The iconic TKTS booth in NYC’s Times Square and London’s West End has branched out and started serving Philadelphia. The Philly branch provides discounted tickets for theater performances, though I also saw a couple dance shows listed as well.
According to the article, over the last five or so months, the booth hasn’t done a huge volume of sales for local organizations. From what I have read elsewhere, the service in Philly licenses the TKTS brand so it doesn’t have the resources of the Theatre Development Fund behind it. But on the other hand, those running it don’t have their attention and interest spread across multiple markets.
Previous efforts by other ticket discounters didn’t meet their promise and left the city. The TKTS booth is locally owned and run by the Philadelphia Visitors Center Corporation and so is more invested in the success of local organizations.
Those interviewed attributed the low sales volume passing through the booth to lack of awareness. but they have high hopes. Those using the TKTS service are counting on it to raise their profile and awareness among both locals and visitors.
Services like Gold Star and TodayTix “didn’t step up in my mind. All the work was on us,” Flannery said. ”But the genius of TKTS and what Visit Philly and the Visitor Center are doing is that it’s focused on Philly.”
Quintessence’s collaboration with the TKTS booth makes her hopeful. “It’s a win for Visit Philly, the Visitor Center, and a win for the bigger arts community,” she said. “It’s especially perfect for us because we’re in Mount Airy. We’re not in Center City, so it takes a little bit of city knowledge to find us.”
In time, Flannery said the TKTS booth could play an integral role in bringing Philly theaters back to pre-COVID numbers. But more broadly, she expects Philly arts to become a more recognizable part of the city’s identity, similar to the Rocky Steps and Liberty Bell.
