Broadway Lotteries

Hi all,

Again, with my newbie questions. Coming into the city in two weeks. Gonna enter in as many lotteries as possible for Sunday matinee. I know it varies by show, but what are the odds you actually win? How often doest that happen? Can someone help my unknowledgeable self? Thanks!

On line lotteries are beyond difficult to win, in person lotteries are just difficult

I know that the Cats, War Paint and Groundhog Day digital lotteries are usually easier to win, and tbh the wicked and BoM in-person lotteries are quite easy to win (I went to the wicked one 2 times and won both, I went to the BoM one twice and won one) the thing is you can't enter both for the same day since they're hosted at the same time so you'll have to choose.

Hi there!

From my experience, online lotteries are quite difficult to win, since so many people enter each time. That being said, there are lotteries that are on the easier side, such as Groundhog Day and War Paint.

As others have said, you can definitely enter a bunch of different digital lotteries and see what happens, but then also partake in in-person lotteries (like Wicked and Book of Mormon). Your chances for those are better than they are for the digital lotteries.

If all else fails, you can definitely try rushing shows on Sunday! Most digital lotteries let you know if you won by around 9:00 AM, so if you find that you lost all of them, you can head to a box office and try rushing! There are quite a few easy rushes right now, like Bronx Tale, Indecent, and Play That Goes Wrong.

You'll definitely be able to see a show that day, either by lottery or by rush. If you want, there are also some shows that have Sunday evening showtimes!

Hope this helps, and hope you enjoy your trip!

Updated On: 7/23/17 at 06:01 PM

Enter as many of the Broadway Direct lotteries as you can for the same performance time. You can only win for one show and I've found (albeit a sample size of two) when you enter for multiple shows you have a better chance of winning. Entered for Cats and Hamilton evening performance and won for Cats (Cats had a earlier drawing). Entered for Hamilton and Wicked matinee performance and won Hamilton (Hamilton had the earlier drawing).

You can't win if you don't enter so enter everything you want to see and hope for the best. You'll be surprised.