How I Discovered Broadway Rush Tickets and Where They’ve Been All My Life

Recently, on a trip to New York, my friend Matt introduced me to a great system for getting inexpensive Broadway tickets on the day of the show. The RUSH system.

All I can say is where has this been all my life?

We used the system to get tickets to the most recent revival of Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman starring Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and Jack Falahee (of How To Get Away With Murder fame). The show was aboslutely brilliant. About ¾ of the way through the show I burst into tears and didn’t stop until the show was over. I couldn’t even speak about the show for a while after because I could just feel the need to burst into tears coming on again.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this post. I wanted to provide as much information as I know about the RUSH ticketing system. My sweet friend Majida (wrangler of these eyebrows of mine) is going to New York with her best friend in a few weeks and I want to arm them with as much of my favorite things to do in the city as I can.

Seeing a Broadway show doesn’t have to come with a Broadway-sized price tag. For decades, theater fans willing to put in a little extra effort have been able to score some of the best ticket deals in New York.

From what I understand, the Broadway rush tradition really took off with Rent. At the height of its popularity, the show reserved the first two rows of the orchestra for $20 same-day tickets, giving fans willing to get to the box office early a chance to see one of Broadway’s hottest shows from some pretty incredible seats.

That spirit is still very much alive today. Many Broadway shows offer same-day rush tickets, standing-room tickets and other discounted options for those willing to put in a little effort. And I am absolutely one of those people. I’ll happily get up early, grab a coffee and spend some time in a theater line if there’s a chance I can score a great seat for a fraction of the regular price.

Thankfully, you don’t always have to sacrifice your morning anymore. Many shows now offer digital lotteries, so you can enter online and hope your name gets picked.

Some shows are in-person only, like Death Of A Salesman was. You can find out all the details about the current Rush policies in this handy article from Playbill.com.