May 04--An interesting phenomenon hit my mailbox Tuesday, just a few minutes after the Tony Award nominations: People from New York started writing to tell me they were coming to Chicago to see a Broadway show.
And looking for tickets.
The show in question would, of course, be a little something by one Lin-Manuel Miranda called "Hamilton." You might have heard a thing or two about this attraction, which scored a record-breaking 16 Tony nominations Tuesday. It begins performances at the PrivateBank Theatre in Chicago on Sept. 27. A hefty portion of my inbox since then has contained matters of tickets -- most typically, the question of how to get them without giving up a kidney.
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The Broadway production of "Hamilton" is sold out through January. That means anyone wanting to have the considerable pleasure of quality time with the founding hip-hop dads before then will find themselves in the hands of brokers and scalpers. Those prices are themselves historic: Plenty of people are paying more than $1,000 a pop. A very good seat on a Saturday night is more likely $1,200, at least.
(Is the show so much better than every other show that it is worth that kind of money? In a word, no. Not unless you can part with that kind of money with ease. But I digress.)
The Tonys stuff has only upped the insanity, of course, especially since "Hamilton" now also has to find room for some 900 Tony voters over the next several weeks.
On one theater website the other day, I read a poignant, moving piece wherein a person spent that kind of money on a pair of tickets to be able to see "Hamilton" with a young daughter. The theatergoer, a creative type herself, felt guilty about what she had spent, but she had just lost her mom, and thus had come to see anew that experience and family time can be more important than money, which ain't of much use when those we love are gone.
All true -- and indicative of how much this show has touched people's emotions.
And all slightly disturbing.
Now I usually make it to New York and back for an airfare of about $200 -- sometimes less -- so you can see why Chicago, at its typical prices, is an attractive proposition to those savvy New Yorkers. You can stay in a fine hotel like The Langham, eat dinner at Alinea -- the James Beard Award winner, no less -- and still come out ahead. Well, dinner at Girl and the Goat, at least. "Hamilton" and Alinea are among the world's savviest maximizers of revenue.
So what about those Chicago tickets?
My old advice was to form a group with your pals, since those group tickets have long been on sale. The only problem there is that all the group tickets now are gone -- Broadway in Chicago says it has sold out of its "allotment" (which means it thinks it can sell the rest for more).
So if you really want a ticket to "Hamilton" in Chicago right now, your best bet is to buy a season subscription, sales of which end Sunday. Those ducats, which are priced less than you'd pay for a premium ticket for "Hamilton" in New York, are still available (for some nights, at least). You'll also get seats to "Aladdin," "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "The Bodyguard." And it's not like you actually have to go -- Broadway in Chicago won't make like the airlines and cancel all your other reservations. Actually, in the case of "Curious" and "Hedwig," you most certainly should go. And I'm sure you'd find a taker with kids for your "Aladdin" tickets.
We'll just forget about "The Bodyguard." For now. Maybe forever. They'd better work on that thing, given all the people who'll be in the house in Chicago who were just trying to get into "Hamilton."
Note that if you buy those subscriptions you will be pushed into the first two weeks of the "Hamilton" run, which is when all those seats have been reserved. This option won't work if you want to go, say, Christmas week. But, hey, those first two weeks likely will be the best -- the cast will be at its freshest and most excited. I'm telling you, those subscriptions are a deal.
Option 2 is to hit the scalper sites. How did they get the tickets that are not yet on sale, you ask?
I suspect they formed groups! Bet you're sorry now you didn't listen.
On Wednesday morning I found tickets to "Hamilton" in Chicago on a site called Vividseats (no warranties expressed or implied here) in the $400-$700 range, which is absurd, I know, but still cheaper than New York. StubHub tickets for Chicago are more like $900. I suspect those prices will go down as the supply of tickets increases.
In the meantime, we all wait for the single-ticket on-sale date -- which is supposed to be after the subscribers get their chance to buy additional tickets, and then maybe sell them to pay for their entire subscription.
This madness will calm down in Chicago, which is not New York when it comes to frivolous spending, but not until 2017. And when those single tickets do go on sale, the date range won't be all that large, even though "Hamilton" will be here for at least 18 months and maybe much longer. But they won't reduce the feverish demand by spreading that out over too much inventory. They will manufacture an instant sell-out, protecting prices in both New York and Chicago, and then you will have to wait again, my friends.
Once again: Broadway in Chicago declined to say this week when single tickets will go on sale. But don't forget that the Tony Awards, widely expected to be the "Hamilton" awards this year, are June 12.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@tribune.com
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