Go to the show listings at https://www.playbill.com/ which will take you to the official ticket vendors for each production

Beware of possible unnecessary added fees if you purchase via third party vendors

The TKTS booths can be a way to purchase same or next day tickets at substantial discounts https://www.tdf.org/discount-ticket-programs/tkts-by-tdf/

The answer is never viator for anything. They offer simplicity to purchase but that's about it. Your best bet is always buying direct. Like Kaye, I go to Playbill and then there is a clear link to official box office tickets. The Broadway shows use a variety of ticket brands like Ticket Master, Seat Geek and others so as long as you navigated to the ticket page via their official website or the Playbill one, you are fine. Be prepared for sticker shock too. Tickets don't come cheap.

TKTS if you are ok with being spontaneous on shows and aren't super picky on seats.

The two options in the opening post are definitely bad ideas. Those are third party sellers at best, maybe even fourth party, and you are just wasting money with them. They have zero special access to tickets and just are charging you for convenience.

Post two has the best way to find the official seller to buy directly.

We also have a Top Question about Broadway discounts on the right side of the screen (not on the TA app) that can be very helpful.

In general sites like Viator and get your guide are good for convenience, bad for cost and limit your options if there are communication or weather issues that may affect an excursion. Buying direct is almost always the best choice,

Are you looking for full priced tickets or discounted? If full price, as stated above, the best way is to go to Playbill & find the official website of your show & click on Buy Box Office Tickets. Long gone are the days when you only had a choice of Ticketmaster or Telecharge. Nowadays it seems like every producer uses their own official ticket seller.'

If you are looking for discounted tickets, you can either go to Playbill or TheaterMania about a month before performance & buy discounted tickets off a seating chart or wait until the day of & go to the TKTS booth but they are mainly for best available seats & not picking your own.

One good site to research which show is Show-Score which rates shows based on pro & fan reviews.

Always use the official site and not third party sites that jacks up the price. Over the years we have used the TKTS booth in Times Square in our early days but now rely on Playbill.com and TheatreMania especially for discount tickets. If you truly want to see a particular play then just purchase them online from the official website. We usually have a list of plays that we can choose from and only purchased tickets online 2 times. There were times when we could actually buy tickets at the box office and find seats that were more reasonable than what we could find online. For example three years ago we bought tickets at the box office for To Kill a Mockingbird that were $89 apiece and on the 4th row on the far left. Perhaps there were parts of the stage that were somewhat obscured but we overall enjoyed the experience and saved money. When we visited this last summer we had simply mentioned the discount for Playbill.com or TheatreMania.com when going to the box office and they gave us the discount if available. Good luck and safe travels.

The advantage of going to the theater box office with a discount code is that you don't have to pay a service fee. The disadvantage is that discounts are only on a given block of tickets for a give performance, When those seats are gone, the discount disappears. It doesn't happen too often but I've had it happen so the service fee can be worth it.

How to obtain a discount code for the theater box office?

Discounts are online at Playbill or TheaterMania.

You can take a discount code from playbill.com, theatermania.com or broadwayabox.com to the box office. This will save online fees.

It really depends on what show you want to see. The problem is, since the pandemic, those sites just aren't offering as many or as good discounts as they used to. This minute, playbill has discount codes for 3 Broadway shows and theater mania for 5. If you want to see one of those shows, great. But the TKTS booth typically has many more shows available. The negative is that you have to go to either Times Square or Lincoln Center and possibly stand in line.

Of course, some shows like Wicked, Hamilton, the Lion King and Merrily We Roll Along don't usually discount, so they won't be available at any of these locations.

It is a balance of cost and convenience. I see a lot of shows, so TKTS tends to make the most tense for me 90% of the time.