Whether your family hopes to catch a touring Broadway hit in the theater district, José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s annual production of The Nutcracker at the Strand, or practically any other show in greater Boston, the eleventh annual Mayor’s Holiday has an early gift for you – half-price tickets!
This eight-week celebration of local performing arts features thousands of discounted admissions to more than 130 holiday shows throughout Boston and beyond, with bargains for theatre, concerts, dance, comedy, and kids/family shows.
Known during Mayor Thomas Menino’s tenure as the Mayor’s Holiday Special and later as the Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular, this art stimulus initiative is now more succinctly known on Mayor Walsh’s watch as mayorsholiday.com.
Walsh outlined the economic impact of show-patronage during this season, saying, “Add up just the top 10 arts venues in the Boston area during the holidays, and they generate more than $8.8 million annually [beyond the cost of admission] on restaurant dining, overnight accommodations, transportation and parking. Plus who doesn’t love to feel a little more magic, like the kind you can only get from a live performance, during the holiday season?”
When the website launched this past Monday, tickets started flying away faster than Rudolph and Co., thanks to ArtsBoston, in partnership with Mayor Walsh, the city of Boston, and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.
For those who favor Christmassy or other Yuletide shows, Mayor’s Holiday offers many classic crowd-pleasers like Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” Holiday Pops, The Christmas Revels, “Handel’s Messiah,” as part of Handel and Haydn Society’s bicentennial season, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas The Musical,” presented by Citi Performing Arts Center, “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” with Brian O’Donovan, Anthony William’s “Urban Nutcracker,” the Back Bay Ringers, and many more.
For those who eschew all the holiday hoopla and prefer non-seasonal entertainment, undoubtedly the classiest attraction is Horton Foote’s Broadway hit “The Trip to Bountiful,” starring Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams, and Blair Underwood. The legendary Tyson won the Best Actress Tony Award for her performance as Mother Carrie Watts, as well as the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award.
Other tinsel-free offerings include Clifford Odets’s “Awake and Sing” at the Huntington, Blue Man Group, and “The Little Prince.”
Half-price ticket quantities are limited, and allotments change daily. Visit early and often, and be the first to know about new additions and special offers with email and social media alerts. Those who prefer to buy seats in person can go to either of the BosTix booth locations, at Copley Square and at Faneuil Hall Marketplace.
The site includes a list of restaurants participating in the $10 Special Voucher program, (spend $40 and use your downloadable $10 voucher). Among those fine dining establishments participating are P.F. Chang’s, Tremont 647, Brasserie Jo, Durgin Park, Flora and the Melting Pot, and lots more.
MayorsHoliday.com is also the exclusive online source to buy $10 buttons for First Night Boston 2015.
