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App City

Broadway Ticket Booths, Palm-Size

APP tkts

PLATFORM iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7

PRICE Free

APP At the Booth

PLATFORM iPhone, Android, BlackBerry

PRICE 99 cents

Let’s say you were looking for discounted tickets to a Broadway show. You could head to one of the Theater Development Fund’s three discount tkts booths (in Times Square, South Street Seaport or Downtown Brooklyn) and take your chances. Or you could pull out your phone and use one of two new apps.

Tkts, the app developed by the fund, a nonprofit focused on providing access to live theater, lets users know what tickets are available at each of its booths. The fund does not make this information available anywhere else, even — inexplicably — on its own Web site.

So people without smartphones are out of luck. But for those who have one, the app is a nice tool. Last month, I realized I had almost missed the entire run of “The ------ With the Hat” and wanted tickets. I checked the app and found that the South Street Seaport location was the only one where they were available.

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Credit...Christoph Hitz

The fund does have some competition. Even before it introduced its app, Ken Davenport, a theater producer and blogger, developed At The Booth, an unauthorized version of the same idea. At The Booth lists which shows are available at the Times Square tkts booth and suggests how long the line is. It does not provide any information about the other two locations. Unlike tkts, this app offers users the option to purchase discounted tickets from their phones, through BroadwaySpace.com, a site founded by Mr. Davenport.

This irks the fund. It claims to be the exclusive provider of “accurate, real-time listings” for its booths. A representative from the fund pointed out that At The Booth takes much longer to load than the official app. He also claimed that the information provided through At The Booth was not always correct. On the day I checked, At The Booth was indeed missing one show, “Tryst,” that had tickets for sale.

Mr. Davenport would not say how he gets the information listed in his app.

In addition to allowing users to find out what is available at the booths, both apps have useful information for those who are already standing in line, in the form of pages for each show. On the tkts app, users can find out how frequently a show is offered, so you know whether you are getting a rare chance or a discount-booth stalwart. At The Booth has excerpts of reviews from prominent critics, with amusing, cartoonish icons to let users know what the professionals thought of each show.

In the end, both apps makes it easier to navigate the world of discounted tickets. And as for the hard feelings, what would Broadway be without a little drama?

Have a favorite New York City app? Send tips via e-mail to

appcity@nytimes.com or via Twitter to @joshuabrustein.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section MB, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Broadway Ticket Booths, Palm-Size. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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