Discount Broadway Ticket Vendor Comparison

A guide and review to the various sources of Discounts to Broadway Shows including NYTix TKTS, broadwaybox.com, corporateoffers.com, Plum Benefits and the Shubert Organization

New businesses and web sites keep popping all the time up that purport to offer cheap tickets to Broadway shows. The field of offerings is now so over-populated that you can find web sites run by publishing companies, advertising companies, marketing agencies, Broadway Theatre owners, human resource companies, charities and even grocery stores. Daily deal websites are also getting in the game and now offer discounts to Broadway tickets.

Some of these businesses and web sites operate in a clandestine manner (i.e. they don't make it clear who owns them and where their alliances lie). Some of the web sites are in fact run by ticket brokers and do not actually offer any discounts on the face value of the ticket. Most of the discount services below offer advance Broadway ticket sales at a discount, unless identified. This guide shows you which are the top web sites for cheap Broadway Tickets and which ones should be avoided.

Specialized Discount Broadway Ticket Web Sites

nytix.com - New York Show Tickets Inc.

This site was highly rated by the Wall Street Journal 2007 Discount Broadway Ticket article see article
Offers 1-Month access subscription that does not auto-renew
Covers Broadway discount codes and 13 other methods of getting discounts to Broadway shows
Your email address is not sold or spammed, only occasional emails of your indicated interest are sent.
Click Here For the current Discount Broadway Ticket Offers
Cost $4.95 for 30 days access

broadwaybox.com

Created by the Geislers in 1999 and then sold to Key Brand Entertainment in 2012 for $2.7 Million
broadwaybox has limited offers, you get what you pay for and this site claims it is free.
Low rating by the Wall Street Journal Feb. 2007 see article
Not focused on Broadway Shows in New York City
Your email inbox can be inundated with bargain and cheap offers - Many of them irrelevant or inappropriate.
broadwaybox.com email is often marked as spam by yahoo, gmail and hotmail
Pretends to be a "Free" site, but charges the Broadway shows high fees thus makes the Broadway tickets cost more overall
Cost to user: Free

entertainment-link.com

entertainment-link.com was established in 1998 by Tim Hawkins. It was out of business in 2017
Limited Broadway offers and discounts
Discounts are not clear - confused by the savings amount and high subscription cost
Cost: $39.00 - Minimum 6-Month subscription

hitshowclub.com

Established in the 1960's by Jeffrey Milne who sold the business to Stan Silver in 1980. The company was finally owned by Eric Rock in 1995 who ran it into the ground by 2001.
These discount Broadway coupons were originally found in dry cleaners, shoe shine stands and shoe repair stores all around NYC
The Hit Show Club focused on restaurant and Broadway ticket packages. The service provided AAA members with discounts. Not the best Broadway ticket deals and limited availability. Appears to be defunct, but occasionally showed some signs of life in 2005 when Eric Rock gets a sudden burst of energy.
The cost for this service was FREE

theatermania.com

Not snobby enough to spell "theatre" the correct way, theatermania.com provides discounts to Broadway shows for productions in the next 45 days.
The offers can be hit or miss, but the discount ticket service is reliable.
Cost Free

playbill.com

Lame Broadway offers brought to you by the same people who got rich from printing the show guides that destroy 5000 Brazilian rainforest tress every year
Cost Free

Non-Web Based Discount Tickets

tdf.org (Theatre Development Fund)

You must stand outside in line for a couple of hours, at the mercy of the New York weather.
You may also be pestered by a multitude of street salesman hawking everything from Bus Tours to fake handbags.
TDF also offers a ticket papering service for $27.50 a year, but each ticket will still cost $30.
The choice and window of opportunity is quite narrow.
There is a shorter window for plays

Corporate Benefit/Perk Web Sites

CorporateOffers.com

An online marketing company that promotes entertainment events and shows to an untapped corporate audience.
This is the best corporate benefit web site around with a huge list of Broadway show discounts as well as travel, flowers and entertainment discounts
The caveat is that you must work for a Fortune 500 company or large institution and be able to access the internet from your organizations infrastructure,
but you you don't have you circumnavigate your own HR department, as no account with them is necessary to get access to the discounts.
This weeks featured offers are at: CORPORATEOFFERS.COM/OFFERS.PHP
Many more Broadway show discount tickets are available on the sub page that is linked from that main offer page.
Cost Free

Entertainment Benefits Group (EBG)

