatles LOVE
- Comedy and Special Events: Stand-up performances, one-night-only events, and more!
How Does Lucky Seat Work?
The process is simple, but timing is key:
- Enter the Lottery – You can enter for free on the Lucky Seat website or their Linktree for any listed show dates. There's no limit to how many shows and showtimes you can enter, so go ahead and throw your name in for every date that works for you! Drawings remain open until the "entries close date."
- Choose Your Ticket Preferences – You'll select how many tickets you want (up to two) and whether you require accessible seating.
- Wait for the Drawing – Winners are drawn either the week before or the week of the show. If you win, you'll be notified via email. You can also check the Lucky Seat Results webpage from your account.
- Purchase Quickly – If you win, you'll have only a few hours to complete your purchase via credit card. Don't delay!
- Pick Up Your Tickets – You must collect your tickets in person at the box office with the same ID you used to enter.
How Much Do Lucky Seat Tickets Cost?
Tickets through Lucky Seat typically range from $15 to $50, including taxes and fees. Thats's a HUGE bargain considering regular prices often start at $60 and go up to $200+ for the same seats.
While seat locations are assigned randomly, they are usually good seats, often in the orchestra or mezzanine sections. In some cases, winners have even scored front-center orchestra seats! However, the exact location is unknown until you pick up your tickets.
Look at my FRONT orchestra Lion King tickets! They would have been hundreds of dollars, but Lucky Seat had them for only $30 each!
A Few Important Rules & Tips
- You can't transfer the tickets – Since you have to pick them up in person with your ID, you can't buy them and send someone else to collect them. However, you can pick them up and resell them afterward (though this is frowned upon).
- You gotta be flexible – At the end of the day, it's a lottery. If you're on a 2-day trip to NYC or it's a show on your bucket list and you MUST sit front-row, you might just want to buy your tickets outright. But if you live in a city where Lucky Seat has offerings, you don't really care where you sit, and you're flexible in what day you attend, sign up for the lottery! You have nothing to lose.
- Get to the box office early – Some venues have long pickup lines, and a slow-moving line could mean you risk missing the start of the show.
- Check the seat value after pickup – It's fun to compare! Look up your seat location on ticket resale sites afterward to see just how much you saved, often 2-3 times what you paid! Knowing how much you saved just makes the show all that much better.
Is Lucky Seat Worth It?
Absolutely! If you're flexible and you love live theater but don't want to spend a fortune, Lucky Seat is a fantastic way to see top-tier performances at a fraction of the cost. It's free to enter, and while winning isn't guaranteed, the savings make it well worth trying.
So, if you're looking for an affordable way to experience Broadway magic, enter the Lucky Seat lottery... you just might get lucky! 🎭
