A Hamlet who’s one hot ticket

Benedict Cumberbatch fans flock to London’s West End

LONDON— Clare Newman was not taking any chances. If Benedict Cumberbatch was going to play Hamlet, she was going to be there.

The theatre where he would be performing, the Barbican, was offering tickets first to its supporters, so she and two friends signed up for toptier memberships. The tickets were offered electronically to those in a digital queue, so Newman and her friends logged on simultaneously from eight browsers.

The result: Newman purchased six seats, three for the first performance Wednesday, three for the final performance three months later. Although she lives on the Isle of Wight, about 31⁄ hours away, she will visit

2 London three additional times just to meet others in the global village of Cumberbatch fans, a vast network nurtured by social media. Cumberbatch’s appearance as Hamlet — a 12-week run that ends Oct. 31 — is easily the most anticipated event of the London theatrical season. Its lead producer, Sonia Friedman, said she believed it was the fastest-selling play in British history, with its advance seats going within hours.

“It is mad and it shows the pull of the bloke,” said Newman, 33, a newspaper sports editor who, like many, fell under a Cumberbatch spell via television’s Sherlock.

Cumberbatch, 39, is best known for his television and film work, including his Oscar-nominated performance as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. He is no stranger to the stage — his most recent roles were in After the Dance and Frankenstein at the National Theatre here — but since his previous performances, the passion of his fan base has only intensified.

Hamlet, of course, is one of the great theatrical roles and has been played by many film and television stars, from Laurence Olivier to Jude Law.

But the combination of the limited run, Cumberbatch’s devoted fan base and internationalization of commerce via the Internet has made this Hamlet an unusually tough ticket.

A majority of the seats were sold at full price last summer. Some fans spent as much as £100 (about $200) for top-level memberships to get first crack at tickets.

A block of discounted tickets — 60 seats per performance, at £10 ($20) each — was sold last month in an online lottery. A final opportunity will be made available throughout the production: 30 tickets will be offered each day to those in line.

The production will also be broadcast in movie theatres around the world by National Theatre Live on Oct. 15.