Get in line for a stage revolution!
Cameron mackintosh wants everyone to get a shot at seeing red-hot revolutionary musical Hamilton when it opens in London in just over a year’s time. The show — which is a solidgold hit in new York — uses music from the late 20th-century (hip-hop) to tell the story of 18th-century U.S. founding father alexander Hamilton.
and it’s likely to be as big a phenomenon here as it has been in america, where it has become a cultural and social touchstone: championed by President obama, First Lady michelle obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Impresario mackintosh is producing the London version, along with american producer Jeffrey Seller, and putting it into the Victoria Palace, which he controls and which is undergoing top-to-bottom renovation.
He told me he is ‘spreading the Hamilton ticket love’. People who have signed up to the priority list (you can add your name until october 31) have first option to purchase seats on January 16 — ahead of the general sale on January 30.
However, mackintosh promised: ‘I am going to keep a proportion of the house for general sale as well. So it’s not like the first few months get filled up with priority ticket holders.’
He SaID: ‘People who have signed up for the priority list are first to be guaranteed to get tickets. But I will have seats for every performance for general customers.’ mackintosh and his ticketoperations team will be doing a daily lottery. ‘Twenty seats for £20 will be raffled on the day, at the theatre,’ he told me.
a second lottery will be held a week in advance — online — so that people living outside of London have an opportunity to bid for another 20 seats at £20. Details of how the weekly lottery is going to work will be unveiled later next year.
more than a third of the Victoria Palace’s 1,500 seats will be priced at £55 or less; and 20 per cent of the house will be £35 or less.
Top, regular-priced seats will be £85; although there will be higher-priced premium seats. mackintosh argued that those super-expensive seats help to ‘keep that proportion of the house under £35’.
The show, about the womanising Hamilton, was written by Linmanuel miranda — who also wrote In The Heights, currently packing them in at the King’s Cross Theatre.
miranda, who originated the role of Hamilton (the man whose face adorns the U.S. $10 dollar bill) off-Broadway at the Public Theater, and on Broadway, too; was in London recently to sit in on closed auditions for featured roles. He was also house hunting.
He will begin filming mary Poppins returns, with emily Blunt, meryl Streep, Ben Whishaw, Colin Firth and emily mortimer, over here later this year. However, he will not be in Hamilton when preview performances start at the Victoria Palace next november.
I’m told that the actor, who has become the unlikeliest of heartthrobs, will definitely do performances in 2018. But discussions about when won’t happen until he has finished shooting the Poppins picture.
MaCKInToSH, meanwhile, insisted that the casting for London would be as diverse as on Broadway. ‘Probably more so, actually,’ he said. Go to hamiltonthemusical.co. uk to get on the priority list by october 31. next year, the site will carry info about the daily and weekly lotteries.
maCKInToSH threw himself a splendidly lavish 70th birthday party on monday (Christopher Biggins burst out of a pinkand-white cake!) in Bedford Square Gardens.
In honour of the occasion, his staff had shot a spoof video — Camilton! — which featured them singing a number from the show.
Those with stamina were led from the garden square at 1am for further refreshments at the impresario’s offices across the street. mackintosh told me he got home at 4.30am.