Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll look at a lottery that Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce today to give high school students 2,100 free tickets to Broadway shows. We’ll also find out why President Trump could make or break Bruce Blakeman’s bid for governor.
The most expensive seat at the Broadway musical “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” at the Longacre Theater is $299, the same amount for the priciest ticket to “Buena Vista Social Club” at the Schoenfeld Theater a couple of blocks away. The average price of a ticket to a Broadway show is less, at $131, but that’s still a lot for many New Yorkers.
Today Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose campaign promises last year included free buses and free child care, will announce plans for a lottery to give New York City high school students 2,100 free tickets to those two shows and several other Broadway productions.
The lottery is being run with the nonprofit theater group TDF, which operates the city’s discount TKTS ticket booths. If you are a high school student, signing up for the lottery will also get you a free membership for two months to TDF. But you have to sign up by next Monday.
If you don’t, you’ll still have until Sept. 17 to register for the free membership, which you can use to buy discounted tickets — but you won’t be included in the drawing.
Mamdani is making social media videos to publicize the ticket giveaway. A spokeswoman for the mayor said that the city wasn’t putting up any money for the 2,100 tickets. Instead, seven Broadway shows, including “Two Strangers” and “Buena Vista,” had offered to provide the tickets, according to Deeksha Gaur, TDF’s executive director. The lottery drawing will be held on Sept. 1, she said.
Gaur said that she and the producers of the shows had the future in mind in providing the tickets. “We know the impact of attending the arts in terms of building a lifelong association with the arts, which is really TDF’s purpose,” she said, calling the promotion “an essential opportunity for New York high schoolers.”
The TDF membership program for high school students is different from the student memberships that the nonprofit has long offered. Those cost $42, last a year, have no geographic restrictions, and are open to students in college and graduate school as well as those in high school (or, for that matter, in elementary school or junior high).
By contrast, the free memberships are only for students in grades nine through 12 who are attending school in New York City. Gaur said that the memberships would entitle students to discounted theater tickets as well as free admission or discounted passes to a long list of museums and other cultural institutions around the city.
A City Hall spokeswoman said the free tickets and TDF memberships amounted to a coda to “Summer in N.Y.C.,” an interactive city website that went live before Memorial Day with a home page that urged users to “find something cool to do this summer.” The site promised to be a compilation of “free or cheap summer programming for young people,” searchable by interest, travel distance and ZIP code.
Gaur said that the memberships for high school students and the ticket lottery had evolved through getting-to-know-you meetings with city officials after Mamdani took office in January. “We were very aligned in our goals,” she said. “Our mission is to expand access to the arts. We’re just over the moon that affordability and access are shared priorities.”
Weather
Expect a cloudy day with early morning thunderstorms before the sun gradually breaks through later in the day, with a high of 87. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low near 71.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Saturday (Feast of the Assumption).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“So many of the issues would be avoided if the cards were made out of plastic.” — Maya Jordan, a high school student who uses an OMNY card, which lets students ride subways and buses for free. A new report says the student cards, made of paper, are prone to malfunction.
The latest New York news
-
Second-home tax: A Staten Island judge sided with homeowners who had sued the city over a proposed tax on high-end second homes. The lawsuit cited concerns with how the tax was rolled out; it did not question the legality of the tax itself. The tax applies to co-ops and condos that are used as second homes and have a “market value” of at least $1 million, as determined by the city’s Department of Finance.
-
Palestinian Americans sue Columbia University: The complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court, claims the university mishandled its treatment of students and faculty and staff members of Palestinian origin during campus protests in the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas attack against Israel.
-
Rat emoji bites back: The bail for a man accused of illegal sports betting was revoked after he posted a rat emoji to his Instagram account. Prosecutors argued that the emoji was meant to intimidate witnesses in the case.
-
Silent films are back: A sold-out silent film festival took place the other night on the grounds of a forbidding castle on a rocky, uninhabited island in the Hudson River. The audience watched seven brand-new shorts, a throwback to the kind of entertainment that was all the rage before talkies arrived.
-
The International Puppet Fringe Festival: This year’s festival, which comprises more than 50 plays and programs, is focused on women. The celebration includes Sarah Nolen’s feminist adaptation, “Judy Punches Back,” as well as other theater productions, workshops, art exhibitions, film screenings and discussions.
Why Trump could make or break Blakeman’s bid for governor
Bruce Blakeman, who is running to become New York’s second Republican governor in the last 50 years, pushes Trump’s agenda even as he avoids mentioning the president’s name.
My colleague Grace Ashford writes that Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is something of a long shot. This is his third run for statewide office, and this time around, he’s borrowing from Trump’s playbook. Blakeman has mocked his opponents with A.I.-generated content. He has barred transgender girls from playing sports with their peers in county facilities. He has worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people who are in the state illegally.
But Blakeman does not mention Trump in the TV commercial that has been running statewide since May, and he has avoided criticizing the president. When reporters asked him this week whether there were any issues on which he disagreed with Trump, Blakeman gestured vaguely toward differences on the economy and guest-worker visa programs.
“I’m going to come out in the next couple of weeks and talk about things that I think are important that the administration may not agree upon,” he said.
It would be easier for Blakeman if Trump avoided pulling him into the spotlight that inevitably follows the president around. But Trump plans to visit Blakeman in Nassau County on Friday. (Blakeman said in a statement that he was “grateful” that Trump was coming and looked forward to paying tribute to local law enforcement officials alongside the president.)
Trump’s popularity in New York is spotty at best. A Siena University poll released on Wednesday found that 60 percent of likely voters had an unfavorable opinion of him. Blakeman fared better, with 33 percent of respondents saying they had a favorable opinion.
But 26 percent said their opinion of Blakeman was unfavorable. And the same poll showed Gov. Kathy Hochul ahead of Blakeman 49 percent to 39 percent among likely voters. That was a smaller lead than she had at this point in her last campaign. She went on to win in November by six percentage points over Lee Zeldin, now the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hochul, who is from Buffalo, is a stronger competitor upstate than many of her Democratic predecessors. And as an incumbent, she has a significant advantage in fund-raising. She finished the last reporting period with more than three times the $6.5 million that Blakeman listed.
METROPOLITAN diary
Spicy
Dear Diary:
Every Thursday, I get the No. 2 chicken bánh mì at Bánh Mì Saigon.
“Spicy or non-spicy?” the grandfather behind the counter in a backward baseball cap always asks.
I usual say non-spicy, but on this Thursday, I was feeling adventurous.
“Spicy,” I said.
He pumped his fist, spun around and shouted: “AYEEE! SPICYYY!”
Cheers came from the kitchen. People in the long line behind me began cheering too, though I’m not sure any of them knew why.
When I opened my lunch later, I found my bánh mì slathered with spicy mayo, and an extra container of it on the side.
Apparently, once you commit, you commit.
— Maddie Chan
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
Tara Terranova, Andy Chen and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
The post Mamdani to Give Free Broadway Tickets to High Schoolers appeared first on New York Times.
