Iconic TKTS booth in Times Square celebrates 50th birthday
NEW YORK -- A New York City landmark, the TKTS booth in Times Square, which offers discount Broadway tickets, is celebrating its 50th birthday. There was a big bash happening Wednesday, complete with theater performers.
The booth is one of the city's most Instagram-ed locations.
Five decades ago, the hope was it would help transform the area and make theater more accessible and affordable to everyone.
FLASHBACK: Broadway returns: Theater fans flock to TKTS to get tickets
"At that time, Times Square was having problems. The theater industry was having big problems," architect John Schiff said of the area in 1973.
Schiff was one of the original architects. Together, he and Bob Mayers created the original structure and the TKTS logo, which, during a mock-up, happened by accident.
"We didn't have all the letters, but we happened to have two lowercase Ts, a K and an S. So we put them on there just as a sort of study, but then we step back from it, we looked at it. We said this seems to be terrific," Schiff said.
And they had just as few resources for the building -- a trailer, some scaffolding and a small donation from the city to create a space to sell discounted Broadway tickets to revitalize the area.
"They had no idea whether this would work. It was an experiment. They thought it would last a year, maybe two years. They had no idea how many tickets they would sell," Mayers said.
To date, about 69 million have been sold, at rates of 20% to 50% off.
Here's how it works: the different box offices in the area figure out how many full-price tickets they can sell and then send a handful to TKTS, which is run by the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund. It adds a $7 service fee to each ticket, with the money used to make theater available for people with disabilities, veterans and students.
CBS New York spoke to people in line sharing their experiences, and also to two-time Tony Award-nominated Broadway performer and actor S. Epatha Merkerson, who explained what her first time buying tickets decades ago was like.
"It's amazing. It really is amazing," Merkerson said. "The first thing I think of is the Times Square that I saw when I moved here in 1978, which was completely different than what it is now. One of the very first shows I saw on Broadway was 'Ain't Misbehavin',' and I bought the ticket at the TKTS booth."
"It's totally different. Broadway is iconic. Broadway is transformative," Merkerson added.
And, of course, a party requires a guest list -- the people that come to see the magic on stage.
"We hope to see 'Chicago,'" one person said.
"I'm very excited to see '& Juliet,'" one child said.
TKTS brings together strangers from around the world.
"We're waiting to get tickets and we made friends," one student said.
"I want to buy tickets for 'Alajean,'" one woman from Brazil said.
Huh? Come again?
"She said 'Alajean.' I said, 'I've never heard of that one.' Then it dawned on me. She meant 'Aladdin,' so we've been practicing saying it for the last 30 minutes," Don Vance from Texas said with a laugh.
On Wednesday afternoon, there were a couple hundred people waiting for tickets. TKTS staff say on a single weekend day they sell upwards of 3,000, though it still hasn't caught up to pre-pandemic levels, when on single day they might sell upwards of 5,000.
Still, Broadway continues to gross more than all 10 professional sports teams in the Tri-State Area, in major part, Broadway officials say, thanks to sales from TKTS.
The booth and red stairs were built in 2008. TKTS is open 365 days of the year. It has only been closed on 9/11, for Superstorm Sandy and the pandemic, though it did stay open during the blackout of 2003.
