If you haven't heard anything about Hamilton by now, you've probably been living under a rock for the past year. The historical hip-hop hit about the life of Alexander Hamilton won a Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album, took home 11 Tony Awards (including Best Musical), and caused its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, to receive a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Pulitzer Prize last year.
The face of a certified genius.
All of this, of course, makes tickets impossible to get—at least for plebeians like myself who don't have connections who can pull a few strings and get us in, or an extra thousand dollars sitting around to use to live the dream.
The closest I've ever been to the room (and building) where it happens.
After Hamilton's Tony success and Miranda's recent announcement that he will leave the show July 9—and his co-star, Leslie Odom Jr., following suit—the fever pitch of ticket-buying has turned into a frenzy. Even with tickets for Hamilton's Chicago run now on sale, it seems hopeless, a far-reaching bucket list item. But does that mean fans should give up hope?
NO!
The journey of getting to see Hamilton is almost as good as seeing Hamilton. Think of the long waiting period as a two-sided coin: both detrimental and beneficial. It allows fans to grow more and more familiar with the cast album. This dense musical work cannot be fully enjoyed on a first or second listen. That's when it hooks you. Only after multiple hearings do the songs open themselves up to the listener like flowers, putting their full spectrum of mastery and meaning on display.
Miranda and the Hamilton team could have capitalized on Hamilton's forced exclusivity, letting mystery hike up ticket sales instead of word-of-mouth. But instead of hiding the light of Hamilton under a bushel, Miranda lets it shine above and beyond media coverage. First, he fully annotated the Genius.com entry for the Hamilton cast album. Then, he released Hamilton: The Revolution (aka "the Hamiltome"), a book about the creative process behind the musical, which includes color photographs from the show and the full libretto, with side notes. Miranda is constantly letting fans into his head, even if he can't get them into the theater. But he tries to do that as well. New York public high school students get to see the show for free. The Hamilton team adopted a tradition from RENT, another genre-redefining Broadway musical, with the Ham4Ham lottery, where entrants put in $10 (the bill features Hamilton's portrait—hence the name) to win tickets to the show. Formerly a live show, now mostly digitized, Ham4Ham features cast members and guest stars performing non-show material. Miranda and his team want to make Hamilton: an American Musical an American experience—and not just for those Americans who can afford the show's top-dollar tickets.
I haven't seen Hamilton yet. I don't know when I will—maybe in two years, or five, or ten. But, like Aaron Burr, the musical's antihero, I'm willing to "wait for it."
