Hamilton the Musical's Ticket Scarcity

One of my favorite things that I have listened to in recent memory is the soundtrack to the Broadway musical Hamilton. However, I know for a fact that I am not alone in this case. Hamilton, a pseudo hip hop/rap musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton's life, has become the newest smash hit on Broadway. While I am excited for the show's success, it's nearly impossible to get a ticket and so I (like many others) will likely be unable to see it for the foreseeable future.

Isn't that logo just awesome?! UGH.

The show's popularity has led to a scarcity in tickets. Through the original seller, Ticketmaster, the show was priced much more reasonably. However, those tickets sell out months in advance and therefore any tickets from now through July can only be bought through second party websites such as Ebay or Vivid. This scarcity causes most of these other sellers to spike up the prices to ridiculous amounts. For example, my understanding is that the mezzanine seats were originally priced between $60-100. Since those sold rather quickly and there still is a demand for them, there are some sellers that price that type of ticket at $400 or $500 (which is totally insane!). The show knows this, though, and so they have come up with a solution: a lottery for 21 front row seats!

Yeesh would ya look at that crowd!!

The lottery is called Ham4Ham, and in addition to being a lottery, the crowd gets treated to free performances by the cast. I love this idea because in many cases people get to see unconventional versions of songs for the show. For example, one Ham4Ham, they had all three actors who played King George come out and preformed a song sung by the three main women in the cast. It's hilarious and awesome, and you could tell the crowd really enjoyed it. This is a way for the production to attempt to meet the high demand with just a bit more supply. So even if you didn't get to see the show, you still walk away having gotten to enjoy something & I love that. 

This musical is so great and I hope y'all go and check it out :)