Friday, November 17, 2017

The Hamilton Experiment

Everyone knows about Hamilton and if you don’t, how do you not?? But here’s what I don’t know... why is it such a mess of insanity and a total frenzy? I’ve seen some of it on TV and online. I’ve listened to it on XM Radio. I have eyes and ears so I am fully aware of the eye and ear candy of Lin Manuel Miranda. And I haven’t yet figured out WHY??? 


I didn’t renew my season tickets for Broadway this year since I now have my adorable little toddler to tend do. One of the add-on this season is Hamilton. Today the tickets went on sale at 10am.

I had no intentions of trying to see Hamilton. I trust it is a great show, but it’s not Jimmy Buffett. It’s not Starlight Express. It’s not Miss Saigon. It’s not one I feel I HAVE to see.

So today I decided to conduct an experiment! I was curious to see CAN you even get tickets? Are they as expensive as they say? Is the ticket buying hype really what they say it is?

About 10 minutes until 10am I clicked the link in my email to go buy tickets. When the new window opened this is what I saw:


I have bought many tickets in my day and this truly was a first! Usually I just have the window open and then hit refresh once the magic time hits and I immediately get my tickets. This is how I got front row for Jo Koy yesterday, front row for Howie Mandel and front of my section for Jimmy Buffett. I’ve got it down. So this was already a whole new experience!

At 10am my screen switched and I was officially in line.


I continued working, seeing my little person in the green bar walking slowly while I waited. By 10:25am a message popped up that one of the shows was officially sold out. Oh boy. Yeah this is seriously fascinating! It was around this time that our IT guy called, wanting to remote in to my computer to add a program. I said sternly,  "NO!! Not yet. I'll tell you why when I call you back soon!" 


As my little dude got closer to the end I had to wonder, would I buy tickets if I even could? I ended up getting out my wallet just in case.


At 10:39am I was in! It was my turn to pick out my tickets. I immediately had my mom on one line to see if she wanted a ticket if I could even get them. Simultaneously I had Shawn on another phone telling me his work schedule so I could try to get a day when he would be home with our daughter.


I clicked a Saturday matinee. Best available. Fail. I started clicking every type. Fail. No two tickets at that price. Is there one ticket? No.

I kept clicking on every day. Every price. Every ticket range. Best available. Nothing. I saw this screen so many times.


I tried one ticket as best available. I could get a $500 ticket. But only one. At one point I DID get an $80 ticket. But just one. I should have bought it. I could have gone or sold it. Because wait until you see what’s coming up!


I finally called it. At 11:07am I laughed at how I really could not get tickets. Twitter was on fire! I saw videos of the line going all the way around the building. Nobody was having luck online. The phone number didn’t work either.

By the time I got home Shawn had found at least 400 tickets for Portland’s Hamilton on Craig’s List.

Tonight as I was during this Shawn looked again. He found this.

Seriously??

So we got creative. For $417 I could fly to Chicago for a 4 day weekend, visit Mike and Clark, and see Hamilton. But I can’t drive 3 hours north to see this show.Shawn read from someone who works at Keller Auditorium that they were sold out by 10:29 am -- when I was still in the queue!

It really is mind boggling. And I am so happy that I really didn’t even care and it was all an experiment. I mean, hello??!! I just saw Jimmy Buffett twice in less than a month and I got freaking awesome seats for Jo Koy - two tickets for what one would cost at the cheapest Hamilton seats before they made it to Craig’s List. Clearly I have nothing to complain about!

1 comment:

  1. I just saw Hamilton and it was INCREDIBLE. 17/10 highly recommend.

    ReplyDelete

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