TICKETS

Fifteen-day repertoires (in Russian) are posted in the windows of all ticketing venues, and can also be purchased for a nominal fee.

The availability of good tickets to popular or prestigious shows can be limited and the best seats aren't always sold in normal booths but rather for inflated prices by hotel service bureaus, tourist agencies, and speculators. There are a number of ways to purchase tickets, with the most common being from theater kassas which are scattered around town:

• Theater kassas () are located throughout the city, very often inside or near metro stations. Usual working hours are 10:00-19:00. Nevsky is home to several theater kassas which often have the best tickets; the largest are at Nevsky Prospekt 42 and in the pavilion at the corner of Nevsky and Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa.
• Tickets can also be bought at the box office inside theaters themselves, from several weeks in advance to curtain time. Don't count on this to see anything even vaguely popular but for drama and the more obscure music performances your chances are reasonable.
• Formerly scalpers hung out in front of popular theaters selling cheaply acquired tickets for grossly inflated prices. These days, overt professional scalpers are gone but you might be able to score at the door from people with unwanted tickets or from pensioners trying to make a buck by reselling tickets they bought at a discounted price.