All you need is a dollar and a dream?

A handful of the top shows on Broadway have what they call a "lottery", only you don't win money but rather the ability to buy cheap tickets for these in-demand shows. Most shows who run this special allot about 20-30 tickets per performance to the lottery and sell them to winners for between $20-35. Policies vary, but to enter the lottery you need to arrive at the theatre about 2 and 1/2 hours before curtain time to put your name in the drawing which takes place 2 hours before curtain. If your name is pulled, you are able to buy up to two discounted tickets for that performance. Lottery and rush policies are listed at playbill.com and on individual show websites.

Pretty cool right? These lotteries are a great way to make affordable tickets available to the public, but personally I prefer when shows offer student rush so that the cheap tickets are likely to go to those who wouldn't be able to afford going to the theatre otherwise. Not to mention the fact that usually anywhere between 100-500 people enter the lottery on a daily basis, so your odds are quite low. Especially if you're in a group of three or more people and relying on the fact that two of your names are going to be drawn.

Like I was on Saturday. My mother and cousin were in town, and on a whim we decided to enter the lottery for In The Heights. Seeing over 200 people standing outside the theatre, I was pretty much resigning myself to a night of sadly no theatre but a long relaxed dinner. Well what do you know, Wendy C gets called promptly followed by Donna K. Of course not Megan K, but at that point what did it matter? I've entered dozens of lotteries in my day and found it's pretty much a statistical impossibility that the name Megan K gets pulled. Except for the period when Rent's ticket sales were way down AND no one realized that they had Sunday evening performances so there were pretty much 25 people entered to win 20 tickets, and even then my name was called last.

So the moral of the story is that cheap tickets are good, In the Heights is great, and perhaps all you need to combine them is family with a little bit of luck. Just please not that creepy lil two-inch tall guy they have in the real NY Lotto commercials...he creeps me out.