Cheap seats, mapped
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child rush, lottery & cheap tickets
Every legitimate cheap-seat tactic for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway — with the realistic odds, prices, and the small print. No paywalled "premium tier" nonsense; just the public-facing routes ranked.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a 210-minute play at the 1,622-seat Lyric Theatre. It has been running since 2018 — a long-runner with established cheap-seat patterns. Multiple cheap-seat routes are in play: an official lottery, an in-person rush, and TKTS booth eligibility.
Some of the links below are affiliate links — EvenAisle earns a small commission when you buy through them. We pick the cheap-seat tactic that's best for you, not the one that pays us most.
$40 TodayTix (Friday Forty) lottery
2 tickets per winner
- Platform
- TodayTix (Friday Forty)
- Price
- $40 per ticket
- Entry window
- Monday 12:01 AM ET through Friday 1:00 PM ET — covers the following week's performances.
- Draw / notification
- Winners notified Friday 1:00–5:00 PM ET. Pick up tickets at the Lyric on the day of the performance.
- Quantity limit
- Up to 2 per winner
Weekly lottery format rather than daily — a full week of performances on each draw. Available only through the TodayTix app.
Enter the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child lottery →$49 box-office rush
Up to 2 per buyer
- Format
- In-person at the box office
- Price
- $49 per ticket
- Opens
- Box office opens 10:00 AM Tuesday–Saturday, 12:00 PM Sunday
- How to enter
- Show up at the Lyric Theatre box office (214 W 43rd St) when it opens. First-come, first-served, subject to availability.
- Quantity limit
- Up to 2 per buyer
$49 in-person rush. The Friday Forty lottery is the more reliable cheap path; consider rush as the fallback.
Get directions to the box office →Same-day discounts at TKTS
Typically 20–50% off face value
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has appeared at the TKTS booth (Times Square, Lincoln Center and the Lower Manhattan locations) — same-day discounts of roughly 20–50% off face value. Appearance and discount level vary day-to-day; shorter-running shows and weekday performances are the better bets.
See today's TKTS list →The realistic playbook
- Enter the lottery first. Lowest price, zero effort. Set a daily reminder; the entry windows are unforgiving.
- Line up early for rush on a non-lottery day. Weekday performances are the friendliest.
- TKTS is the fallback. Same-day, in-person — head to the Times Square booth around 3 PM for evening shows.
- If all else fails, compare the resale market on the main Harry Potter and the Cursed Child page — sometimes resale dips below face for less-popular performances.