I signed up for the Broadway in Boston site and got notifications about upcoming sales. I missed out on their early lottery. You needed to buy a subscription to get Hamilton tickets. Then they had a lottery to buy tickets. Then they gave you an opportunity to register for the Ticketmaster program. It was specifically for the Hamilton tickets, but I suspect I’ll get the opportunity for future deals.
I bought tickets for Boston too. I was in the eClub lottery a week or two before the Verified Fan lottery. (so many lotteries) so that put me behind the subscriptions, but I was able to buy 2 tickets as well at face value. Also, the eClub lottery was limited to a max of 2 tickets. I like that they are trying to make it easier for regular fans to get tickets without having to fight scalpers buying all the inventory. My guess is they looked at my purchase history and decided “yup, not a bot” and offered me into the lottery. I think it is fantastic.
Also it is probably much better for the servers.
I did buy 4 tickets, haven’t told anyone else (besides my wife) about the show yet. We’ll invite another couple as we get closer.
Does the musical address Hamilton’s economic policies?
The show’s most ardent fans seem to be on the left side of the political spectrum.
Yet Hamilton was an enthusiastic capitalist, who loved big business and big banks.
He was also rather hawkish during the Quasi-War with France.
It talks about Hamilton’s establishment and promotion of a federal bank. It doesn’t really present any of that in modern Left/Right terms. If there’s a Left-leaning tilt to the fan base, I’d assume that’s more because of the multicultural casting, modern musical styles and the show being performed in urban centers than because of any ideological message from the show.
This. The political landscape was wildly different at the time - it wasn’t so much liberal/conservative as federal/state supremacy. Even then, it was a much less polarized landscape than today - compromise was considered a good thing, for the most part, especially if you stripped away the invective hurled in the newspapers.
Hamilton was also strongly against slavery, which stands him in good stead with modern audiences.
Not according to the book the musical is based on. Politics was personal then.
Saw the show on Friday in Chicago with some friends. We had nosebleed seats but could see and hear everything very well. Everyone had a blast - my favorite song remains “You’ll Be Back,” which King George III sang with an occasional emphasis on “die!” in the refrain. Very glad I finally had the chance to see it!
Jophiel:
Or because the cast publicly calls out right-wing politicians known to be in the audience?
I think the audience was established before that point. But, sure, even if you want to say that’s the cause for any left-leaning tilt to the audience, the point still remains that the musical itself doesn’t make any ideological partisan statements.
Let’s show these Federalists who they’re up against!
Southern motherfuckin’ Democratic-Republicans!
But yeah, not any MODERN partisan statements.
A film version may be released in 2020 - not an adaptation, but a straight-ahead recording made a couple of years ago of the original cast performing the show, which studios are currently bidding for the distribution rights to - link.
Hamilton will be receiving a Kennedy Honor, the first one given to a work instead of to a person.
I hope that the Hamilton film release is a success and that more popular musicals end up releasing recordings of the stage performance on film. I also hope that they make more film adaptations.
I love musicals. I have season tickets to the five-ish traveling ones that come through my town every year. I haul myself down to LA or up to SF to see the several-months-long engagements there when I’m able. I buy the soundtracks and listen to them. I’d love to see Hamilton, and a dozen other shows. But I can’t. I can’t just go to New York on a whim, or pay $500 or wait outside hoping to get lucky with the lottery.
Release them as movies, please!
This doesn’t always work, for some reason. You would think that stage recordings of Cats and a production of Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman would have sold better than they did. Then again, a “proper movie adaptation” of The Phantom of the Opera wasn’t a blockbuster either.
(Side note: the 2002 Broadway production of Oklahoma! was supposed to have the West End cast, Jackman included, perform for the first month or so, but, for various reasons, including the fact that only the cast on opening night is eligible for Tonys for those roles, only two of them got to perform, one of whom was from the USA.)
I think a lot of people are going just because it’s the in thing to do. Like the 85 year old woman I know who wants to see it suddenly is a hip hop fan. My guess is she has no idea what hip hop is or maybe knows a slight amount about it.
Well, that sounds like success at one of the primary goals of a Broadway show, which is to be the in thing that everyone wants to see, drawing in even those who would normally not be interested.
Indeed. Like me. See post #2 of this very thread.