At more than 400,000 subscription sales for the 2017-18 season, Lauren Reid, CEO, Broadway Across America, couldn’t be more thrilled. In Portland, Ore., where it was announced in January that three weeks of “Hamilton” headlines the Broadway in Portland season, season tickets are sold out. The show plays Keller Auditorium March 20-April 8.
The true gauge of the impact of “Hamilton” on the performing arts will come with post-Hamilton season renewals, but Reid is confident that not only will there be more continued interest than imagined, and that it will be a new audience.
The typical demographic for Broadway has been women aged 35-54. The fans of “Hamilton” skew younger, multigenerational and all genders. She had not yet delved into the actual demographics for “Hamilton,” but noted shows like “Glee” and “Hairspray” and “Aladdin” also bring out the younger demo.
Ticketmaster’s Marla Ostroff agreed the difference with “Hamilton” ticket sales is that it has expanded the theater audience to a much larger group. “Hamilton” is for every age group and every ethnicity and has opened up theater to people who never went to theater.” And Ostroff believes, as do the producers she works with, that once you’ve experienced a live theater show you’ll want to try it again.
“It’s an incredible show and, at the same time, showing that musical theater and history combined are a phenomenal blend,” Ostroff said.
Robyn Williams, executive director of Portland’5 Centers for the Performing Arts and a Tony voter who sees them all, said all the theaters lucky enough to have announced Hamilton to date “are all totally giddy we have “Hamilton” on our season in its first year to tour.”
In her 17 years in Portland, she’d never known subscriptions to Broadway in Portland to sell out. And the glow will keep coming, because single tickets haven’t gone on sale yet. While Portland has three weeks of “Hamilton,” it can only sell one-week’s worth of subscriptions because other shows on the season are just one week. There will be ample opportunity to stretch the market for Broadway.
“Everyone knows this is the “Hamilton” year, and next year, when there is no “Hamilton,” a lot of these people may drop off because they only subscribed because they thought it was the only way to get tickets,” she predicted. “Everyone is realistic about that. This is the golden glow and next year it will go back to the way it always was.”
Not everyone agrees, however.
BELIEVING IN BROADWAY
Broadway Across America brings Broadway to 44 cities across North America. “You can imagine we will be bringing “Hamilton” for multiple weeks in all of those cities, but all the tours and timing is a work in progress, many not even announced yet,” Reid said. So far, 13 are official and in every city, only subscriptions have been sold, not single tickets.
Since the 2008/2009 season, Broadway Across America has seen growth in ticket sales every season, a minimum of five percent a year, Reid said. This year, growth will be in the double digits.
Reid likes to point out that Broadway Across America now has more season ticketholders than the National Basketball Association, which announced a season ticket base in the 300,000-range in the 2015-16 season.
This year’s count is the largest subscription base in the 25-year history of Broadway Across America. “This is the Golden Age for Broadway theater again and “Hamilton” is certainly extraordinary, something very, very special,” she said, emphasizing that the list of Broadway hits in general these past few years and going forward is unprecedented and bringing in young and old, many of them first timers.
“We’re selling a package that has delivered to audiences. Some will be surprised how much they like other shows. This is one of those wonderful time periods,” Reid said. The last Golden Age of Broadway was sparked by interest in “Phantom of the Opera”, which hit Broadway in 1988.
“It’s early, but I think we will see a prolonged kind of lift, again because of these other shows as well as “Hamilton”,” Reid said.
TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE
“I also think we’re better in the Broadway industry about providing first class services to our patrons and making them feel special and offering exchange privileges and mobile upgrades, the things that sports teams are doing,” Reid said. “You can go online and upgrade your seats. We have the technology we didn’t have before.”
Broadway Across America works with six different ticketing companies, depending on the venue affiliation. One of those is Ticketmaster, which has been terrific in providing these benefits, she said.
“I’ve been doing this for 25-plus years, and I don’t remember such an exciting time when we’re facing the challenges like, in Portland, where we sold out our season tickets,” Reid said. “How do we make sure all these new subscribers know all of their benefits; how do we greet everybody; how do we provide them the best experience? Those are great conversations to have.”
Adventureland, the producers of “Hamilton,” have gone so far as to create a “Hamilton” app to keep new theatergoers (and old) engaged. “They speak to their actual fans,” Ostroff said.
