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I, like most of the theatre world, am completely captivated by the
new Broadway superhit Hamilton. I
have listened to the cast recording on repeat nonstop for the last several
months. I know every word to every song. The cast members have all become
celebrities in my house. I am also extremely lucky to have seen Hamilton, and it completely blew me
away and exceeded every expectation.
I also luckily only paid $57 for my ticket.
That sentence usually is greeted with gasps, dropped jaws,
and “HOOOOOWWWW?!” That kind of price for this show is completely unheard of
these days. If you buy a Hamilton ticket face value, the cheapest you can get
is $139. StubHub and Ticketmaster Resale is filled with people re-selling their
tickets for as much as $1,500 or more PER TICKET. Why are people doing this? Because people are so desperate to see the
show that they will pay 10x the original ticket cost to see it!
This alone is where our problem lies and created the whole
reason why I am writing this blog post. Hamilton
has become such a phenomenon that allowing the ticket prices to skyrocket
is fine – in fact, it has become the butt of jokes. Now maybe I’m cheap, but
there’s no show in the world that would make me want to pay twice my paycheck
to see. I have pretty much made my peace with the fact that I will probably
never see Hamilton again, and I have
instead focused my energy on being grateful for the fact that I got to see the
show when I did and for the price I paid.
Then came word of a national tour.
Broadway productions go on tour because not everyone has the
means or funds to travel to New York City, but if the show came to their
hometown, then they could afford to see a near carbon copy of the Broadway
production. At least that’s what I thought.
This morning, it was announced that the Hamilton National Tour would be stopping at The Kennedy Center in
Washington, DC in its 2017-2018 season. The area rejoiced, myself included. I
love the Kennedy Center. To me, it’s one of the more beautiful buildings in DC,
and is one of my favorite places in town. I have frequented the Kennedy Center
since I was 7 years old and my parents took me to see Beauty and the Beast. Their MyTix rush program has allowed me to
see some great shows I would not have afforded to see otherwise. I’m always
looking for an excuse to visit this beautiful theatre.
My excitement lasted approximately 5 seconds as I opened the
Washington Post article explaining the wonderful news, and my excitement turned
into anger. Allow me to cite a direct quote from this article:
“According to Kennedy Center
President Deborah F. Rutter, you have to buy both the 2016-2017 and the 2017-2018 Kennedy Center theatre
subscription seasons to secure a spot among the first in line for tickets to
the hyper-successful musical. The 2017-2018 subscriptions do not go on sale
until next year. But anyone buying both subscription seasons gets top priority,
center officials said. Sometime in the future, single tickets are also expected
to be made available for Hamilton’s
DC run, although the remaining inventory will depend on the length of Hamilton’s visit to the center’s 2,362
seat Opera House, and how many people have purchased those full subscriptions.”
(Peter Marks, The Washington Post, 4/10/16 11:00am)
Okay. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what goes
down at the Kennedy Center, allow me to break this down for you. The cheapest
theatre subscription you can purchase at the Kennedy Center, as far as I know,
is a 3-show season subscription. That means you get to pick three shows in the
entire season you get to go to, and you get your tickets secured several months
before seats are released to the general public. It’s like a super expensive
presale. That subscription, last time I checked, was about $300 for 1 ticket to
each show. Now, in order to be “first in line” to get Hamilton tickets, you’ll have to buy a second subscription, so
that’s another $300. So you have just shelled out $600 almost two years in
advance to see six shows just to guarantee your spot at the front of the line
to get your Hamilton ticket, and
you’re seeing all of these shows alone - assuming they’ll let you buy only one
ticket. This is assuming that the Kennedy Center is allowing Hamilton to be a part of the 3-show
subscription. What if Hamilton is
only available on the 6-show subscription?
“But wait!” a prospective subscription buyer shouts, “What
if I buy both subscriptions now and just sell all the other tickets to the
other shows?” Sure. That’s not a bad idea to be honest. If you want to shell
out all that money, hope that someone else wants your tickets to The Bridges of Madison County, and you
still don’t actually have your physical Hamilton
tickets in hand, be my guest.
“Fear not!” cries the social media rep for The Kennedy
Center, “More options will be available!” Oh that’s right, those individual
tickets will be available eventually, subject to availability. Have we all
forgotten what happened the first time The
Book of Mormon came to the Kennedy Center? Allow me to refresh your memory:
THE WEBSITE CRASHED FOR LIKE TWO DAYS. Unless The Kennedy Center has majorly
upgraded their IT department, what do you think is going to happen this time? The
website might just implode due to the incredibly high volume of traffic of people
hoping to be in the room where it happens, even if there are tickets available.
The hype behind Hamilton is like The Book of Mormon on crack. Everyone,
just like last time, is going to flock to the season subscriptions, and there
will be nothing left for those who waited patiently for individual tickets to
go on sale to the general public. Those of us who cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars two years in advance
will not be seeing Hamilton on tour. Many people who truly love this show, who
identify with the actors they would see onstage, who thought the tour would be their only hope to see the show, can no
longer do so because that opportunity has been made unavailable to them. That
opportunity is no longer in their price range. The national tour is no longer
their backup plan if they can’t see it on Broadway.
The way I see it, this is the Kennedy Center's way of making more money. This is no less greedy than the ticket scalpers on the street. Just having Hamilton at the KenCen is going to make them a ton of money, why must every cent get drained from our wallets? Am I the only person who sees a problem with this?!
The way I see it, this is the Kennedy Center's way of making more money. This is no less greedy than the ticket scalpers on the street. Just having Hamilton at the KenCen is going to make them a ton of money, why must every cent get drained from our wallets? Am I the only person who sees a problem with this?!
I do not agree in the least with what The Kennedy Center is
doing, much less seeing people pay thousands of dollars for theatre tickets.
All it is doing is driving the supply and demand up, and making this show less
and less accessible for those who can’t afford to pay such exorbitant prices.
If the Kennedy Center or any other theatres on the track of this tour are really
creating these kinds of policies, then set aside tickets to be made affordable.
Offer a lottery, or MyTix rush tickets. Give those on a budget something. I can’t even begin to count how many of my friends are counting
on the tour as their chance to see Hamilton,
and now they’re forced with the decision of not seeing it, or spending hundreds
of dollars that should be spent on food, student loans, rent, etc. for their
chance of obtaining a ticket.
Let’s think this through, and let’s not allow supply and
demand to control us at so high a cost.
Thank you for stating this so clearly, Hilary. I have been struggling with the same ideas but have not been able to say it as eloquently.
ReplyDeleteI am equally disappointed in the Hamilton production staff who is allowing this kind of ticket mark up - both on Broadway and now for the tour. I thought we were a few hundred years out of the era of "art is only for the weathly." And, as you so wonderfully said:
"Many people who truly love this show, who identify with the actors they would see onstage, who thought the tour would be their only hope to see the show, can no longer do so because that opportunity has been made unavailable to them."
Thank you for this.
Also, how much will this screw up ticket sales for the other shows in the KC season? If people are buying up subscriptions just for the chance of getting a Hamilton ticket, will that mean they won't see the other shows they bought and those seats will go unfilled? How is that helpful to the REST of the performance community?
Delete(Ok, that's all.)