TKTS celebrated a milestone on Wednesday when their booth in Times Square serving Broadway fans for 50 years.and is popular with both tourists and local fans who can't quite afford to pay full price to see a show.
"It's affordable" said Marion Brain from New Jersey. "It's just a variety of different shows. It's wonderful"John Lindsay was Mayor of NYC, and the price of a discount ticket was just $4.50 when the TKTS booth first opened back in 1973."It's a combination of everything that is joyful and wonderful about seeing theater," said Virginia Bailey, the Executive Director of TDF who operates TKTS.
"This area was not at all like this," said Bob Mayers, one of the original architects of the TKTS booth. "You see more people on this line than were in the entire square at that time.""The thing was supposed to be up for one or two years," Mayers said. "It was a temporary pavilion." The idea stuck and the booth got a major remodel in 2008 which included the addition of the iconic red bleacher seats above the booth on West 47th Street.