There are, of course, the licensed ticket agents or "brokers" which you will find in every hotel lobby and around Times Square. They are permitted by law to charge a nominal premium.
But these brokers seldom have up-front seats for hits for the same night.
For any sell-out show or for an important baseball, football or other sports event, you must figure in an added premium of from two to five dollars per ticket, often more.
Your bellboy may be able to dig the ducats for you, or he can recommend a scalper who bootlegs them above legal price.
Otherwise, try your luck bribing the ticket agent's clerk.
If you don't have to plan in advance, a good tip is to go to the box office just at curtain time. Quite often you can get excellent seats at list price, and sometimes even cheaper when the last-minute returns come in from the agencies.
The choice tickets for the hits are in the hands of brokers and scalpers long before the shows first come to Broadway, through what is known in theatrical parlance as "buys." The big agencies underwrite the shows before they are produced by buying anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 worth of tickets in advance.
Many expensive shows could not be produced if this money were not forthcoming from the speculators.