THE HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN
Diverse cast, soundtrack inspires fans to spend hundreds on musical
Fans stop for a selfie before making their way into the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Tuesday night for the Canadian debut of “Hamilton.” The musical, a smash hit on Broadway since 2015, is scheduled to run until May 17.
What has turned “Hamilton” into the must-see hit that all your friends are talking about?
For millennials in Ontario, it seems that a diverse cast and clever writing has skyrocketed this Broadway musical — making its Toronto debut Tuesday night — onto everyone’s radar.
Anna Abraham, 23, is a selfdescribed “musical theatre person” and has had tickets in hand for “Hamilton” since they went on sale for the production’s run in Ottawa.
She set up her laptop and logged onto Ticketmaster, where she purchased four tickets for a June performace for $675 total, well under her budget of $400 each.
It isn’t just the music that drew her into “Hamilton.”
What is particularly appealing, Abraham said, is the show’s wide representation of people of colour.
“I’m a woman of colour … I don’t get to see a lot of roles and musical theatre that really reflect my identity or experience,” Abraham said.
“Hamilton” crafts a politcal narrative in a way that’s entertaining and relatable to people from all walks of life, Abraham said.
“And I think that’s really cool in that you really get to find something you can connect to,” she said. “There’s also a humility and there’s also sacrifice and … nuanced characters. None of them are perfect.”
Abraham said her friends are also fans. While one is a musical theatre fan, another “doesn’t really like musicals and doesn’t really listen to a lot of music,” Abraham said. “But he loves ‘Hamilton’ because he loves politics. He lives, eats and breathes politics.”
Abraham knows the show inside and out. She has even coauthored a full-length parody of the show — called “Jeb!” and based on the 2016 Republican primaries — which went viral. Abraham wrote the show with her friends “instead of studying for midterms” in 2016.
The soundtrack was the draw for 21-year-old Zaib Qureshi, who snagged tickets for an April show in Toronto.
“I really love showtunes, but incorporating hip hop and such contemporary music into it was so interesting to listen to,” she explained. “It’s crazy how just listening to the songs gave me so much insight into the plot itself and got me so attached to every character. I think I cried about five times listening to it for the first time.”
Qureshi said she did a deep dive into the musical’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and how the production came together.
Qureshi paid $200 for her tickets each — a maximum spend, as she is a student. Qureshi said she “really couldn’t justify spending more.” She made sure to purchase tickets through the official Mirvish website instead of resale sites out of fear that prices could climb on the secondary market.
Kate Dupuis told the Star she has loved musicals since she was a little girl.
“I sing showtunes around my house all the time, and love to see all sorts of artistic performances,” she explained in an email.
Dupuis, 37, said she paid $200 plus service charges for her ticket during the presale.
“I saw the musical in New York with my mom, but my husband hasn’t seen it yet so I was very eager to secure some tickets,” she said.
Dupuis would hesitate to drop the money on a resale ticket out of fear it may be counterfeit. Unlike others, she didn’t have a maximum spend in mind when she set out to get seats at the show. Having paid $200 (U.S.) to see the show on Broadway, the $200 price tag here seemed fair to her.
For Rebecca Power, the musical’s draw is less about the content and more about sharing in an experience with her friends.
“Sometimes if there’s (a show) that seems interesting to me I’ll go see it, but … I don’t really have a lot of friends who’d want to go — but this time I did,” Power, 26, said.
She explained that she’s interested in learning more about the plot of the show her friends have spoken so highly of. Power purchased tickets for the April 9 show in Toronto with two people, opting for the lower-priced mezzanine tickets for $110.
“I wouldn’t spend more than $150” on tickets, Power said, noting that is her budget for bigger shows that she is interested in. She would never have considered purchasing resale tickets for the show and simply wouldn’t have attended if she couldn’t get a seat in her desired price range.
While Mirvish Productions doesn’t keep hard data on the age range of people buying tickets, the customers have been younger than usual, said John Karastamatis, the company’s director of communications. Karastamatis said 90 per cent of tickets were sold to people who had never purchased through Mirvish before.
“I’m a woman of colour … I don’t get to see a lot of roles and musical theatre that really reflect my identity or experience.”
ANNA ABRAHAM 23, SELF-DESCRIBED “MUSICAL THEATRE PERSON” “Sometimes if there’s (a show) that seems interesting to me I’ll go see it, but … I don’t really have a lot of friends who’d want to go — but this time I did.”
REBECCA POWER 26 YEARS OLD