Box Five: An Introvert at the Theatre: How to: your complete guide to scoring Broadway rush tickets

Holds record for show Erin has rushed the most times

Broadway rush tickets are quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to poor, starving students and artists trying to live their dreams in New York City.

Most Broadway shows offer discounted tickets to people who show up at the box office early on the day of the performance. These tickets generally range from $29 to $49 in price, though there are always outliers. (Dear Evan Hansen is $69).

That may still seem pricey, but for a Broadway ticket, it's dang good. Especially since these are often prime seats that simply haven't sold yet.

So what's the catch?

There is one, and it's this: you have to wake up early.

Most starving artists are probably not fans of waking up early. I'm not. But Broadway is worth it.

How early do you have to wake up?

It depends.

If you can, it's best to go in the middle of the week, especially on days when there's a double performance (thereby doubling your chances of obtaining rush tickets). It's worth checking out the show's calendar on their site to see which days have both matinee and evening performances. Usually, it's Wednesday.

This is where students, freelancers, and part-timers have an advantage: you can go on a weekday morning when most people are at work. If you go on a Saturday or Sunday, you can still get tickets, but you'll want to plan on getting there even earlier than you would on a weekday.

On weekdays, most Broadway box offices open at 10 AM. If you want to be safe, I'd suggest arriving before 6 AM. I've done that before and been fifth in line or less. The people who end up being first usually get there around 4:30 AM. Yikes.

After 7 or 8 AM, the lines start getting pretty long.

But the thing about Broadway rush lines is, they vary

A really popular show like Hadestown or Dear Evan Hansen might be all but impossible to get rush tickets for unless you camp out the night before, while a show that's under the radar, or has been running for forever, might be easy to get rush tickets to even if you show up at 8 AM.

(I once walked up to the box office for Miss Saigon a few hours before the performance and bought a $49 rush ticket in the center orchestra.)

This is why I swear by the BroadwayWorld.com message boards when it comes to formulating your rush ticket battle strategy. Usually I just google what I'm looking for, like "Dear Evan Hansen rush tickets" for example, and click on the result that comes from the BroadwayWorld.com Message Board. But you could also search within the message boards themselves.

screenshot of To Kill A Mockingbird Rush message board

BroadwayWorld message boards are where it's at

These message boards are where good, angelic souls tell exactly what day and time they got in line and whether or not they got a rush ticket. Make sure you find the most recent messages, because rush lines can fluctuate over time.

Dear Evan Hansen started out as a show you could get rush tickets for pretty reasonably, then it became something you had to camp out for, and I'm guessing now that the show has been running for a while and Ben Platt has left, the lines have died down--at least somewhat.

That's another thing to consider: if there's a big name actor or actress in a show, it's probably going to be harder to get rush tickets (meaning, you'll have to wake up earlier). I shudder to think what the rush line is like for Betrayal starring Tom Hiddleston.

You get 2 tickets per person (usually)

99% of shows will let you get 2 rush tickets per person. (Hadestown is the exception.) This means you can endear yourself forever to your friend by waking up at 4 AM and getting them a rush ticket.

Or you can really impress someone. Like if someone got up at 4 AM to get me rush tickets to Hamilton, I'd know they loved me.

Incidentally, you'd probably have to get up at 1 AM the day before to score Hamilton rush tickets, but the point is irrelevant because there are no Hamilton rush tickets. And that brings up another point.

Not every show offers rush tickets, but some offer other options

You can usually find out on a show's website whether they give out rush tickets or not, and you can also find out where the box office is located (usually it's inside the theatre where the show is playing).

You can also check out the second most invaluable webpage ever created: this Playbill page that lists all the latest rush policies for every single Broadway show.

You'll notice that a lot of shows offer other ticket options as well as/instead of rush tickets.

Many shows offer standing room only (SRO) tickets. If a show is sold out and has no more seats to sell, they'll sell standing these tickets, and yes, if you buy them, you'll be standing the whole time. But if you're a short person like me, this is actually about the best thing that could happen to you. I've done two SRO shows, and for the first time in my life, I could see over everyone's heads!

Then again, there are certain shows like Phantom of the Opera where you don't want to do standing room because you won't be able to see the whole stage from where you're standing. Again, refer to the BroadwayWorld message boards for this information.

A lot of shows also do digital lotteries, but that's a topic for another post. In a nutshell, you enter online ahead of time and then find out the day of if you've won cheap tickets or not.

While we're on the subject of cheap tickets, the first most invaluable webpage ever created is Broadway for Broke People, which lists every Broadway show and its cheap ticket options.

One more thing.

Here's how to survive the rush line

Once you get past the hurdles of waking up early, navigating the subway system while half your brain is still asleep, and recovering from the shock you feel at seeing an empty Times Square (pro-tourist tip: no one visits Times Square between 4 and 5 AM), you've still got to wait for about 4 to 5 hours for that box office to open. So come prepared.

Bring something to sit on. A chair is ideal, but if you don't have that, bring a blanket, a towel, a yoga mat, anything. Otherwise you'll spend hours suffering leg and back cramps while you resist the urge to sit down on the dirty New York sidewalk.

Bring snacks and drinks. You're going to get thirsty. And hungry.

Bring something to do. Because you'll be sitting there for a looooong time.

Bring a phone charger if you have one. My battery tends to die after several hours.

Bring a sweater. You may not know this, but it's cold at 5 AM.

All this may sound like a lot of trouble, pain, and agony, but when you're sitting in your $30 or so orchestra seat, watching the curtain rise and the lights come on as the music starts up--you'll be glad you took the trouble.