Grab your Group and Go: To the Theater (once a month! with friends!)
I live in NYC. Like many, however, I was turning my back on one of the best reasons to live here: easy access to amazing live theater. Realizing my love of the theater was not concomitant with my attendance, I decided to make a change. Thus introducing The First Tuesday of the Month Theater Group to a wide swath of friends and acquaintances. This model is sublimely simple and easy to expand.
Here’s how it works: about one month before the first Tuesday of the next month an email goes out to the group with the selected show, keeping in mind pricing. Discount codes on broadwaybox.com or theatermania.com are included in the message when available and I let people know where I will be sitting. Whoever wants to join then buys a ticket on their own dime. They don’t need to let me know – unless they want to join for dinner which does take some coordinating and some number juggling.
When we started we had dinners after the show, but that made for very late nights. Now we have dinner before and voila: an evening out on Broadway with friends and friends of friends that will likely become new friends every single month. Not every show is everyone’s cup of tea (in March 2016 we saw the brilliant Blackbird – it was a little jarring for some), so “members” can self-select what show they want to join for. We alternate between plays and musicals. Input from the group is encouraged and welcomed. In March 2015 a member of the group whispered in my ear about this little show called Hamilton. It was promptly chosen as our October show. Some people balked at buying tickets 6 months in advance, but about 30 members went ahead and did so. We paid – gasp – normal ticket prices for excellent seats and had, as the critics predicted, an epic and unforgettable evening on Broadway.
This club is now 180 people and counting. It is getting people out there and together. At this point I don’t know everyone in the club, but I sure look forward to meeting them. See you on Broadway?? Join us!
This photo is some of the group after our second show way back in February 2015. We saw Beautiful with the endearing and wildly talented Jessie Mueller, now of Waitress fame, bring Carole King to life for us. I heartily recommend both shows!
4.30.2022 UPDATE: Somehow our group now numbers over 800 members! And as of 2018 we are in the business of selling tickets so we can all sit together as a group. This year alone we’ve filled over 1000 theater seats both on and off Broadway!
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