Eva Noblezada and Jeremy Jordan attend “The Great Gatsby” Broadway Opening Night at Broadway Theatre on April 25, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
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Early in August I came to New York from Los Angeles on family business. Specifically, my mission was to help my son find and rent an apartment near the Manhattan school where he was to start teaching in ten days. As a playwright, I also hoped to see some Broadway theater if I had time.
All this needed to be done on a budget, as our resources were being deployed to help him, not for a solo luxury jaunt. I used the last of my American Airline frequent flier miles for the trip, which included an extended return flight from JFK to Miami to Los Angeles that demanded ten hours and a sprint across the Miami airport.
I also found a reasonably priced, quirky hotel in Times Square, steps from Broadway theaters. The Paramount Times Square is a historic 4-star boutique hotel located at 235 West 46th Street in Midtown Manhattan’s Theater District. The hotel, which includes free Wi-Fi, a fitness center and a café and bar, advertises rooms for under $200 a night, although there is a $40 per night resort fee. Its luxury is its location.
Many young (and older) theater lovers travel hundreds or thousands of miles to visit Times Square, Broadway’s urban home. While there are larger luxury hotels like the Marriott Marquis steps from Broadway’s 41 theaters, many travelers seem to prefer the Paramount, a 17-story grand dame of a hotel once owned by famed hotelier Ian Schrager.
Built in 1928 and steps from Broadway and Times Square, it features a two-story lobby, a mirror bar, and what the hotel describes as “compact, stylish rooms.” The hotel is often full and you may need to wait for an elevator at peak times like check-in and check out.
Broadway Tuesdays at the Paramount Hotel in New York’s Times Square.
(Credit_ Michael Hull)
On any given morning, tourists from all over the world, speaking many languages, sat in the furnished lobby and bar area waiting to check in. Meanwhile, they enjoy the comfortable seats and Wi-Fi access. The crowds and activity of Time Square can be energizing or a turn off, but the lobby and bar (which hosted live music while I was there) make a relaxing oasis from the madding crowd. And the proximity to so many world-class Broadway shows within a 20-minute walk, as well as Rockefeller Center and Fifth Avenue, is amazing.
The Paramount will be hosting The Janice Jam, a Broadway performance benefitting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It brings high.energy performances into an intimate setting via Broadway Tuesdays at Paramount, alternate Tuesday evening from 5-8pm,
I stayed on the hotel’s 15th floor, and the noise from Time Square occasionally drifted up. In addition to the endless honking, (the city fathers have put many Manhattan streets on a “diet” from three to two or even one lane) there was drumming, singing and police and ambulance sirens. It also sounded like someone had a vuvuzela and was not afraid to blow it at 1:18AM.
As a native New Yorker who grew up by the subway, I had no trouble falling asleep. I found the Paramount to be comfortable and certainly friendly.
The area is also well served by subway and bus service. If you plan to see other parts of New York, Time Square is a central location. There is a friendly NYPD presence everywhere and the area seemed safe.
A bedroom at the Paramount Times Square in the Theater District of New York City.
The Paramount Times Square
While much of the Times Square area is honky-tonk (knock-off designer purses and pocketbooks, anyone?) I found decent places to eat. One was world-famous Juniors, the venerable New York breakfast place serving foods of the gods like cheese blintzes and their world-famous cheesecake.
There are two Juniors within a six-block walk. The restaurant on W. 45th is decorated with nostalgic memorabilia of the Brooklyn Dodgers, like a display of signed baseballs and a mural of Ebbets Field.
Another dining discovery was Bluefin, an elegant two-story restaurant and bar specializing in sea food, sushi, and steak. I went for happy hour, when cocktails were $12 and two mini tuna tacos were $5. Nearby is famed Restaurant Row on West 46th with a wide variety of establishments including personal favorites Orso and Le Rivage, which have been welcoming guests for decades.
