NYC high school students can enter for a chance to win free Broadway tickets, and everyone who enters gets a free TDF Membership with access to discounted shows and cultural attractions.
At a Glance
- Thousands of free Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets are up for grabs.
- The lottery is open to NYC high school students.
- Everyone who enters gets a free two-month membership with extra perks.
- The membership can also unlock discounts at museums and other NYC cultural spots.
Psst… Check Out 7 Amazing Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows for the Whole Family
With the prices of Broadway tickets often unreachable, especially for young people, Mayor Mamdani shared some exciting news yesterday.
The Mayor, along with the Theatre Development Fund, just opened up a lottery for high school students for more than 2,000 free tickets to seven Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.
How to Enter the Broadway Lottery (Do it Now)
The lottery is open now through Monday, August 17, at 10 am. Any NYC high school student can enter at on.nyc.gov/Broadway. If picked, teens get two tickets.
High school students can win free tickets to one of seven hit Broadway shows:
- In the Heights (New York City Center)
- School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Everyone Gets Something, Even If You Don’t Win
Even better news: high schoolers don’t actually need to win the lottery to benefit. Just by entering, every student automatically gets a free two-month TDF Membership.
That membership unlocks steeply discounted tickets (usually somewhere between $20 and $40) to a huge range of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway shows, plus dance and music performances around the city.
And even if you miss the Monday deadline for the ticket lottery, the membership itself is still up for grabs through September 13 at the same link.
Free Entry to Museums and Cultural Spots
The TDF Membership card doubles as a key to a bunch of NYC’s cultural institutions, either for free or at a discount. That list includes:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- American Museum of Natural History
- Brooklyn Museum
- MoMA PS1
- Carnegie Hall
- New York City Ballet
- Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
- New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanical Garden
- The Bronx Museum
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Plus a handful of others across Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx
The idea behind the push, according to the mayor’s office, is pretty simple: kids shouldn’t have to sit out on the city’s art and culture scene just because of what’s in their bank account. It’s part of a broader effort by the Mamdani administration to get free and low-cost programming accessible to young New Yorkers this summer.
Enter before Monday at on.nyc.gov/Broadway.
Psst… Check Out 18 Things to Do with the Kids in NYC This Weekend
