TKTS discount theater tickets has opened in Philadelphia

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The discount theater ticket seller TKTS, a mainstay on Broadway for 51 years and in London’s West End for 44 years, brings to Philadelphia its first American location outside of New York City.

The red TKTS booth is now part of the information desk at the Independence Visitor Center in Independence National Historical Park. It sells rush tickets to performances in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties at 30% to 50% discounts, up to 72 hours in advance. Buyers must purchase in person at the TKTS desk; tickets are not available online.

Performing arts companies must opt in to the program to make their tickets available through TKTS. At its launch on Thursday, 20 companies agreed to let TKTS sell their tickets at a discount, including the Arden Theatre, Philadelphia Orchestra, FringeArts and the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

“TKTS in Philadelphia will help make Philadelphia’s theater and arts performances more visible, more affordable, and even more dynamic,” said Terrence J. Nolan, producing artistic director of the Arden Theatre Company. “This is the kind of leadership we need right now.”

Many of the participating companies have not bounced back from pandemic-imposed restrictions. According to a recent study by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, only half of arts organizations are seeing audiences return to pre-pandemic levels. Among performing arts companies, that number drops to just 32%.

“A third of TKTS ticket purchasers in New York City are new. They haven’t attended a theater performance before,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president of the Visitor Center.

“Our theaters realize that if they’re going to be successful, they have to continually attract new audiences and bring in new performing arts advocates and stewards to their fold. This is the perfect way to do that.”

TKTS is operated by the nonprofit Theater Development Fund, or TDF, which runs several accessibility programs to the performing arts to help audiences overcome physical, financial and neurological barriers to live arts. TKTS is by far its most popular program, with locations in the New York City boroughs, London and Tokyo.

TDF Executive Director Deeksha Gaur said TKTS is expanding into Philadelphia because Visit Philadelphia, the city’s tourism marketing organization, showed there is a groundswell of support in the city’s theater companies.

“We were having conversations about how, in response to audiences not coming back as much to regional theater, could TKTS play a role,” Gaur said. “Then Philadelphia called us. We were thrilled to engage in the conversation. We hope this is the first of many.”

Upon the ceremonial unveiling of TKTS Thursday morning, people immediately started buying tickets. First in line was Brett Mapp, a longtime superfan of Philadelphia theater who bought a ticket for a Saturday matinee at the Wilma Theater.

In the excitement he forgot which play he bought a ticket to see.

“I don’t remember,” he said. “But it’s the Wilma, so I can’t go wrong,” he said. (It’s a production of “The Comeuppance” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth Theater of Washington, D.C.)

There are other discount ticketing platforms available to Philadelphia cultural consumers, such as Lucky Seat, which sells online tickets in advance on a lottery basis, and TodayTix.

Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, wanted to partner with TKTS because it is recognized more widely. Since first opening in Times Square in 1973, TKTS has sold over 70 million discounted tickets.

“They’re so well-known both nationally and internationally. We wanted to have a presence that put us in good company with other like cities: New York, London and Tokyo,” she said. “You couldn’t ask for better company.”

The TKTS booth in Philadelphia is a yearlong pilot program. Visit Philadelphia, the Visitor Center, TDF and participating theaters will assess the success of the program to decide whether it should continue.