‘Nightmare’ for ‘Hamilton’ fans
Those hoping to buy tickets to musical report waits of more than five hours, technical malfunctions
Hell hath no fury like a “Hamilton” fan scorned.
Throngs of would-be theatergoers flooded the Dr. Phillips Center website Friday morning attempting to secure tickets – but many were left empty-handed after a process termed a “disaster,” an “utter nightmare,” “inexcusable” and “incompetent.”
Those were just some of the printable words used by frustrated and angry Central Floridians on social media — along with hashtags such as #bloodbath and #drphillipscenterFAIL.
By day’s end, the CEO of Made Media, who ran the center’s ticketbuying system, issued an apology.
“We are deeply sorry for the frustration this caused and want to be transparent about what happened,” wrote Jake Grimley in a statement.
The chaos gave a major black eye to the downtown performing arts center, which had hoped advance planning and upgrades to its online ticketing system would be able to handle the ticket demand. It wasn’t enough. Users at the Dr. Phillips Center website reported waiting more than five hours for tickets, being booted off the system and other
technical malfunctions.
And the problems began soon after tickets went on sale at 9 a.m.
“Well, it took about five minutes to crash the DPAC ticketing site...” posted theatergoer Christian Damon on Facebook, alongside a photo of a computer screen bearing the ominous phrase “502 Bad Gateway.”
Throughout the day, ticket buyers were confronted with a bewildering array of wait-time messages that could fluctuate between five minutes and two hours, seemingly on a whim. Others never even got a place in the virtual line — receiving a “waiting room is full” message instead.
“Man, your IT team really dropped the ball on this one,” wrote Jorge Lopez on social media.
Grimley’s statement said things started out in line with “extensive pre-sale testing.” About 35,000 users were in the virtual waiting room as the 9 a.m. sale time approached — a figure “well within expected levels successfully tested earlier in the week.”
But then, “the load increased exponentially, triggering a problem we had not previously seen during testing,” Grimley wrote. The company tried to fix things without disrupting those already in line to buy tickets through a series of small adjustments. But “these adjustments unfortunately compounded the issues and caused significant confusion for guests, whose expected wait times changed multiple times.”
Meanwhile at the downtown box office, ticketbuyers’ experiences were the polar opposite.
“It was great,” posted David McGuigan on Facebook. “Friendly and very organized staff.”
Ironically, the center had strongly urged people to use its online system and avoid buying in person.
More than 800 fans turned up in person at the box office and were able to get tickets, said spokeswoman Lorri Shaban.
Eleven die-hard fans camped out at the center overnight, Shaban said, and more began trickling in about 4 or 5 a.m. Those ticket buyers were served refreshments and entertained by performers from Sak Comedy Lab while they waited.
As word spread that people were having success in person, Facebook users reported some determined fans were abandoning their electronics and heading downtown. Sarah Dragon Esquivel posted: “There are people literally running to the ticket booth.”
But by 1 p.m. the center was warning on Twitter: “Due to unprecedented demand, in-person box office attendance is high, and ticket inventory is becoming limited.” Shaban said the focus on Friday was getting the website back up to speed.
“Our team is doing nothing but working on that with our consultants,” she said.
By midmorning, about 37,000 people had entered the ticket-buying site’s “virtual waiting room,” Shaban said. Or as one thwarted buyer put it, referencing one of the musical’s best-known songs, “the room where it didn’t happen.”
An early message meant to reassure drew scorn from many.
“We're experiencing a high level of traffic and are working diligently to restore sessions,” the center posted on Twitter and Facebook. “Stay with us for the latest updates.”
“No such thing as ‘unprecedented demand’ for ‘Hamilton,” wrote Delmarie Maldonado. “Everyone wants to buy tickets for this show, you should’ve been prepared.”
Some theatergoers reported abandoning the Dr. Phillips Center site in hopes of securing tickets at Tampa’s Straz Center, which also put its “Hamilton” tickets on sale Friday. The tour stops in Tampa immediately after its Orlando engagement. Others said they were able to buy tickets for a stop in Fort Lauderdale.
Grimley, of Made Media, acknowledged “a number of Central Floridians remain frustrated and disappointed in the process.” He said the company would immediately investigate “where the technology failed and also what processes could have prevented that failure.”
The Dr. Phillips Center announced that it will offer 40 $10 tickets at each performance, with details coming later, but that failed to assuage the Internet anger — which as the day wore on, often took a creative turn.
“You guys are ridiculous,” posted Katie Groth Manning. “How could you have managed this so poorly? You should have just dropped [tickets] out of an airplane over the city. Would have been a better method than this nonsense.”