How to get sweet deals on pricey high culture
COST of an orchestra seat on Broadway these days? $110 (and we’re not talking premium seats). Great seats at the Met? $320. Entry to MoMA? $20.
Getting in anywhere for a lot less? Priceless – especially when you’re still paying off bills from the holidays.
Happily, there are all kinds of discounts and secret subsidies out there that let you enjoy virtually all the cultural riches New York offers without emptying your wallet. Here’s where the buys are.
THEATER
Of course you know about the TKTS booth in Times Square, where you can snag same-day tickets for a show – and the occasional dance, concert or opera – for up to 50 percent off. But what if you want to see a play and don’t want to wait on a long line?
Go directly to Window No. 6 – the only part of the TKTS booth that sells tickets for plays and only plays (let the tourists wait for musicals like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Phantom”).
Meanwhile, down at that other TKTS outpost at South Street Seaport, you can pick up tickets for Saturday matinees on Friday and for Sunday matinees on Saturday (a little-known perk).
Better still, if you’re a student, teacher, senior, union member, civil servant, staff member of a nonprofit, or a performing arts professional – welcome, all you singing waiters – skip the booths altogether and join the Theater Development Fund (TDF). For a $25 annual fee, you’ll get up to 75 percent off Broadway and off-Broadway shows – at least before they open to rave reviews. (Two words – “Jersey Boys” – once went for $32 a ticket; ditto “Sweeney Todd.”) To join, visit tdf.org/application.
If you can’t or don’t want to commit, search broadwaybox.com for cheap tickets (and the occasional 5 percent off premium seats) to dozens of shows, via theater discount coupon codes. Sign up, and you can get a monthly newsletter and e-mail alerts for the latest bargains.
Pssst: Want to know what a show’s like before it opens? Check the buzz on allthatchat.com and hear what the theater fanatics are saying.
OPERA
Culture doesn’t get much higher than opera – and neither do ticket prices. A top orchestra seat at the Met goes for a cool $320. Don’t be put off. There’s a program called “Meet Me at the Met.” Yes, it’s for singles, divided into under-40 and over-40 groups. (Hey, you don’t have to actually be single to partake.)
For $95, you’ll get a ticket, precurtain cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, and a private champagne toast on the Grand Tier during intermission. Over-40s can catch Placido in “Samson et Dalila” on Wednesday, while the youngsters will have to wait till April to see “La Traviata.” For tickets, call (212) 362-6000 or visit metopera.org.
The Met’s less intimidating cousin, New York City Opera, is still no bargain at $110 a pop for orchestra seats. But it sure is at $16. That’s right: The company sets aside a certain number of orchestra seats and charges just $16.
Naturally, these tickets tend to go fast online (nycopera.com), but call the box office at (212) 870-5570 to find out when they’re next available.
In addition to these super-cheap seats, City Opera offers what it calls a Big Deal. For a $50 enrollment fee, people ages 21 to 35 can buy tickets to any and all of the company’s 16 operas for $30 – and they’re nearly always seated in the orchestra.
MUSIC
How do you get to Carnegie Hall without paying full freight? Practice will take you only so far – but if you’re between 21 and 35, you could join Club 57 and 7th, which gets you three concerts for as little as $65, total.
Quietly last September, the august hall (at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, in case you wondered about the club name) decided to lure young blood – or what its executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson, defines as “young professionals” who are probably paying off student loans, assuming mortgages and building a family.
And it’s not all Mozart, mates. One recent package included Youssou N’Dour, the Vienna Philharmonic and Alarm Will Sound, performing Frank Zappa’s “Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat.”
For more info, visit carnegiehall.org or call (212) 247-7800.
JAZZ
Sad to say, even if something starts out as pop culture, by the time it gets to Lincoln Center it’s popped. Jazz at Lincoln Center events can set you back $135 apiece.
But they don’t have to. Dizzy’s Club, an on-site bar and restaurant, has nightly jazz sets. While these require a $30 cover, if you can stay up late you can catch the acts for an After Hours set for just $10. On Monday nights, the Upstarts! Series lets you tune in to up-and-comers for $15. For reservations, call (212) 258-9595 or visit opentable.com.
You can even get a deal on the big shows in the Rose Theater and Allen Room – provided you get your act together. Groups of 10 or more get 15 percent off. You can scare up nine jazzbos, can’t you? Visit jalc.org for schedule and tickets.
ART
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is yours to enter for $15 ($10 for seniors, $7 for students), but these are recommended prices: Conceivably, you could pay whatever you wish (but could you live with yourself in the morning?).
The Museum of Modern Art isn’t recommending anything – it’s $20 to get in if you’re an adult ($12 if you’re a student with ID). But every Friday night from 4 to 8 p.m. you can enter for free – thanks to Target.
And you thought Munch’s “The Scream” was a steal.
Actually, your free admission also includes whatever films the museum is showing that night, any special exhibits (including the Edvard Munch retrospective, opening tomorrow) and audioguides (thank you, Mr. Bloomberg).
Not surprisingly, Fridays tend to get a little crowded.
“It’s probably not the optimal viewing time for the works,” concedes Lynn Parish, MoMA’s assistant director of visitor services. “We have people who line up as early as 3 to get in.”
Try the line at 6 or so, Parish says, and the crowds will have thinned. The last tickets are handed out at 7:30; if you want to whip in and out of there, that’s not a bad time to go.
Located in the mansion of its namesake benefactor, the Frick Collection is often overshadowed by its splashier Upper East Side neighbors, the Metropolitan and the Guggenheim. Even when it houses no special exhibits, the paintings, sculpture, furniture and even the building itself (at the corner of 70th Street and Madison Avenue) are reason enough to visit.
Don’t be intimidated by the $15 gate. On Sundays between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., admission switches to a pay-what-you-will policy.