The anticipated Madison premiere of Hamilton is finally here!” crows Tim Sauers in a recent interview about the upcoming season. Overture’s VP of programming and community engagement is speaking a bit prematurely — the tour buses won’t actually roll into town until mid-November. But ticket seekers are closer to getting in “the room where it happens” than they’ve ever been.
Madison audiences have waited a long time to see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning, mega-musical Hamilton onstage at Overture Center. The genre-busting, hip-hop musical about a lesser-known U.S. founding father has made superstars out of the original cast (including Philippa Soo, Renee Elise Goldberry, Christopher Jackson, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs and Miranda himself). And since its official Broadway opening in August 2015, it’s also made the top 10 list of highest grossing musicals of all time, at $529.3 million and counting.
Dane County Hamilfans have been promised a look at the “ten dollar founding father” for the past two years. In January 2018, Overture officials announced that the surefire way for theater-goers to nab tickets would be to purchase season tickets: “The best way to guarantee tickets to HAMILTON is to purchase a seven-show Broadway at Overture season subscription for 2018/19. Subscribers who renew their subscription for the 2019/20 season will be able to guarantee their seats for the premiere Madison engagement of HAMILTON.”
Many have done so. But what about those who have not shelled out cash for season subscriptions? Do they have a chance at seeing Hamilton?
Sauers says yes. Some single tickets will be available for all 25 performances of Hamilton, scheduled over the three-week run, Nov. 19-Dec. 8. Sauers didn’t offer details about prices for individual tickets, but did say each household would be limited to purchasing four seats, and “the single ticket on-sale date will be announced after Labor Day.”
If you’re feeling lucky, you will also be able to enter the #HAM4HAM online lottery each day during the run for the chance to receive two tickets to a performance for only $10 apiece. For more details, Sauers encourages fans of the “young, scrappy and hungry” band of revolutionaries to sign up for Overture’s digital newsletter or follow the organization on social media.
There are several hundred single tickets already on sale at Stubhub.com, starting at $348 and topping out at $1,362. Apiece. This is happening, despite the fact that Overture Center actively reviews orders to ensure tickets purchased are not by those intending to make a profit through reselling. “Any site other than overture.org which is selling tickets for events at Overture Center is a ticket reseller. If you purchase a ticket from a reseller, you’ll pay significantly more than face value and may not even receive a valid ticket,” says Sauers. He encouraged prospective ticket buyers to learn more about how to purchase legitimate tickets by visiting Overture’s website.
There is no question the coming of Hamilton has already been a boon for Overture. Sauers is waiting on the final numbers for Overture’s Broadway Series subscriptions, since the ticket office is still selling them, but he’s optimistic that the “Hamilton effect” will put the venue on strong footing. “We expect a 25 to 30 percent increase in subscribers this season,” he says. And with season packages ranging from $222 to $696 per person, that’s going to have a very nice effect on the venue’s bottom line.
In other second- and third-tier markets, like Chicago, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Cleveland and Buffalo, fans’ hunger for Hamilton has translated into huge revenue increases for their performing arts centers.
When the show landed in Chicago, Broadway in Chicago set a precedent — selling out of its fall subscriptions for the first time in the organization’s history. When the show lit up the SHN Orpheum marquee in San Francisco, their memberships doubled — from 20,000 to 40,000. Cleveland’s Playhouse Square saw steady increases over two years, waiting for the “hero and a scholar” to make his entrance, eventually selling 1,000 subscriptions per day for the first three weeks the packages were on sale to the public.