“It will be more interesting in a year or two years from now, to see how “Hamilton” has helped overall subscriptions,” Ostroff admitted, but likened it to food and drink. One great restaurant benefits all the restaurants around it.
As to those who tried and failed to score tickets to “Hamilton,” Ostroff said that’s a function of supply and demand. There was a huge built-up demand in Los Angeles, for instance, but that’s no different than with hot concerts or winning sports teams; there is limited inventory. “All the great shows come back,” she added.
Williams’ big worry is the scalpers. Single tickets have not yet gone on sale, yet the secondary market is selling tickets not yet there. “It drives me crazy. I worry about these people,” she said. The theater and opera company have notices on the web site that tickets are not yet available, but she knows a lot of those buyers don’t even see the website.
“When “Hamilton” leaves town you still want people to love you,” Williams said. “It’s a fabulous show. I was worried before I went to see it that it was all hype, but it really is that good.”
Yet, it seems not a week goes by that a new story about exorbitant secondary ticket prices, angry patrons or another arrest involving misrepresentations about “Hamilton” tickets hits the wires.
“I have not seen the sustained frenzy surrounding ‘Hamilton’ in all my years in this business,” said Gary Adler, executive director, National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB). “The emotions surrounding tickets and visceral reactions are like people on steroids.”
“I’m always asked, ‘How come there are so many tickets on the secondary market?’ and the answer is, if you were to try to buy “Hamilton” tickets, you would have an opportunity to buy tickets 18 months in advance. The ticket prices are very, very high, around $800 a ticket for premium seats, even the cheaper seats are $300 or more,” Adler said.
He believes the important point to keep in mind in regard to brokers scooping up the tickets is that “it is a risk. Most people can’t spend $3,500 for four tickets, committing to see a show 18 months in advance. Brokers are taking the risk.”
And it’s not a sure-bet for brokers, according to Adler, who said that at some point brokers will have to sell “Hamilton” tickets below what they paid. “To conclude that this fury will go forever is unrealistic.”
There have been several curt cases surrounding “Hamilton” tickets. On May 31, Jason Nissen, CEO and president of the premium ticket resale business National Event Company was charged with engaging in a multimillion Ponzi scheme surrounding large purchases of “Hamilton” tickets for his investors. Instead, he spent the money on himself. Earlier this year, Joseph Meli and Matthew Harriton raised more than $81 million from at least 125 investors in 13 states by misleading them to think their money would be pooled to buy large blocks of, you guessed it, “Hamilton” tickets that could be resold for a profit.
Joon H. Kim, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York said, ‘“Hamilton” has brought out the worst in people, especially secondary ticket brokers, who are looking to hit the jackpot. “There’s someone in the middle, taking absolutely no risk and getting a huge profit,” he said. “There are a lot of angry people out there who want to see that show but can’t get a ticket at a price they can afford.”
Williams is worried about scalpers buying up the tickets for resale on several fronts.
“First there will be non theater-goers caught up in the “Hamilton” phenomenon who see a “Hamilton” ticket going for $1,000 and think, ‘I can’t afford to go to Broadway shows’ and then never look for another ticket — to any show — ever again. Other people buy tickets for $1,000 and see that face value is $35 and, for some reason, blame the theater. Then there are people who buy completely fake tickets and show up at the theater and get turned away. It’s bad publicity,” bemoaned Williams.
The speculators are already out there, she said. “We’ve already got scalpers offering tickets for “Hamilton” and there are not even tickets issued yet,” she said. “We will comb through their sales and look for anything suspicious like a single credit card buying multiple tickets and we’ll withdraw the tickets and refund their money. As for people who get duped, there’s not much we can do. Normally we’d have a heart and try to seat them, but if there are no seats the purchaser is out-of-luck.”
“Hamilton” will be coming to Dr. Phillips Center in January 2018; it’s playing in their 2,700-capacity Walt Disney Theater. Their 14,600 subscribers — many of whom signed up just this year — will get first option.
Kathy Ramsberger, president and CEO, Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, anticipates the “Hamilton” tickets to go swiftly. “I think it will go quickly,” she said. “We have 68 million visitors every year and three million that live in the region.” According to Ramsberger’s calculation, approximately 64,800 of them will get to see the show.