ACT ONE
PLAN YOUR
THEATRE WEEKEND
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED…
READ THIS!
Two things are key to planning a successful Theatre Weekend:
…having fun while doing it
…and keeping detailed notes!
Unless you’re heading to New York City from a neighboring city or nearby state, organizing your shows, flights, and hotels will involve a little bit of online research, some plotting on paper, a little luck — and a quick trigger-finger to book it all-at-once when your ideal plan comes together.
It may also, therefore, involve keeping a large glass of wine handy!
But don’t be overwhelmed: our 3-part Q&A walks you through the process step-by-step and will help make your Theatre Weekend a big success.
This is a project in three acts — so let’s get going!
Let’s start!
ACT ONE
What exactly is a Theatre Weekend??
A Theatre Weekend is any quick get-away where the main focus of the trip is to see as many shows as possible. You may do some sight-seeing and you’ll certainly have some great meals during the trip, but the weekend is predominantly scheduled around your theatre-going schedule.
It’s the Broadway equivalent of binge-watching a TV season over a weekend!
How long is best for a proper Theatre Weekend?
As I mentioned on the Welcome page, my Theatre Weekends are usually a late-Thursday to Monday morning kind-of-affair because you can lose nearly a day just getting to and from NYC, depending on where you’re coming from. But you can easily have a fantastic time if your days are more limited: Friday thru Sunday, or just a Saturday-Sunday weekend itself will give you ample time to see 3-4 shows.
If you have the time available, Monday is a good day to travel home because nearly every show on Broadway is “dark” (closed) that day — though there are a few exceptions. This way, you won’t be missing any valuable theatre-going time by traveling home on Sunday afternoon. (You can refer to the constantly updated Broadway Performance Schedule page to see what’s playing on which day: https://www.broadway.org/performance-times.)
Don’t forget that a theatre “weekend” doesn’t need to actually be at the end of the week. If you’re retired, run your own business, or just have any kind of flexible work hours, a mid-week theatre break can be really beneficial since ticket availability is greater, and prices are about 5% – 10% lower mid-week.
But for the sake of keeping things simple here, you’ll find we are just going to refer to all potential blocks of time as a “weekend” on this site.
What’s the first step toward planning My Theatre Weekend?
Now we get to the good stuff: finding your shows!
We suggest you start to put together a big Wish-List of shows to see. This is just a big Brainstorm list for now — don’t worry about looking at availability or pricing just yet. Just start browsing though the show pages on MyTheatreWeekend.com for write-ups of current plays and musicals. Also check out “The Top Nine” – our consolidated list of Current Shows we love.
There are tons of other theatre websites where you can find additional opinions about shows, and read reviews. Be sure to check out our Fantastic Theatre Resources page for more ideas. HIghly recommend looking at Show Score, where you can read professional critics reviews as well as reviews posted by theatregoers.
But we also encourage you to ask around: check with friends and colleagues who have recently been to the theatre and ask what they liked — and definitely consider creating a social media post asking your friends for their recommendations (like on Facebook or Twitter)!
But there are so many shows – how do I narrow the list down?
It’s true, there’s a lot of good stuff to choose from and it can be hard to narrow it all down (see note above about needing a glass of wine handy during this process!)…
I usually like to do a mix of musicals and plays during My Theatre Weekends, and perhaps throw in a cabaret performance if a performer of note catches my eye. This kind of variety makes the weekend more fun.
I also like to try to book the biggest/splashiest/most-buzz-worthy of my shows on Saturday night as it then feels more like I’m experiencing a big night on the town!
But be sure to do some reading about each of the shows you think you’re interested in. Read through the show synopsis to see what will be interesting (and more importantly, what won’t!), check out the cast lists to see if a favorite star is on stage, and Google the show (or search on YouTube) to see if any video clips of the performance might be available online. We’ve posted lots of info and video clips our plays and musicals show pages, and provide links to more resources in some of the descriptions.
This can be a time-consuming process — but a fun one! — so definitely discuss your thoughts with whomever is going to be your companion on this weekend (or if going solo, bounce some ideas of your bestie)! My theatre partner and I usually spit up the research and then set a time to get together and discuss what each of us has found — over a glass of wine or dinner, of course — so make the planning as fun and interesting as the Theatre Weekend itself!
I’ve done my research and made a list of potential shows for my weekend. Now what?!
Good work! But now it’s time to… Pick your Anchor Show.
What’s an anchor show? It’s the one must-see show of your theatre weekend around which you plan all the other shows. This might be a long running show you’ve heard about for years, or the newest and most buzz-worth show of the season.
Once you’ve picked this “anchor,” I suggest you first try to lock in tickets for this show. Take a look at what tickets are available for each performance (matinee and evening) on the dates you’ll be in New York and identify your best bet in terms of choice seating and your budget.
BUT WAIT…There’s More!
Next Steps...
What if I want to see a really popular show?
Keep in mind that if you’re hoping to see one of Broadway’s most hard-to-get tickets you should really start planning early. We’re talking at least 2-to-4 months of advance planning to find decent tickets at face-value pricing from Telecharge, Seat Geek or Ticketmaster – the 3 main booking websites for Broadway.
So bear this in mind if it’s imperative you include one of these shows in your Theatre Weekend! (I know: it seems totally crazy to have to think about something a full quarter year in advance, but at least it means Broadway business is booming!!)
Take your first intermission and then click to move on to Planning Your Trip: Act Two!
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