2024 was the year I discovered I had been missing out on a whole huge world of entertainment by ignoring Broadway shows, and also by being absolutely clueless that Off and Off Off Broadway even existed in New York City.

I had to cancel a lot of travel in 2024 due to health issues (I am fine) and instead of doing my normal traveling on the anniversary of my mother’s death, I instead, decided to do something she found exotic.  She thought that going into “the city” and seeing a show and staying in a hotel was super fancy fun.  So I did that.  I chose shows I knew she would have wanted to see.  Brooklyn Laundry, with Cecily Strong since my mother loved Saturday Night Live.  She loved Seinfeld and Friends so I went to those parody shows. Of course she would have loved to see The Outsiders.  And 7 Year Disappear with Cynthia Nixon.  And then I just kept going.  Diving deeper into all the things I never knew existed.  And there began a life where instead of watching television on my couch, I was out watching anywhere from 1-10 live shows a week in a theater.

I had to compile this list by going back and looking at my wall calendar that I packed to bring on my Las Vegas trip so I could finish it.  This year, I am keeping the list in real time.

My favorites were:

Fatherland: This was based on a true story about a son who turned in his father into the FBI for his involvement in the January 6 ressurection.   All the dialogue was taken from the court transcripts.

Odd Man Out:  This show is about a blind man telling his life story.  It takes place in absolute darknesss.  You are escorted to your seat which is supposed to be on a plane.  You cannot see anything at all.  I had no idea if there was someone next to me, or how far away the actors were.  I knew I was in the front row because the person escorting me mentioned that.  I remember being scared someone would trip over me.

People of the Book:  This is one of many shows I saw that I had never heard of and stumbled upon on accident.   A random Monday night, nothing better to do than go to a show.  The story line was just fantastic.

I have memberships to TDF  and Club Free Time.  TDF has different levels of discounted tickets.  I am only elligible for Off Off Broadway shows and went to a ton of these through that.  Club Free Time is the greatest.  I saw so many shows I never would have known existed if not for them.

For 2025, I am also keeping track of how much I paid for everything.  I cannot break it down by show since understandably, you are forbidden to say which shows you saw through Club Free Time because they do not wish to alienate their client base by broadcasting you can get free tickets.  But I will be able to post a full tally at the end.  Obviously, not all of these were discounted. I paid full price for quite a few of them.

And here is the list: