Hamilton San Francisco — Page 2

PatrickDC said: "I believe a major distinction is that in 2017 it was part of the SHNSF season, versus 2018 when it’s an add-on with subscribers getting first access but no other incentives, such as discount rates. I don’t recall the exact numbers but 2017 season tix sales were double or so over previous SHNSF seasons. So the majority of seats were season tix holders — myself included. Or at least a large percentage of seats were taken up by season subscribers making it appear demand was higher.

I’m sure marketing will ramp up closer to February. The frenzy and wall to wall media coverage just isn’t there yet this time around. I saw it in 2017 — my one and only time — was impressed, thought it was close to brilliant. But I’ve moved on and won’t be seeing it in 2018."

I hadn't thought about that. SHN aggressively promoted the inclusion of Hamilton in its 2016-17 season. And as you mentioned, the show was at its popular peak, in terms of national attention, in late 2016/early 2017. I was helping Facebook friends get tickets, and they weren't the sort of people who usually see musicals. There was plenty of free media accompanying the fact that tickets were going on sale. But the fact that it was part of of SHN's season did limit seating availability.

This time, it's different, but not quite the way I expected. The highest priced tickets are still selling, even though prices have gone up substantially for all but a couple of rows. What's very available are the side orchestra seats, many of which are partial or obstructed view, rear orchestra, and a lot of the mezzanine. All of those are priced at $219. That's especially true later in the summer. Sho-Tunes-R-Us is probably right that a lot of these will be snapped up by tourists and corporate buyers, as well as individuals, once marketing gets in gear. What's different is that the show needs any marketing.

As I've seen the show three times, once with the original cast and twice during the 2017 San Francisco run with Michael Luwoye and Joshua Henry, I was a bit ambivalent about getting tickets myself. I usually just get rush tickets to everything, or find some other inexpensive way to see shows. But I decided to get a pair of tickets, mainly because I haven't seen as many musicals lately that I've really loved - not counting a couple of good local revivals. (I'm not counting Vietgone, which does have songs, as a musical.)

With the Pantages announcement this morning, it would appear Hamilton sits in SF for a year before transferring to LA. The one potential other scenario would be if Chicago closes after 3+ years and transfers to LA. Low likelihood, but the one reason I suggest that is because a tour makes its way through Wisconsin next season. What impact does the tour have on the Chicago sit down? SF and LA are such distinct tourist markets that they seem more likely to support two companies than the upper Midwest.

One other topic: most of February is sold out but I noticed Feb 21’s 6pm show shows a lot of availability in Mezz and Balcony. What’s that about?

Has anyone gone yet? Since it opened in ski season I bought far out in July to avoid any conflicts with trips to Tahoe, but now I am regretting having to wait so long. I've tried the lottery without luck this week (unsurprisingly). I suspect I am going to break down and buy tickets for later this Spring.

Revisiting the discussion of how long Hamilton is sitting, I found this article recently in which one of the company members said "We'll be there as long as San Francisco demands," but it will be at least a year. That makes me wonder if my far-fetched idea that the Chicago company moves to LA isn't quite so far-fetched.

https://www.greensboro.com/blogs/gotriad_extra/greensboro-actor-wraps-up-hamilton-in-puerto-rico-moves-with/article_293b4d97-0cd6-53e0-ab1e-a0c9a43ce9b3.html

Yes, I went tonight(Friday). And almost had a heart attack. Right at the end, just as Who Lives, Who dies, Who Tells Your Story started, there was a loud disturbance in right rear orchestra. I was in left orchestra row R and couldn’t hear what was being shouted. But immediately warnings of “Get down! Get down!” Spread through the theater. The cast left the stage and people began crawling out of the theater on their hands and knees, in a panic. Before I got out of the theater a man behind me yelled “It’s ok everything’s all right you can get up”. From the back I heard someone yelling about CPR. And that’s all I know. Very disturbing, and of course pretty much everybody left with no chance to finish the song or clap for final bows which there probably weren’t any. But I don’t know for sure, I was gone.

It seemed to have been right after Hamilton was shot.

