Buying tickets from Broadway.com

A friend (who doesn't have that much experience buying theater tickets, apparently) just e-mailed me that she bought two tickets to Gentleman's Guide and it cost her almost $400. The tickets were $137 each, but they tacked on "service charges" of $47.95 per ticket, plus $30 for "insurance." I had never heard of getting tickets from this site before but this seems outrageous. I hated to tell her that there are discounts available for GG on Broadwaybox.com.

For the future I told her to go directly to either Broadwaybox, or if no discounts are available, to the show's Web site. She said she tried that but that she got a message that her "browser wasn't supported" and she somehow wound up at Broadway.com. Yikes. Of course, also, she lives in NYC and could go directly to the box office too, although she lives/works in Brooklyn so it is a bit of a schlep.

I worry that people like her, and tourists, get trapped like this because everyone knows that Broadway tickets are expensive, so they think even fees this outrageous are "normal."

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Your friend doesn't seem to be computer savvy either. Just always tell her to go to the show's website or theatermania.com, which always lets you know if there's a discount for every show (broadwayoffers.com). Or, she can get to the box office, and save a lot of money.

Updated On: 5/28/14 at 01:11 PM

A GG code through July 6 just got released today.

Where did you find the code good through July 6?

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"Where did you find the code good through July 6?"

Theatermania e-mail.

GUTMC528

There is no excuse for someone who lives in NYC to not go to the box office for tickets. A quick subway ride will save you $$$. I live in NYC outside of Manhattan and always buy my tickets at the BO. If you print a copy of the discount code the BO will honor it.

On what site are fees only $10....Most I've seen are at least $17-20 and that's for one ticket....buying two, we're talking about a nice lunch.

I have a friend here from out of town, so I have been buying him a lot of tickets this week, and it looks like I did forget to factor in the extra order processing/handling that they add on after they break down the other fees, but the other fees are all under $10.

This week's breakdown:
For Cabaret, they only accepted Will Call for the seat and charged $6 over the ticket cost.
For If Then, I got a $97 ticket, with $9.50 service charge and $3.20 order processing for a total of $109.70.
For Beautiful, I got a $159 ticket with $9.50 Service Charge and $2.75 Handling for a total of $171.25
For Hedwig, I got a $152 ticket, and the total charge was $163.25 (can't find the fee breakdown)

So, removing Cabaret, that averages out to $12.07 in fees. So, for a single ticket, I'd still not waste the time to save $7.07.

If I was buying two tickets, though, then it becomes more compelling...