An online marketing company that promotes entertainment events to a largely untapped corporate employee audience.
The google search engine has long been scammed by EBG that pretends that each of its various companies all have unique content, when in fact they are just different brands using the same back-end product list.
Plum Benefits used to be a subsidiary of Broadway Inbound, a division of The Shubert Organization, but Shubert ran it poorly, so they sold the division to EBG for cash and stock.
You must work for a Fortune 500 company and your HR department must have an account with them.
Their Broadway offers can be limited with short availability dates and small windows of opportunity to buy tickets.
Offers change once-a-month and some offers are for shows that have already closed.
This company is not focused on New York City or Broadway Tickets and charges the Broadway producers a steep fee to be featured in their guide, thus making the offers less compelling.
Cost Free

goldstar.com

Helmed by Jim McCarthy, this free corporate service is a little more informal than most, but has poor Broadway theatre offers.
They insist on selling the tickets themselves for the shows rather than promoting the Broadway shows and this is their biggest hurdle to success in the corporate employee marketplace.
Goldstar boasts having over 6 million corporate employees using the service, but that number has not been audited by Price Waterhouse.
Cost Free

Broadway Show Web Sites Offering Discounts As A Sideline Business

Playbill.com

This website offers excellent Broadway show coverage, but less discounts to Broadway shows than other sites. When they do offer discounts to Broadway shows, the discounts are comparable with others.
Once you sign up, significant amounts of offer emails are sent to you, not necessarily in the relevant subject areas.
Cost: Free

theatermania.com

Limited discount offers
Not focused on New York City or Broadway
Offers a gold service @ $99 a year for a Broadway papering service

Advertising and Marketing Companies

seasonofsavings.com

Operated by Serino Coyne Inc.(Broadway show advertising and marketing agency) on behalf of The Broadway League
Limited discount offers
Only operates at certain times of the year, when Broadway audiences are thin
Cost Free

absolutebroadway.com

Operated by Situation Marketing, an interactive and general marketing company
Basic email gathering site. No details on quality of offers
Cost: Free

broadwayinsider.com

Operated by Hugh Hysell at HHC Marketing Inc - a New York based marketing company
Limited ticket options
Cost: Free

onstagesavings.com

Operated by About.com
They fail to disclose their conflict of interest when they recommend their own service in their articles.
Weak offers and limited offer choice
Cost: Free

Broadway Theatre Owners

givenik.com

Operated by Jujamcyn Theaters, which owns five Broadway theatres
Weak Broadway Tickets offers
Limited offer choice
Gives a percentage back to non-profit organizations
Cost: Free

audiencerewards.com

Operated by Nederlander Theaters under the guise of "Broadway Fan Club"
Weak Broadway Tickets offers
Limited offer choice and poor windows of opportunity
Can earn points by buying Broadway tickets through their web site.
Points can be redeemed for Broadway shows and paraphernalia - much like American Express membership rewards
Cost: Free

hiptix.com

Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, focused towards the 35 and under crowd
Offers limited to one Broadway Theatre

lct.org/studentix/

Operated by the Lincoln Center
Offers discount student tickets
Weak Broadway Tickets offers
Limited offer choice
Gives a percentage back to non-profit organizations
$4.00 per ticket fee

TDF

The TDF ticket stand in Times Square only offers "Day of Performance" discount tickets, not advance sales like the above web sites.
The advantage they have is that blackout dates don't apply.
Operates the Times Square Half Price Ticket Booth located in Times Square

Papering Services - Broadway Seat Fillers

audienceextras.com

Broadway ticket papering service
fills up empty theatre seats to keep dying shows alive or drum up support/press for a new show that does not yet have a following.
Minimum 1 Year subscription
Limited Offers
Free tickets to some less popular shows (Must pay $4 handling charge per ticket)

play-by-play.com

$99.00 +$16 processing fee
Seen as the best Broadway seat-filler service due to its strict rules
Play By Play (PBP) is another Broadway ticket papering service that fills up empty theatre seats to keep dying Broadway shows alive or to drum up support/press for shows that are new on the block.
One of the rules is that cancellations and lateness are subject to a $10 fine and no-shows are subject to a $20 fine.
They also have a strict dress code of at least smart casual or dressy.
Members that do not appear in appropriate clothes are kicked out of the club.
The minimum subscription is one year and there are often limited offers around the holidays.
There is a handling charge per ticket of $4.50

theaterextras.com

Broadway ticket papering service
Fills up empty theatres to keep dying shows alive or drum up support/press
Minimum 1 Year subscription. Limited Offers
Fines you $20 if you don't turn up when you say you will
Cost: $99.00 per year

TheaterClub.com Theatermania presents Gold Club

A side business to the main Theatremania service, the Gold Club provides a maximum of two free tickets per month to fill seats of Broadway shows that desperately need an audience.
There is a $4.50 service charge per seat-filler ticket, so it is not quite free, but is still a great deal.
The ticket choices are often very limited and the ticket inventory sells out quickly, making it frustrating for members.
Cost $99 per year and $4.50 service charge per seat-filler ticket

School Discount Programs

schooltix.com

Operated by David Risley. School Theatre ticket program that features a few discount codes for Broadway shows. Limited Offers, poor availability
Cost: Free