NYT: Mamdani to Give Free Broadway Tickets to High Schoolers
Posted: 8/13/26 at 1:55pm
It would be nice to see this happen every year.
I lived just outside of Philadelphia as a kid. When we got to 10th grade we had access to free tickets to shows in the city. I got to see Carol Channing in "The Bed Before Yesterday", James Earl Jones in "Robeson" and "Platinum" with Alexis Smith, Lisa Mordente and Damita Jo Freeman twice. The second time was opening night where I met Chita Rivera.
For a kid who was in the choir and did school plays it was great. I was old enough to go into town on my own. We were allowed 2 tickets so a friend went with me to one of the shows. It's a perfect program for kids interested in the arts but may not be able to afford to buy tickets for shows.
Posted: 8/13/26 at 2:33pm
I applaud this effort by TDF, the Mayor's office, and the shows, and I am very pro-Mamdani, but 2,100 tickets donated by 7 shows is close to nothing -- about 300 tix per show, or about 3% of an average show's weekly availability.
There are 1.1 million DOE students in the city.
If the Broadway League mandated that in order to be eligible for the Tony Awards every show had to give away 300 free tickets each week for public school students, in perpetuity, that would let every DOE student see at least one Broadway show every other year (6 shows before they graduate high school). And the future of the arts in this city would be much brighter. And the vast majority of shows have 300 seats per week to spare.
Updated On: 8/13/26 at 02:33 PM
