NEW YORK -- The actress is so close to me that I could literally grab her arm. Another actor approaches behind me, startling me when he speaks.

Why am I in the middle of the action? Because my seat for the off-Broadway Barrow Street Theatre production of Our Town is onstage. Why am I there? Because my seat cost $49.50, as opposed to $69 for regular orchestra seating.

I'll do anything to get a cheap theater seat. Sit anywhere. Stand in any line. In fact, mornings when I'm in Manhattan, you can often find me at the South Street Seaport TKTS booth, scoring half-price tickets to something.

TKTS has long been the gold standard for getting cut-rate show tickets in New York. There are two booths, one in Times Square and one in the South Seaport neighborhood, a 15-minute subway ride from midtown (see maps at www.tdf.org). The more remote one always has shorter lines, so it's the one I use. There are other ways to get ticket discounts (though typically not quite as deep) that don't require standing in line.

''Why should you stand on line when you can go online?'' asks Broadway producer Ken Davenport, who has launched two websites that offer cut-rate tickets over the Internet: www.broadwayspace.com for Broadway shows and www.bestofoffbroadway.com for off-Broadway shows.

Davenport is an investor in some of these shows, including Blithe Spirit (as little as $36.50 on Broadwayspace.com) and Altar Boyz (starting at $49.99). But his site also sells tickets to shows he's not involved with, including such popular ones as Mamma Mia! ($60).

''You pay a little more than half price, but you can save hours,'' Davenport says.

If you can see more than one show when you're in New York, consider choosing at least one off-Broadway production. A full-price Broadway ticket often runs $115 to $135; off-Broadway tickets are typically half as much. Besides, off-Broadway is its own experience.

''Off-Broadway is like the independent films of theater,'' Davenport says, noting that many off-Broadway shows wind up on Broadway later.

Another tip from Davenport that applies to both Broadway and off: Certain seats at every show are reserved for the producer and cast to give their friends. If these aren't used, they're released, typically 48 hours in advance. You'll pay full price, but it might be the only way to get a really tough ticket.

If you're going to spend the money to go to New York and see theater, do spend some time researching the choices ahead of time.

''The last thing you want is to save $10 or $20 but not see something you want to see,'' Davenport says.

You need to know what shows you're interested in before you go to the website or the TKTS booth. (The TKTS folks want you to make the transaction quickly. They routinely bark at people who hem and haw. And don't even think about asking them questions about a show.)

So buy a New York Times -- Friday's the best day for arts coverage -- and check out the reviews. Or go to www.didhelikeit.com to get a quick snapshot of what New York Times critic Ben Brantley thought.

This has been a rather tough year for Broadway, as it has been for all attractions.

''We're struggling,'' Davenport says, ''but, frankly, we're not struggling as much as we thought.'' He said receipts in the spring were down about 6 percent.

''People this year are choosing to see two or three shows instead of four or five,'' Davenport says. That means that as a producer, he's backing only shows that he sees as ''unbelievably compelling'' to theater-goers. An example is Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, currently at the Shubert, because it stars Angela Lansbury, a great lady of the theater with big pull power, in a role that's perfect for her.

That's not saying that those shows are your cup of tea, of course. That's why you need to read the reviews.

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