Will DOLLY dethrone HAMILTON?

With its record breaking advance, does HELLO, DOLLY! have a shot at knocking HAMILTON out of the top spot on the Broadway Grosses leader board?

Shubert holds 10% more folks than the Rodgers does, so if Dolly can get the average ticket price close to Ham's nearly $300 level then they could do so.



In other words, as haterobics said, no. Tourists won't pay that.



It will get more Tony awards than Hamilton does next year, though.

At the moment premium ticket prices for Hamilton is $749 or $849 so I doubt Dolly will dethrone Hamilton. For Hello Dolly, their premium prices are $499 ($650/$750 for front row depending on the day.) I've noticed though that Hello Dolly increased the number of premium seats in orchestra. Back in early January when I bought my ticket, I bought row M center orchestra seats for $189 (it was the first row in orch center that wasn't designated as premium.) Now from looking at telecharge, even row O center orchestra is priced as premium!

It will definitely dethrone one of the top 5 grossing shows, though.

Highly unlikely in the long run. "Hamilton" is already significantly sold out for the next year. Plus, Bette will probably not remain in "Dolly" for more than a year and I don't think the show is going to prove as star-proof as "Hamilton." Do you?

I agree. After the nominations come out or after the Tony Awards, I can see premium tickets for Hello Dolly going up to $1000 (if not more.)

Zamedy154 said: "With its record breaking advance, does HELLO, DOLLY! have a shot at knocking HAMILTON out of the top spot on the Broadway Grosses leader board?



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None. Nope. Thanks for playing.

Truth is, whether it's a "good thing" or not -- "Hello Dolly" is musical theatre, and can be really good or great musical theatre. But Hamilton is something else, something that has transcended the theatre community and created a special niche in "American Culture."

I love the show, but I'm still amazed on what has happened.

"But Hamilton is something else,"

It's something else, all right. Something insufferable.

"something that has transcended the theatre community and created a special niche in "American Culture.""



Oh, ho, ho! That's a good one! American "culture," you say? What "culture?" The "culture" that bows and scrapes before puerile tripe like Hamilton? Give us a break, please!

ACL2006 said: "Dolly's premium ticket price is $650, HAMILTON'S top price is $1,000. So no."

Not to mention, Dolly's top ticket price is the front row. Hamilton's is the entire center orchestra from the third row back to around R or S, and four seats on the side orchestra for the same, and then the "mid-premiums" on top of that for $400+.

They're not remotely close.

Wick3 said: "If you compare both musicals as they are today, you are correct. However, Hamilton's top price before the Tony Awards last year was $499. After the Tony's, they increased the premium seating price to $549; then to $999 during the holidays (and after new year's day in 2017, to $849). Who knows? Hello Dolly may very well reach those skyhigh prices as soon as this summer."

Yes, but Hamilton raised its prices in future ticket blocks. Presumably Bette's whole run is on sale. They can raise the prices on remaining seats all they want, but they already sold $40M of seats at the current prices.






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haterobics said: "Yes, but Hamilton raised its prices in future ticket blocks. Presumably Bette's whole run is on sale. They can raise the prices on remaining seats all they want, but they already sold $40M of seats at the current prices.

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Hamilton increased premium prices to $849 starting this past January but in the new block that was released recently, premium pricing went down to $749.

I don't know if entire ticket block had been released for Hello Dolly but I'm doubtful (at least for tickets after the Tony Awards.) We'll see.

If there's a week where Hello Dolly has a chance to beat Hamilton in the gross numbers, it most likely would be one of the holiday weeks later this year (provided Hello Dolly has not released all their premium tickets for sale yet.)

The reason that Hamilton was able to charge that much was because it became a must see in the eyes of American popular culture. Referenced on every TV show, seen by every celebrity, winning every award, with Lin being a charismatic fresh face (to those that don't follow musical theatre). People felt like they needed to see it in order to be able to join in with the conversation surrounding it or they became fans through the cast recording and were desperate to see the songs performed on stage. It was also something new and current. A revival of Hello Dolly - no matter who the star - cannot and will not have the same impact and therefore the same power to be able to sell tickets for $1000.

Updated On: 3/20/17 at 10:51 AM

I think the producers are definitively hoping to Recoup with Bette Middler. In my opinoin they should then just can go through a series of Limited runs of the Grand Dames of Broadway. I can't imagine Lupone, Peters, Neuwirth, Ebersole, Channing, Murphy would be so prideful that they would turn down their one opportunity to play Dolly on a Broadway stage because they couldn't originate the role and be eligible for a Tony. Add to that the fact that they aged up Dolly for this revival, they can easily take it back down and bring reigning divas Chenoweth, Macdonald, Scott, Foster, Headley....

I know not all of these women are right for the role of Dolly, but I am just saying the production could make a lot of money doing 2-3 month runs with rotating Dollys akin to what Headwig and the Angry Inch did except considering Dolly is not as physically demanding and specific a role the pool of replacements can increase vastly.