Sorry these aren't clickable:

https://twitter.com/stolenbytigers/status/1096650662081908736

https://twitter.com/mariannefavro/status/1096656015066488832

https://twitter.com/RickNegron3/status/1096658593514803200

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Direct link:
https://www.facebook.com/SHNBroadwayinSF/posts/10156820998473503

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Oh lordy

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No, didn’t see any ushers or theatre employees.or walkers or wheelchairs. Actually, there was a walker in my row I think (I sat in the Accessible row which the box office had opened to general seating) but it must have gotten out fairly quickly because I didn’t see it when I was leaving. I didn’t hear any theater announcements either.

I wasn't there Friday night. Here's a news account. It sounds like there was a medical emergency, and then someone yelled "gun" for whatever reason. Panic and confusion followed. There were several injuries as people evacuated (not including the woman who had the medical emergency, who is in critical condition, according to the story). The story says people were jumping into police cars outside the theater, fearing an active shooter.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hamilton-san-francisco-chaos-mass-panic-after-medical-emergency-orpheum-theatre-2019-02-16/

SHN"s tweet saying what happened is being rebutted in the comments by people who were there and said no one knew what was happening. Several people said they heard no alarm at all and that is was just just mass chaos.

https://twitter.com/shnsf/status/1096667861341241344

Updated On: 2/16/19 at 03:54 AM

So i was there last night and I think people keep assuming the gunshot on stage must be what set people off, but the timing is not correct for that.

I was sitting in the front row, Hamilton was already dead, Burr had already stated that he was villain in the story now, and we were onto the last couple minutes of the show with jefferson giving credit to hamilton’s work. I could hear screaming over the top of the performance at that point and my first instinct was that it was someone drunk going off (wouldn’t be the first time i mean i watched a drunk girl sleep through all of act 2 a couple years ago and her friend keep her asleep when she woke up to keep her from getting loud), but them the screaming kept happening, i saw a moment of realization on the actors’ faces that something was wrong, and a split second afte that i was pulled off my seat and onto the ground with people shouting “GET DOWN GET DOWN” It was terrifying and very very real. i watched people pouring over the side of the orchestra pit to flee and what was really only a couple minutes felt like a life time.

I do not know what happened to turn a medical emergency into that kind of panic, or what it was like for the people who were near what actually happened but I do know,,for a lot of us, by the time it reached us the threat was very very real. And I also know that this makes a huge statement on us as a society that even in the safest of places, we’ve been trained to keep our guards up. I had legitimate thoughts that I could die last night, I had to text my mom and tell her she might hear something on the news about the show and that i was fine. I couldn’t drive home for nearly an hour because I was shaking so badly and my heart was racing at a speed I’ve never known it to go before. I saw so many people friends and families just hugging each other outside and kids being heard extremely close to their parents. It was a false alarm as far as danger goes, but it felt VERY real.

Updated On: 2/16/19 at 11:12 AM

hi notalwaysontime

thanks your harrowing description of what happened and grateful you are ok physically. real or perceived the emotions and fears are just as vivid. if you have any lasting symptoms, consider a good ptsd expert. my experience is nlp(neuro linguistic programming) based practitioners are excellent at quickly integrating traumas. i recently went thru a life threatening trauma and the NLP really helped....

ironically, i just received in my email from SHN asking how we enjoyed the show and a feedback link.

that will make for some very interesting reading.....

bear88 said: "Notalwaysontime, during the final song, did you hear a fire alarm or anyone yelling 'gun,' or did you hear a lot of screaming that didn't stop followed by people racing for any exit they could find? (I assume there was no announcement.) How did you leave?

I am very sorry about your experience, and those others have recounted."

I never heard someone yell gun like others are reporting, but I did hear the persistent screaming. When it ceased to stop was when everything when crazy, I didn’t even have time to wonder what was happening before being pulled off my seat and onto the floor by someone. There was a lot of shouting to “GET DOWN” and I stayed on the floor hiding behind my seat for a minute or two minutes i would say, and crawled across the floor behind the seats toward the wall where I had to stand up to go out the door, but by that time. the mood had already shifted to, “Ok, everything is actually ok, but still let’s get out of here” I never heard any alarms either, not until I was almost out of the theater, that’s when I realized they were going off. I have no idea when they actually got turned on, But i really really don’t think it was until the middle of the chaos. (I’m heavy in the camp with everyone else commenting on SHNs facebook post that their version is inaccurate,)

Ruben posted about it on his instastory last night and while I don’t know how accurate his versions of events/facts are, about how a medical emergency turned into this, out of all the stories I’ve heard about how it progressed. his makes the most logical sense.