I follow Lin Manuel Miranda on twitter and he has been urging New York residents to contact their state reps in regards to a law being considered to make it harder for resale companies to automatically scoop up all the tickets before humans are able to do so. It is apparently already illegal to use software but so profitable they do it anyway. This new law would put teeth in the regulations.
I must have gotten that email about the same time you did! I immediately forwarded it to H, D1 and D2. We’re hoping to get tickets for when they’re both home at Christmas since that will be the only time this year we’re all together here in Chicago and are hoping we don’t have to pay resale value.
We encountered this for the first time over a year ago when we tried to get tickets to see Cat Stevens. You had to present the credit card you purchased the tickets with at the door when you entered, so there were no resales. Now, he played a smaller venue, but I can’t imagine how this would happen at some larger venues for big concerts.
Ticket prices in NYC are being increased, with premium seats going up to $849 and regular seats from $139 - 177 to $179 - 199. The number of lottery seats will be increased from 21 to 46, to allow for more individuals to see the show for $10. I have long been a fan of lottery/rush programs, which were started by RENT, but they can really be abused. With many shows, the people ‘playing’ are often the same, day after day. Many will have seen a show multiple times in rush/lottery seats. I don’t know if this is the case with Hamilton but it wouldn’t surprise me. The other issue is that the intention of allowing those who could otherwise not see the show, all too often does not work, in practice. There will inevitably be people in those seats who could afford to purchase regular seats.
I understand that Jeffrey Seller is attempting to prevent scalpers from profiting with resales, as he clearly wants those profits himself for all those involved with the show. My beef with this is that most resellers are being handled through Ticketmaster itself. The conversation should begin with them, in my opinion.
How long do you think it will take for Hamilton seats to open up so people won’t have to plan months ahead to see the show?
Hamilton was a federalist who supported a strong federal government. He also, like many federalists did not want a direct democracy, like Adams and others they feared mob rule. Like many federalists, they took the English view that the rights enumerated in what we know as the bill of rights were inherent to the constitution (and had a darker side, when rights are not enumerated, they can easily be manipulated to the advantage of the government, it is why the Jeffersonian branch of things insisted on the bill of rights being codified). Hamilton favored a centralized economy, having a central bank and where the federal government had a lot of power in the economy, whereas the Jeffersonian branch favored the farmers and small businessmen and saw the federal government as a threat to their sovereignty (and to no ones surprise really, this has played out all through US history, Jackson ran on a platform against elitism, against the federal government, and one of his first acts was to get rid of the bank of the US that Hamilton created and decried John Quincy Adams as being an elitist who ‘looked down’ on the people)
As far as Hamiton’s value to the founding of the US, he played a big role, but would it have happened if Hamilton didn’t exist? I would tell you that without Washington, the odds of the US happening would be pretty small, if non existent, for a number of reasons, if for what Washington represented. Hamilton’s biggest contribution, much more than his part in creating the federalist papers and the framework they pushed for, was his brilliant economic analysis that allowed the government to figure out the debt of the states and take it over, which in turn led to the states adopting the constitution and de facto making a working country. I think if Hamilton had not existed, history would have been different, but I think the country would have ended up existing, though it might have been a lot more rough.
Jefferson like all politicians was a pragmatist, and while he preached absolutes, he didn’t follow through on them all the time. For example, the “Democrat-republicans” he was part of, was absolutist when it came to the constitution (much like the federalist society today), and if it wasn’t enumerated, the central government could do it…yet as president, he pulled off the Lousiana Purchase, which nowhere in the constitution does it allow the federal government to do that, yet he did (not to mention that as a firm supporter of states rights, he would see that as taking from their sovereignty. In theory, a state could have bought the land, or private citizens, then petioned that the territory become part of the US or part of their state.). Jefferson also supported the notion publicly that the bill of rights and constitution only applied to the federal government, that the states had ultimate power, yet as president there were more than a few times when he violated that.
