Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
258
Tips
Scoring the Elusive Ticket
Will Junior be crushed if y ou miss the tra veling Br oadway sho w he 's been
dreaming about seeing? Her e ar e some tips f or c oming out a her o in y our
kids' eyes by getting tickets when demand is high:
• Hard-core Chicago theatergoers say the best way to score tickets is to
head
right for the box office,
even for a hot sho w. ( This is ho w I got tickets t o
The P roducers
—on the da y of the sho w—when it was pr eviewed in Chi-
cago!) Don 't phone . This wa y, y ou a void those additional f ees—and y ou
will probably get bett er seats than y ou would by phone.
•
Use Hot Tix.
In New York plentiful half-price tickets usually means the show
is a loser . In Chicago the L eague of Chicago Theatres expects all its mem-
bers to offer tickets t o its Hot Tix program, whether the sho w is a hit or a
flop.
•
Catch sho ws while the y're still in pr eviews.
Tickets ar e less expensiv e
and more plentiful. If you want to see the cast in ideal f orm, get tickets f or
the final pr eview, which might c oincide with the pr ess opening.
one of the most complete weekly listings of
cultural happenings. The local Citysear ch
website,
http://chicago.citysearch.com
, is
also an ex cellent sour ce of information,
with lots of opinionated reviews.
GETTING TICKETS
Why pay full price?
Hot Tix
(www.hottix.org) offers half-price
tickets on the day of the sho w to mor e
than 125 theaters throughout the Chicago
area (on Fri, you can also pur chase tickets
for w eekend per formances). Tickets ar e
sold Sunday through Thursday for the day
of performance. You must buy the tickets
in person at a H ot Tix outlet; the main
Hot Tix bo x office is at 72 E. Randolph
St., betw een Wabash and M ichigan av e-
nues. If the show you've got your heart set
on doesn't have half-price tickets available,
never fear: H ot Tix is also a Ticketmaster
outlet selling full-price tickets to all Tick-
etmaster events. A second, smaller Hot Tix
outlet is located in the hear t of the city 's
shopping district, in the old pumping sta-
tion at M ichigan and Chicago av enues,
which is no w the
Chicago Water Works
Visitor Center.
I ts entrance is at 163 E.
Pearson St., across from the Water Tower
Place mall. H ot Tix locations ar e open
10am to 6pm Tuesday through Saturday,
and 11am to 4pm on Sunday. The Hot Tix
website (www .hottix.org) lists what 's on
sale for that day , with fr equent updates
(the time of the updates is posted at the
top of the website).
In addition, a fe w theaters offer last-
minute discounts on their lefto ver seats.
Steppenwolf Theatre Company often has
$20 seats av ailable beginning at 11am on
the day of a per formance; call or stop b y
the Audience Services at the theater . The
“Tix at S ix” pr ogram at the G oodman
Theatre offers half-price, day-of-sho w
tickets; many of them ar e ex cellent seats
that hav e been r eturned b y subscribers.
Tickets go on sale at the box office at 6pm
for evening performances and at noon for
matinees.
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