Broadway Show Is Just The Ticket

After all of that walking, you may want to spend your evenings the way I did: In a nice comfortable theater seat.

New York is America’s theater capital. In fact, theater is one of New York’s prime tourist attractions.

Even the names of the theaters stir the blood: The Eugene O’Neill, the Helen Hayes, the Gershwin, the Barrymore, all giants of theater past.

The names of those actually on the stage can be impressive, too: Julie Andrews, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nathan Lane, Dixie Carter, Lou Diamond-Phillips, Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking are all appearing live in one show or another.

I went to five plays in four days, which may seem a little extreme, but not by New York standards.

It may seem a little expensive, too. But not if you take advantage of the TKTS discount ticket booths in Times Square and the lobby of the World Trade Center. These booths sell half-price tickets for many shows, but only on the day of the show.

If you plan to buy tickets at the TKTS booth, be flexible. A board next to the box office lists the shows currently available. If your experience is like mine, your first choice - maybe even your second choice - won’t be on the list. For instance, the few discount seats held out for the mega-popular “Rent” always disappear right away to kids who literally camped in line.

But there are almost always a dozen or two shows on the list, including a few musicals and many dramas, comedies and one-person shows. At least twice I have had to “settle” for No. 3 or 4 on my priority list, only to discover that they were among the most memorable shows I’ve seen.

However, if you have your heart set on seeing a particular show - maybe you are dying to see Julie Andrews in “Victor-Victoria” or Savion Glover in “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,” for instance - then the only safe bet is to order tickets in advance. That means full price, which these days can run $70 for a musical or $50 for a play (considerably less for balcony seats). Nobody ever said Broadway was cheap.

The League of American Theaters and Producers has a special telephone line for information on Broadway and selected off-Broadway shows and how to purchase tickets. Calls must be made on a touch-tone phone. The number is 212-563-BWAY (212-563-2929).

Or check the theater listings of the New Yorker or the New York Times.

Also, you can go to the Playbill web site at http://www.playbill.com or on America Online. This site, created by the same people who publish the programs at New York plays, is an excellent New York theater resource. You can even order tickets directly through that web site, but I found it easier to simply use the phone.

Complicating the situation is the fact that New York has two main ticket agencies, Ticketmaster and Tele-charge, each handling about half the shows. Call Tele-charge at (800) 432-7250 or Ticketmaster at (800) 755-4000. These two numbers also handle many off-Broadway theaters.

Broadway refers to the larger theaters and more elaborate productions in the main theater district centered on 45th and Broadway (although most of these theaters are not actually right on Broadway, just to confuse you).

Off-Broadway refers to smaller theaters with more intimate shows scattered around Manhattan. A great deal of the truly creative and innovative work done in New York theater is at the smaller off-Broadway houses.

In fact, the funniest show I saw all week was an off-Broadway revue called “Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back,” a hilarious spoof of the big-ticket shows such as “Sunset Boulevard” and “Victor-Victoria.” (It is playing in the tiny, cabaret-style Triad Theatre on the Upper West Side).

Unfortunately, off-Broadway tickets are usually not available at the TKTS booths. In fact, not all off-Broadway shows are available through Ticketmaster and Telecharge. I had to call the Triad Theatre directly, (212) 799-4599, to get tickets to “Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back.”

Warning: There is a $4.75-per-ticket service charge for Tele-charge orders, and a $5-per-ticket service charge for Ticketmaster orders, plus a $2.50 handling fee per order.

, DataTimes