I don’t care about the Tony’s and couldn’t tell you the outcome of any Tony Awards ever, but Broadway Theater is no less affordable than live sports (I checked), and lots of people take trips to New York with that as one of the must-see stops. Regarding The Average New Yorker not seeing Broadway shows, that phenomena exists everywhere. I remember asking someone from Cairo and he said that alot of people live there their whole lives without visiting the pyramids (on an actually tour, everyone sees them because they’re huge and near the city), and those are some of the most visited tourist attractions in the world. And those tours are all only a few dollars in American money.

I guess if you’re talking about seeing all of the nominated plays, and not just seeing an individual Broadway show, then yeah you’d probably have to live there and spend a ton of money.