New York City high schoolers will get a shot at more than 2,000 free Broadway tickets under the latest City Hall lottery, though with just 2,100 tickets on offer, most aspiring theatergoers will have to settle for the consolation prize.
Fortunately, it’s a pretty good one.
Every student who enters the lottery will receive a free two-month membership to the Theatre Development Fund, or TDF, giving them access to discounted tickets to Broadway, Off-Broadway and other performances, along with free or discounted admission to a slate of cultural institutions around the city.
The lottery, announced Thursday by Mayor Zohran Mamdani at New York City Center in Midtown, is open to high school students across the five boroughs through 10 a.m. Monday. Winners can claim up to two tickets to one of seven shows, including Buena Vista Social Club, In the Heights, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, The Great Gatsby and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).
Students are limited to one entry, and winners will be notified Sept. 1. Public school students must provide their OSIS number, while students at nonpublic schools can use a school email address.
A scene from The Great Gatsby, one of seven Broadway shows included in a new City Hall lottery offering more than 2,000 free tickets to New York City high school studentsPhoto via Mayor’s Office/Evan Zimmerman
“This is justice for the theater kids who have watched City Hall roll out lotteries for major sporting events all summer long, and asked, ‘Why not me?’” Mamdani said.
The mayor pitched the giveaway as part of a broader effort to make the city’s cultural offerings accessible to young New Yorkers who may otherwise view Broadway as something meant for tourists or wealthier families.
The giveaway comes as the price of a night on Broadway remains steep. Broadway League figures show shows grossed $1.91 billion across roughly 14.6 million admissions last season, which works out to about $131 per admission on average.
“There are so many kids growing up in our city for whom Broadway feels as if it is a world away, like something that only belongs to other people,” Mamdani said. “We are together today to prove differently.”
The TDF membership may ultimately reach considerably more students than the free-ticket giveaway itself. Members can purchase tickets typically priced between $20 and $40 and gain free or discounted entry to more than 20 cultural institutions, including Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York City Ballet and the Bronx Museum.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani joins elected officials and arts leaders onstage at New York City Center on ThursdayPhoto by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Asked Thursday whether 2,100 tickets amounted to a small offering compared with the number of students who could potentially enter – and whether relying on a lottery squared with his administration’s focus on equity – Mamdani stressed that every entrant would receive the TDF membership.
“This is but one example of what is going to be a term-long commitment to the arts, to culture, and to ensuring that every New Yorker sees themselves in arts and culture,” he said.
The mayor later called the giveaway “the beginning,” saying the administration would continue searching for ways to expand students’ access to cultural institutions.
“Nobody loses in this lottery because everybody wins this membership,” Mamdani said. “Some also win 2,100 free tickets on top of that.”
Students who do not enter the Broadway lottery before Monday can still sign up for the free two-month TDF membership through Sept. 13, according to City Hall. Any New York City student in grades nine through 12 is eligible.
Mamdani also used Thursday’s announcement to highlight the city’s $323 million in funding for the Department of Cultural Affairs and the new Cultural Stability Fund, intended to help cultural organizations facing unexpected or emergency circumstances. Asked whether his administration would look to support commercial theaters beyond the city’s cultural institutions, the mayor said he would bring the idea to his team.
For Mamdani, Broadway apparently left an impression early. Asked about a Broadway show he saw as a kid that inspired him, the mayor pointed to In the Heights.
“Broadway is something that you typically think of as a portal to another world, and yet when I went to go see In the Heights, it was a world that I knew,” Mamdani said. “I want that experience for every New Yorker. I want them to be able to see a world they didn’t know, and sometimes to be able to see themselves as well.”