How I Got Into Hamilton

With Hamilton receiving a record 16 Tony Award nominations, David Spicer reports on how he got his hands on Broadway's hottest ticket.

It is the hottest ticket, in the hottest theatre town – maybe ever. Getting into the musical Hamilton in New York is murderously difficult.  It is sold out until the end of 2016 and the formal ticket re-sale web site has prices of $400US (if you buy two) and $700US for a single seat.

Why the fuss? The musical takes the art form into a new direction. The hip hop influenced score is pulsating, the choreography is thunderous, the colour blind casting is dazzling and what a perfect storm of delight to have the man who wrote the book, lyrics and music (Lin-Manuel Miranda) on stage as the lead.

It is quite a story. Alexander Hamilton was a founding father of the United States who fought in the war of independence. He became the first Secretary of the Treasury, was brought down by a sex scandal and was shot dead by the Vice President of the United States in a duel.

I was told I must see it but how? On day one I saw a line of people waiting for any return tickets. They were forced to stand in a line outside the theatre because a fight broke out once, when the line was inside.

 It was minus fifteen degrees Celsius and windy.  I thought I could do that too. But after a few minutes standing in the blizzard I retreated fearing I would catch pneumonia.

For several days I tried my luck in the Hamilton lottery. They used to line up outside and pick someone from a hat, but the lines became too long so it went on-line. If you win you get a front row seat for $160.

Again and again I missed out. Then I suffered a major set-back. Hamilton won the Grammy for best musical. 25 million Americans watched the cast perform the opening. I spoke to the theatre’s crowd controller and he let me know that the number of tickets being returned to the box had reduced dramatically.

So you could wait all day in the ‘freezer’ for a return ticket and not get one. Good grief.

I needed help from a professional. I employed Robert a professional line sitter from his business called Same Old Line Dudes. He brings along a plastic bubble to sit in, a chair and reading material.

 My plan was to choose the day with the least demand and shortest waiting time with the mildest weather forecast.  That was a Wednesday matinee.  Still worried about freezing to death I would take turns in the line with Robert.

I did the graveyard shift. At 4:12am I arrived at the theatre elated that I was first in line. But as I approached I saw two others were there already having arrived at 2:30 and 4:00.  This meant I could still miss out, as some days there were only four ticket returns.

I did a shift swap with Robert and at 12:50pm I got a text from him. “I am inside the box office buying your ticket.”  It was an unclaimed lottery ticket in the front-row.

It was a “bargain” at  the face value of $167US. With my fee to Robert it was the most expensive ticket I have purchased in my life at over $300 Australian (but considerably less than the $1000 Aus being asked for a single). Being so close I was almost dodging the spittle of the performers.  It was worth every cent.

Stage Whispers May June 2016 edition has its own Broadway "Triple Threat", with features on 10 of Broadway's top current musicals, how to get the cheapest tickets in New York and "Live" Musicals on Television. Click here for more details.

Click here to read the full list of 2016 Tony Award nominations.

My way of getting into Hamilton has been restricted. From the New York Times (May 14, 2016) ....

The producers also announced via Twitter new rules for people waiting in line, often round-the-clock, outside the Richard Rodgers Theater, hoping to buy the few tickets released by the box office just before each show. Tents and chairs are now prohibited, and last-minute buyers must go directly from the box office into the theater. The hope is to reduce the role of line-sitters paid to camp overnight.

“There are brokers who hire people to stand in line for them — they set up tents, they sit in chairs with sleeping bags — and we don’t want a tent city that encourages brokers to resell,” Mr. Seller said. He noted that only a handful of tickets become available last-minute for any performance, and said: “We want to ensure that if anyone has perseverance, they are a beneficiary of the line. But this camping out has to stop, because it had crossed over into public nuisance.”

A visit to the theater Friday morning found about 10 people lined up hoping to buy tickets to the 8 p.m. performance; some had been there for 19 hours, with another 10 hours to go until showtime. There were no sleeping bags or tents in sight — several people said they had slept on bathroom towels or blankets — but a few people sat in folding chairs, despite the new rules. (The tickets released at the last-minute, often loosely described as “cancellations” and sold at full price, are separate from the $10 tickets that are released for each performance via digital or in-person lottery.)

On two theater chat boards, unnamed ticket holders who were planning to travel to New York to see “Hamilton” complained that they were unfairly caught up in the crackdown, and had lost their tickets to the show.