US News

MAKING IT ON ‘BOARD’WAY

Not since the Depression have so many people paraded through Times Square as living, breathing billboards.

But as gigs go in this recession-stressed burg, wearing a sandwich board advertising a Broadway show is a pretty good one — especially in the Theater District.

“The ‘Chicago’ promoters get a lot of attention with their tights and little dance number they do on the sidewalk,” said actress Maura Hashman, 23, of Inwood, who had been promoting “The 39 Steps” via sandwich-board since last August.

Last month, she started with “Reasons to be Pretty.”

“Just recently, ‘Guys and Dolls’ started handing out fliers too. It’s getting crowded out there,” she said.

The pay’s about $17 an hour, plus a $5 commission — the coupons the sandwich-board wearers hand out are color-coded so box-office staff can see who sold what.

That’s all the motivation Raven Peters needed to plaster himself with “Impressionism” posters. For the last month, the 27-year-old has been striding up and down Broadway, shilling for the Jeremy Irons-Joan Allen flop.

“It’s an acting piece,” Peters says of the show he’s seen twice for free. “Not nail-biting suspense, but a journey.”

He just wishes people wouldn’t ask him for directions — especially to “The Little Mermaid.”

barbara.hoffman@nypost.com