HAMILTON National Tour — Page 6

I'm local here in CLE. There is no in-person lottery or standing room, only the digital lottery. Best thing I can recommend is trying box office day of the show, but apart from some random single seats, the remainder of the run is completely sold out.

Regarding the box seats at the State, I saw the show in the front row ground box on house left last night. It was partial view, but apart from missing a few things off on the side, I actually liked the seats better than front row. The box is slightly raised and I loved being able to look over and see the entire orchestra down in the pit. However, I can definitely see someone who has never seen the show before being disappointed in the partial view. (I have to try and get the same seats for Miss Saigon next year.) Considering what the partial view box seats are/were priced, it's a really good deal, imo.

Updated On: 8/22/18 at 01:32 PM

Does anybody know for sure where the lottery seats are for Cleveland? Are they in the front row? I'm driving up Saturday to see the Sunday matinee, and I'm thinking of trying the lottery for the Saturday evening performance. I know chances of winning are super super super super slim, but I'm not even going to bother if they are, like, last row of balcony or something.

I've talked to three people who've won the lottery.
One person got 2nd row, another got upper box/partial view, another was about 12 rows back.

Tickets for Pittsburgh’s January 2019 run of “Hamilton” went on sale this past Monday. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust used the Virtual Waiting Room concept (similar to what Cleveland had done earlier this year) instead of Verified Fans through Ticketmaster. I was trying to help my neighbor get tickets for her and her 12 year old daughter. She couldn’t go online, so I voluntarily took the day off to give it my best effort.

No matter when you logged in, at the magic hour everyone received a random number. Once the clock struck 9am and the random numbers were handed out to those of us in the “waiting room”, I received position 84,799. Yes, there were nearly 85k people ahead of me. Wow. And that doesn’t include those who were most likely “in line” behind me, and in line at the box office in Pittsburgh. So, roughly 100k people? For 86,000 seats? Nope, there’s more...

Now, keep in mind lots of tickets had already been “sold” to those who had season tickets last year and then renewed, plus those who had Waitlisted for season tickets and were lucky, like myself. However, each household was allowed up to 4 tickets, hence my effort to help my neighbor.

This wait for tickets went on for hours and hours, and at the rate of about 1300 people per 15 minutes - I watched the rate at which my number decreased - I finally quit after three hours when my number was still at 69,547. The odds were not in my favor here.

I logged in much later in the day and the wait line was still super crazy, and by the next morning at 6am only scattered singles and premium seats were available.

Of the 31 performances scheduled in January, 18 are completely sold out, and those that are not list less than 1% availability remaining (all are premium seats @ $490 each) save one show at less than 2%.

So, now she is going to try the lottery when it starts later in December.

This show is crazy popular, and even with the tour it’s difficult to get tickets unless you’re a season subscriber or very lucky.

Updated On: 11/7/18 at 05:37 PM

For you experts. Tickets to the general public go on sale next Friday to the city closest to me.. I will be a single seat and spending in the $200 or less ticket price range. Am I better to get myself in the que that first morning or just wait to buy random single seats that are left? I have noticed for other cities the mezz and balcony look completely sold out with only resellers. There were a couple of regular singles at some performances in the orchestra at the $168-$198 range I would love to play the digital lottery everyday, but I think a win would be unrealistic. This city does reasonably well with their Broadway series. Opinions?

ArtMan said: "For you experts. Tickets to the general public go on sale next Friday to the city closest to me.. I will be a single seat and spending in the $200 or less ticket price range. Am I better to get myself in the que that first morning or just wait to buy random single seats that are left? I have noticed for other cities the mezz and balcony look completely sold out with only resellers. There were a couple of regular singles at some performances in the orchestra at the $168-$198 range I would love to play the digital lottery everyday, but I think a win would be unrealistic. This city does reasonably well with their Broadway series. Opinions?"

Has Hamilton been in your city before? In San Francisco, it's on a second go-'round for a long stay, so seats are available. But if it's the first time, and the show is only in town for a few weeks, and you definitely want to see it for that price, I would get in the virtual line. You don't want to deal with resellers, because many of them have crazy expectations for the price they hope to get. The advantage you have is that you're buying one seat, so you should be OK snagging a ticket even if the online ticketing sale goes haywire.

I tried to get tickets the minute they went onsale in DC and had a similar experience. My virtual number did not come up to purchase tickets until 3 a.m. and at that point only the uber premium seats were available and I could not afford those seats.

Check to see if standing room seats are available in your town. While we'd all rather have a seat, if it's a choice between not seeing the show and standing, I'll stand!

My friend and I took the metro down to the Kennedy Center on a rainy, middle of the week day to try for standing room. I found out they would sell 18 to 20 sro spots same day if the show was sold out, which you can check online. Each person could buy 1 or 2 tickets for $50 each. We arrived at 3 pm and were 10th and 11th in line when the box office opened at 5:30 pm.

The sightline was clear and there was a low wall to lean on, so it was not a bad way to see the show...especially considering the person who was seated about a foot in front of me in the last row of the orchestra paid almost $400 more than me for the same view.

If SRO is available, go early, go midweek when people are working, on a not too pleasant day, to get in line. I had played the lottery every day til that point with no luck, but SRO got me in the room where it happens.

Thanks for all of your responses. Yes, this is the first time Hamilton is coming, so I'm sure it is a "must see" ticket. Although I didn't think of it, there is a city an hour away, from the city I want to attend, who has the show scheduled before the one I want to see. So that may keep alot of that traffic away. My city, Jacksonville, will have Hamilton next year so that will keep most except the diehard fans away. I'm most curious to how the virtual line works. My luck is terrible so I know I will have a long wait. But how do you estimate when to come back to the computer if they don't offer the email reminder that amaklo mentioned? I really don't want to sit at a computer all day waiting for my turn.

dmwnc1959, Thanks for the additional info.

Well, I tried to get Hamilton tickets on Friday when the nonsubscription seats went on sale. Getting into the waiting room was somewhat easy. After several minutes, my wait period showed up for over two hours. I did not have the time to devote to it so I signed out. I think I made the right choice, because I read the system crashed and many online ticket buyers spent many hours and were not able to purchase. Since Friday night, their website states tickets unavailable. I'm not sure if their system is still crashed or they sold out.

Bump-



I saw this on Facebook today (https://www.facebook.com/events/172962660317513/). Excited that the tour is coming to Philly, since it's not far from where I go to school and had a hope that tickets would be cheaper (friend is a massive fan and I've been dying to take her). But when I go on the website to buy tickets, the theaters website says they're not available, but the link through Facebook has crazy high prices. Is that a scam or... just confused and looking for some input if anyone has some.

I’ve now bought Hamilton tour tickets in five cities (I really love the show, so when it goes to a city near close friends or family, I get tickets for all of us and go with them to see it). It’s not actually that hard to get tickets if you plan ahead. Plan on it taking the whole day (although it likely won’t, it could). Have everyone in your party (and anyone else you can convince to do it for you) join the virtual queue before the sale starts. Those email links can be forwarded, and the queue number is not tied to your IP address (so if you’re buying tickets for your family, and your sister gets a better number than you, you can buy the tickets on her number from your computer). And if it any point the website crashes or you get shut out, start over again. I was able to get orchestra seats in DC at about 7 PM at a time when other people had declared that non-premium pairs of tickets were sold out hours before, just by being patient and diligent.

I think a lot of people get discouraged or disappointed, because this isn’t like buying concert tickets or tickets to any other show. It’s kind of a project. But if you look at it that way, and devote the necessary resources to it, you’re almost certainly get the seats you want.