Hot ‘Hamilton’ tickets on sale today.
Single tickets for 22-week San Francisco run set to go on sale on Monday
Sound the trumpets! “Hamilton” single tickets finally go on sale Monday, but the question remains: Will you be able to nab any?
The hottest show to hit Broadway in forever, the Pulitzerand Tony-winning “Hamilton,” launches its national tour in March 2017 at San Francisco’s 700-seat Orpheum Theatre; previews begin March 10, and the main run opens March 23. The hip-hop-fueled musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which uses an ethnically diverse cast to tell the story of America’s founding fathers, has caused a ticket frenzy like no other.
So far, tickets have been available only to SHN subscribers, who not only received seats to the show as part of their package but also were allowed early access to buy up to two extra tickets. That means that buddying up to a subscriber fast may well be the easiest path to success.
Thanks largely to “Hamilton,” SHN’s subscriber base ballooned from 20,000 to 43,000. But does that mean subscribers have already snapped up most of the “Hamilton” seats?
Scott Kane, chief marketing officer for SHN, wants to reassure Hamil-fans that since the show has a 22-week run, they won’t be shut out when single tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Monday for American Express cardholders. General public tickets go on sale Dec. 12.
SHN officials also say that reports that the company’s website recently crashed under the strain of clicking “Hamil-
ton” fans are false.
“There will be plenty of tickets available for customers when the Amex online sale begins,” says Kane, “as well as for the general public.”
But SHN officials will not divulge just how many seats will be available come Monday. And sources say the subscription drive did indeed eat up all but a “minuscule” chunk of the Hamilton seats and it will be difficult to score seats, at least in the primary ticket market.
Obviously, the best strategy is get online early and be ready. The Monday pre-sale tickets become available at 10 a.m., online only, at www. hamilton.shnsf.com. Ticket prices range from $100-$198 for regular seats and $524 for “premium” seats. Some reports say the lower-priced seats will be especially hard to find. Also, remember to be patient as the information loads and then click as fast as possible when you have a ticket in your sights. And since the Amex sale Monday is online only, don’t waste time camping out at the box office.
Indeed, Kane says online purchasing will be your best bet, over phone and box office sales, even when the general public sale begins at 10 a.m. Dec. 12. Those tickets will be available at 888746-1799 or www.hamilton.shnsf. com, or at the SHN Orpheum box office at 1192 Market St. in San Francisco. There’s a maximum of six tickets per household.
There will also be a day-of-show lottery for 44 tickets at $10 each. More information is at www.shnsf.com.
When “Book of Mormon” first came to the Bay Area in 2012, tickets sold out within 90 minutes of the 10 a.m. release. Legions of fans had to resort to scalpers and secondary-market sales, shelling out as much as $900 for a seat, or taking their chances with the daily lottery. A few hard-core theater junkies even flew to Los Angeles to see the show because it wasn’t as hot a ticket there.
The good news is “Hamilton” has a much longer run — nearly five months — compared with “Mormon’s” initial one-month run. The bad news is “Hamilton” is so popular it makes “Mormon” look like a bake sale. The secondary market is already ablaze with “Hamilton” fever. The cheapest seat for it on Stubhub will set you back $1,080 and the really good seats go for as high as $2,250. On another resale site, ticketsW.com, the ticket range is $976 to $1,543.
“Hamilton” recently became the first Broadway show to gross more than $3 million for an eight-performance week — and its stock has only risen after its highly publicized faceoff with Vice President-elect Mike Pence after a recent performance. The incident set off a Twitter war between the cast of the show and the presidentelect himself.
Indeed, the “Hamilton” lottery has become an iconic event in New York, where it has been nearly impossible to nab officially sanctioned tickets (which now go as high as $849 apiece) ever since the show opened last summer.
The San Francisco lottery may wind up assuming a similarly legendary status, if history is any guide.
Playwright Marisela Trevino Orta, who had bad luck with the “Mormon” online mania in 2012, offers this tongue-in-cheek advice to would-be ticket buyers: Consider “a sacrifice to the theater gods. Especially if they (SHN) haven’t improved their website.”
“Hamilton” recently became the first Broadway show to gross more than $3 million for an eight performance week.