Any visit to New York City usually has to include a show on the greatest stage in the world Broadway. Tickets to shows on Broadway are usually quite expensive and can cost more than $100 per head for popular shows like 'Wicked' and 'The Jersey Boys' .Theater tickets  coupled with a usually expensive room rate can thus significantly add to your 'Visit New York City'  budget.

However there are ways and means to get these tickets on the cheap. Most tourists know about the TKTS booths located at  Times Square and South Street Seaport which sell discounted tickets for that same day's performance and usually have long lines of tourists  in front of them. If you don’t want to spend most of your visit to New York City waiting in line for tickets you could perhaps try some of these methods to acquire your  ticket to Broadway show at an even bigger discount than what is offered at the TKTs booth.

Rush Tickets

Rush tickets are usually sold to students for same day performances and become available when the box office opens. The box office is usually open from 10 am onwards from Monday to Saturday and from 12pm onwards on Sundays. Rush tickets are generally range from $20 to $25 and each student is entitled to a maximum of two tickets. The box office usually sells rush tickets only on a cash basis and the seats vary in location. Some of these seats may even have obstructed views.  You can get more information about rush tickets by calling the box office directly visiting the website Talking Broadway  which has a listing of Rush and Standing Room seats.

Standing Room Tickets

A Standing Room ticket entitles you to watch the show while you stand behind the last row behind the orchestra seats. Standing Room tickets are sold for popular always sold-out shows like Jersey Boys and The Lion King.  These tickets are also sold at the box office for the same day's performance.  A downside of these tickets is that they require you to be on your feet for two to three hours continuously but at the same time you do get the chance to watch a hugely popular show for a deep discounted price of only $20-$27.  Standing Room tickets are limited to two a person.

Lotteries

A Broadway Lottery is a fantastic way to score a premium ticket on the cheap. These lotteries are conducted on the day of the performance under the marquee of the participating show and allow people to enter their names for a drawing which enables them to sometimes score two first or second row seats for $20 to $25 per ticket. Each person is allowed to enter their name only once in the lottery. Your odds of scoring a lottery ticket are usually better on a weekday than the weekend when many more people take part in the lottery. These Broadway lotteries also accept only cash payments.

Discount websites

There are many websites like Broadwaybox, Playbill and Theatermania that offer discount codes to help you purchase tickets to Broadway and off Broadway shows online .The discounts vary with the various promotions and change often. Similarly certain productions conduct auctions which enable you to bid for premium tickets. Another tip worth remembering while booking tickets online is that seats in the last row of the mezzanine or seats with a partial view are sometimes available for $20-$30 depending on the popularity of the production and moreover these tickets can be purchased online before your arrival in New York City.

Onstage Seating

Some popular productions like Xanadu and Spring Awakening offer theater goers to get up close and personal with the actors by offering onstage seating that afford side or rear views of the stage. These onstage seating tickets are priced at around $40 for Spring Awakening while normal tickets are available for $70 per head.  . These onstage seating tickets are available at the box office of the production or online through Telecharge.   

 Images of Broadway originally posted on http://www.flickr.com by wallyg,springsun and DCMatt.