There’s no doubt that New York is an expensive destination. Yet millions of people from all over the world visit yearly. Broadway, which pumped $1.9 billion into the city’s economy last season, is one of the key drivers. Saving money on a hotel means more money to spend on New York theater and dining.
And while Broadway is a luxury ($131 is the average price for a ticket; better seats for hot shows can easily top $500 or even $1,000) there are strategies and tactics one can test to get some good buys.
Waiters Karina and Phil at 2021 re-opening of Junior’s Cheesecake restaurant on Times Square after closing for COVID.. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Getting affordable tickets is a matter of supply and demand, certainly, but also of ingenuity. Many people obviously purchase their tickets in advance for the shows they want to see. Others, like me, are willing to roll the dice when they arrive in New York.
The TKTS ticket booth in Times Square has been operating since 1973, providing same-day tickets to various shows at a 20 to 50% discount off face value. TKTS advises:
Have a few backups. Your dream show might not be discounted today, but three others you’d happily see will be.Plays are your friends. Traditional plays and star vehicles discount more often than the family-friendly mega-musicals.Midweek wins. Tuesday–Thursday and slow weeks mean a fuller board and deeper cuts.
As a playwright, I’d say #2 is usually true; people prefer upbeat musicals to downbeat drama. However, the hit of the season, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, was a play that was closing four days later. It had won six Tonys, including leading man for Nathan Lane. There were no tickets at TKTS, or at the box office.
Kim Green (left) and Jolynn Wilson of Corsicana, Tex., look over their tickets to “Beauty and the Beast” at the TKTS discount ticket booth in Times Square. (Photo by Linda Rosier/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
NY Daily News via Getty Images
So, while I’ve used TKTS many times, I ended up not waiting in line. Instead, I went online to the ticket resellers. Even there, tickets were going from $410 for balcony seats to over $2500. I decided that as a Miller and Marilyn fan, I’d spend up to $400.
I spent several hours on the resale ticket sites and finally found a single ticket for $278 with a ‘partial view.’ Unfortunately, the ticket did not arrive in the morning after I paid for it. I had to contact SeatGeek customer service. Fortunately, they found the ticket and emailed it, so I hoofed it over to the Winter Garden from the Paramount with minutes to spare.
For what was probably the cheapest seat in the theater, I ended up in the balcony with one other person. I got to see Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf in Miller’s bleak, emotionally devastating play about delusion and the struggle to succeed and survive in America.
I wanted to continue my nostalgia tour of the 20th century with the musical version of The Great Gatsby. I found it online for $120 but then learned there was a “rush” line at the theater at 10AM. After getting turned away empty-handed waiting online for Death of a Salesman the previous day, I rushed over at 10AM. There turned out to be just one person ahead of me. I ended up in Row F16 for just $40.
The audience for Death of a Salesman was mostly sixty plus. Part of it was based on the age of the play (Miller wrote it in 1946) but it was also an older crowd that could afford the high prices of tickets.
Nathan Lane accepts the Best Revival of a Play award for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman alongside cast and crew onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
By contrast, the Great Gatsby audience was primarily under thirty, including many teenagers. The producers had successfully marketed it on social media with influencers and TikTok dance challenges. The crowd seemed to respond to the melancholy doomed love story combined with wild, creative dancing, upbeat music and stunning costumes and sets.
Broadway theater, long called the “fabulous invalid,” has gotten a new lease on life from young people fascinated by the stories, sets, dancing, and music they see highlighted on TikTok and YouTube. Times Square hotels like the Paramount feed that excitement. The Paramount had something I’ve never seen before on its TV channels, the Broadway channel. Dancers and a choreographer talked over video of the “rumble,” choreographing a dance and fight scene with “sweat pouring.”
Time Square seemed to bubble with that kind of rude energy. It brought back the New Yorker in me, motivated to solve problems and move forward. And at shows like Gatsby, that kind of youthful interest and energy was amazing to watch and a truly hopeful sign for Broadway and New York.
New York, USA – June 21, 2019: People crowds and newlyweds in the light of the evening in Times Square.
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