Joan Marcus
Renewing subscribers will get first dibs at tickets.
Hamilton is coming! But what’s with all the hoops you have to go through to get tickets?
“The best way to guarantee tickets to HAMILTON is to purchase a seven-show Broadway at Overture season subscription for 2018/19,” reads Overture’s website and news release. “Subscribers who renew their subscription for the 2019/20 season will be able to guarantee their seats for the premiere Madison engagement of HAMILTON.”
That’s clearer than mud, perhaps, but still pretty cloudy. I have to do X, Y and Z to get tickets? As Hamilton himself said, “You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.”
Relax. All will be made clear. First of all, it’s not just us. Giving season ticket holders first dibs on new shows is the way it always has been, at Overture and elsewhere.
Ticket buyers who wish to see Hamilton at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton and the Marcus Center in Milwaukee, tour stops that were also announced on Jan. 10, are looking at a similar situation.
“If you had read about the other two, Milwaukee and Appleton, you would have seen that the conditions for being able to get tickets — or making a commitment to subscribe next year in the 2018-19 season — was a condition in all the markets,” says Ted DeDee, president and CEO of Overture.
Here’s what it boils down to: 2018-19 season ticket subscribers will be given an opportunity to renew for the 2019-20 season (when Hamilton runs). After that, anyone can buy 2019-20 season tickets. Some time after that, anyone will be able to buy a ticket just to Hamilton. If any are left.
“That’s the same model with every Broadway season we’ve ever announced,” says Sarah Knab, Overture’s communications manager. She adds that what essentially is a two-season commitment helps insure that local, loyal theatergoers are rewarded, discouraging those who might buy a season, use only the Hamilton ticket, and discard the rest.
“Every show, in fact, that we’ve been doing at Overture — it’s always the renewing subscribers that get priority first, and then the new subscribers, in terms of seating,” adds DeDee.
Hamilton is already scheduled for Minneapolis during the 2018-19 season, and it’s been running in Chicago since October 2016. The Chicago Tribune speculated on Jan. 12 that the announcement of the Wisconsin shows might shorten the run in that city. Tickets are also not selling as quickly as they once were.
Overture’s 2018-19 season will be announced April 9. It is unclear when Hamilton will open, as the routing of the tour has not yet been announced.
