Random and Spontaneous Trips to NYC

For those of you who have a bit of a commute into the city and get there by train or bus, did you ever randomly wake up and decide, "I feel like seeing a show today; I think I'll go into the city." Or for those who live in the city did you ever randomly see a show last minute?

One Sunday I woke up around 7 am-ish. I decided that I had nothing to do that day so I randomly took the train for 1.5 hrs into the city and ran all around trying to find rush; in the end I got Spamalot. Gotta love those random trips into the city. <3

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I've never woke up and just gone to NYC to a show, for fear that I wouldn't be able to get tickets to a show. But within the past two months, I've just randomly decided to hop on the Telecharge site and buy tickets in advance for shows. (I've spent WAY too much money with doing this...the convenience is too much for me to handle!)

I've recently discovered "cheap seats". You have to be careful about the theater - have a seating chart on hand. But when you go to Telecharge or Ticketmaster, you can often just pull down the ticket price availability bar and lo and behold - there are $25 seats to top shows. These are usually the last few rows - so beware. Some shows it matters - others it doesn't. I just bought seats for Thanksgiving weekend for Drowsy Chaperone - $25 each. Granted, my family is splitting up, not all sitting together - but who cares! Personally, I like to have a ticket in hand when going to NY vs. gambling for rush or lottery and I hate waiting in TKTS lines.

I'll post after we return to let you know if these tickets were worth it!

When I lived in the suburbs, I often planned ahead, but there were plenty of times I woke up one morning, realized I've been doing nothing the whole week and just decided to go see something. I agree, those are fun!

Oddly, I don't think I've actually done the spontaneous thing living here yet, though I am discovering the joy of being able to try lotto day after day until I finally win.

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I live in NYC, so I have it easier than some of you, it sounds like. Sometimes if I find myself with nothing to do, I'll head on over to Times Square and see what tickets I can scrounge-up. Or I'll wake up one morning and decide 'I feel like seeing something tonight!' - I did that last weekend and somehow managed to get a last-minute center mezzanine seat to see Mary Poppins last Saturday night!

I just wish it would be easier for other people who might not be able to afford that. Not that I can, necessarily, but it's hard for me to justify spending $110 on a ticket, unless I've been saving up for it (like I saved to go see A Chorus Line on opening night).

How does Lotto work? You sign your name up, and if it's called you get tickets?? Are they extremely low price or something?

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It's usually not too hard to find tickets to something, as long as your not picky and it's not a saturday night. Between rush, lottos, and standing room there are cheap tickets to be had for broadway shows.

I've lived in New York for less than a year and I've already seen about a dozen broadway (and numerous off and off off broadway) show s for around 25 bucks. To quote Martha Stewart, "It's a good thing."

Oh, we totally could have gotten tickets if we really wanted to. But we're picky, and it was really just a way to kill a couple hours.

I saw plenty of shows in those four years, mostly with cheap student discounts or other deals. I just mean we never ended up seeing anything when we went out spontaneously.

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Yeah, I usually plan about a week in advance. Like, "Hmm. I want to see this show. I have next Tuesday free! Okay, Tuesday it is!" and then I'll go.

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If you read the thread at all, we were talking about finding last-minute rush tickets. $25 is hardly a lot of money to "throw away" on a show. Student offers are there for a reason: students don't have money.

Please read thoroughly before you judge.

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i wish i could make random trips to NYC...i will someday though once im older!
for now, i just go on telecharge, look at tickets, and plan shows for trips that are never gonna happen :P just for fun though

I love random trips to the city. In fact the majority of the shows I've seen were last minute.

The first of my "overnight" trips to Broadway happened on a day's notice about a year ago. I work overnights, and found out on a Saturday that I would be off on Sunday and Monday night. I wanted to catch Brooke Shields in Chicago, and there was a discount code for the show at the time. I got the tickets on Sunday for Monday night, hopped on a Greyhound Monday afternoon (a four-hour ride to NYC), saw the show Monday night, hung out in the city for a few hours, and caught the first Greyhound back Tuesday morning. It worked out so well, I have been doing it on a regular basis ever since. However, I have never purchased ticket so soon before a show since then. Now that I am a menber of TDF, I will probably do a spur of the moment show again soon.

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