Takeaways from Hamilton ticket-buying

I am still pretty new to Broadway scene so am wondering how typical the whole selling-out almost a year in advance and scalpers driving prices way up that we see with Hamilton is and if that should impact how I buy tickets in the future.

I mean I turned away in shock when I was offered $167 tix to Hamilton at the box office back in July but now I realize that I would be lucky to find something in that price range and then only after standing for hours in cancellation line. But then with "Its only a play" I splurged for a ticket several months in advance since it was sold out during my nyc stay but by the time I saw it, most tickets were half off. Not sure if there is good takeaway for budget theater goer to predict when it's best to buy tickets.

I've been the person who paid premium surrounded by people who paid scalpers, and paid regular price and been surrounded by discount and rushers. I figure if you see enough shows, and get enough discounts, you come out ahead in the end...

That said, Hamilton is sort of its own entity, so I don't think it is a good show to sort of gauge how Broadway works overall. Broadway producers wish that were true...

To help put it in perspective: there are 40 Broadway houses, from those the only shows that are consistently sold out and/or without any discount (so far,anyway) are as follows

Hamilton

Wicked

Lion King

Book of Mormon

Granted, those 40 houses are not always occupied, but you get the idea. When there's a mega hit, you simply have to decide.....pay full price or wait till the fury dies down. But it could be a looong time. You also cannot be picky about your seats when you are looking for a discount.

Your best bet? Be ready to commit to a full price ticket so that the day tix go on sale, you can get online to secure a ticket.

Updated On: 1/6/16 at 03:28 AM

The problem with buying tickets right when they go on sale is how many shows don't sell a lot of decent seats from the start, as they wait to see if they can raise the ticket prices, so all you can get is the rear and side orchestra, and not the front mezzanine. I'm not against dynamic ticket pricing, but it certainly seems like you shouldn't hold back more than half of the orchestra (and all of its good seats) to gauge demand... thankfully, a lot of times I wanted to dive in and buy seats, only to hold back because of bad seating options and aggressive ticket strategies from producers, I usually got to go later with discounts for the seats they initially held back

haterobics said: "The problem with buying tickets right when they go on sale is how many shows don't sell a lot of decent seats from the start, as they wait to see if they can raise the ticket prices, so all you can get is the rear and side orchestra, and not the front mezzanine. I'm not against dynamic ticket pricing, but it certainly seems like you shouldn't hold back more than half of the orchestra (and all of its good seats) to gauge demand... thankfully, a lot of times I wanted to dive in and buy seats, only to hold back because of bad seating options and aggressive ticket strategies from producers, I usually got to go later with discounts for the seats they initially held back "

...right but Hamilton is a completely different story. They aren't discounting. What does that have to do with this thread about Hamilton ticket buying?

At least with Hamilton, after following it's off-broadway run to broadway previews, I purchased a ticket just before it's official opening for a performance in late Sept. I really think it was sheer luck that a single seat was available even at the $167 price, and it was that feeling like if I didn't do it now, who knows when or how much. The same thing happened with The Book of Mormon, though there, I could only follow the word of mouth on here. As soon as that Times review came out, I thought what the heck and got a mezz seat for I think $70. Sometimes it's just following a gut feeling.

Has anyone heard of any instances where Hamilton re-sale tix were brought down in price closer to a performance? I'm always hoping that maybe a 500/600 seat will be marked down to $250 closer to the show but so far, I haven't seen it happen. And, both times i saw the show, I bought from a stubhub seller who was offering multiple seats in a row and both times, those seats remained empty during the show. This was last summer. Why would these guys lose money on tickets rather than sell them at a price closer to face value?

I mean I turned away in shock when I was offered $167 tix to Hamilton at the box office back in July but now I realize that I would be lucky to find something in that price range and then only after standing for hours in cancellation line. But then with "Its only a play" I splurged for a ticket several months in advance since it was sold out during my nyc stay but by the time I saw it, most tickets were half off. Not sure if there is good takeaway for budget theater goer to predict when it's best to buy tickets."

Nowadays for hit shows I tend to buy tickets months in advance and if I win the rush lottery beforehand, then I'd sell my tickets to friends on FB for face value. That's what I did for Book of Mormon and Aladdin a few years ago.