@dstark Your guess is as good as mine. 
I don’t think it will happen anytime soon.
Your guess may be based on some knowledge of the theater.
I have no clue.
So no. Your guess is better than mine.
That was D when she was attending college in NYC 
Teri, what are the face value prices for Chicago? The resellers are already offering tickets at $500 on up.
I want to go but I’m undecided how much I’m really willing to pay. Luckily I have flexibility so fine with a matinee and don’t need to be near Christmas. I will try on 6-21 though and see what I can get.
I have no idea yet; the email I got today didn’t say. And I didn’t look at the price of tickets broken down per show if I’d bought them as part of season tickets, because I wasn’t interested in season tickets. We will have a very limited number of days when both Ds are home for Christmas that we can see it, so I need to be able to choose the date.
I also found out tonight that Phillipa Soo (who plays Eliza Hamilton on Broadway), who is from a neighboring suburb, will be initiating the role of Eliza here in Chicago. I hope she sticks it out through Christmas (I suspect she will).
If you’re looking for a date to see a matinee performance… (just sayin’).
^^The resales are already going from ~$500 - 1800!
@dstark : It appears you received a very nice response from @musicprnt. I might have been at a loss regarding Jefferson anyway in that it seems I have an affinity for the great Hamilton – runs in my family in a sense.
Jefferson was a man of many contradictions (aka was human, as were all the founders, the making them into almost religious figures by certain groups of people is both historically wrong and dangerous). He claimed to represent the farmers and the ordinary ‘people’, yet himself was very well off (or at least grew up that way, he could have taken lessons in financial management from Hamilton, for sure) and was also an intellectual (he used to claim he was a farmer, he was a gentleman farmer, a diddler in it so to speak). Jefferson claimed to despise slavery, and in the original draft of the declaration he declared it an affront to man and man’s God, yet he never freed his slaves, including at his death (partially or fully due to economic reasons). He openly was critical of Adams as an elitist and ‘out of touch’ with the common people, yet Adams economically was a lot more close to the common people than Jefferson was, he was not a wealthy man by any means, and fianances were always a problem with him.
The Chicago Tribune had an article in yesterday’s paper on how to beat the ‘bots’ when trying to purchase tickets that go on sale June 21.
How does a person, someone, fan of a Broadway show
More popular than any other that we know/
Compete with the scalpers and defeat those scoundrels
With their sneaky software called ‘bots’/
Who score all the tix and sell them for lots?
However, I didn’t see anything in this article about how regular theater goers could manage that. ::sigh::
But, they did lay out some plans for making the show more accessible to students:
“The stipulation by the Gershwin estate is probably the primary factor in P & B almost never being produced, which is unfortunate.”
I can see absolutely no reason why the stipulation that the cast has to be Black is an impediment to production. It may not only have been a move to preserve elements in performance believed to most genuinely and fully project the experience of the Black community at the center of the production, but also an attempt to safeguard and ensure opportunities in concert and performance halls for Blacks.
There is no dearth of trained and masterful singers and actors who are able to pull off such a production.
The finer questions and concerns of audience draw and support of such a production are the greater considerations.
Who else is watching the Tony’s tonight?
(got the date right )
“The stipulation by the Gershwin estate is probably the primary factor in P & B almost never being produced, which is unfortunate.”
I can see absolutely no reason why the stipulation that the cast has to be Black is an impediment to production. "
Wasn’t the discussion about high school productions? Kind of hard to cast black kids in a play in a school with relatively few black kids (who may or may not be interested in acting). Frankly that would likely be the same for community-theaters in certain areas. No one is suggesting there aren’t talented black actors - take a breath.
Yes, there are many very talented actors who are people of color. That’s obvious to anyone who is involved with theatre (as I am). That wasn’t my point so I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear. The reality is that there are very few productions which are entirely cast with people of color. I think that’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s one of the comments most often associated with Hamilton and has been front and centre in their marketing.