I think it is very easy to assume that a smash hit like Hamilton is driven by hype, there is obviously an element to that with any smash show, people seeing it because ‘it is cool’, and so forth. Thing is, though, that kind of hype doesn’t last, and the word of mouth on this show shows it has lasting value. Is the show the provence of well off upper income, mostly white audiences? Yeah, but guess what, that has been true of Broadway for a long, long time, when you have a smash like this, where supply is outpaced by demand, prices go nuts. When "The Producers’ became a smash, musical ticket prices went above 100 bucks and kept climbing. When broadway musicals started doing the spectacles, the Andrew LLoyd Webber/special effects monsters, the price tags started climbing, as did other costs. Even assuming there are TKTS for a show, half off some of the tickets is still hefty.
With Hamilton or any hot ticket, what makes it worse is that a lot of tickets never see face value to the real audiences, thanks to a variety of techniques ticket brokers snatch them up and sell them for huge premiums, whether it is because they have inside contacts with the ticketing agencies (or with ticketmaster having the $$$ to have a resale division of its own, anyone think that the two are firewalled? . The same thing is true of other forms of entertainement, when big name rap and hip hop stars perform, tickets prices aren’t cheap, and large part of their audiences are well off, mostly white kids, too (I don’t think tickets to see Kanye West or Jay Z or any of the top rap/hip hop acts, are going for 10 bucks,they are up there these days, too),so working class people are being locked out there, too, it is across the board.
Okay, so then why is Hamilton important? The answer is simple, the show is selling out and the backers are getting their money back and will likely make money on the show…and the fact that the show was written by someone who is hispanic, features a cast that is mostly black/hispanic, has music that is not necessarily traditional broadway, and is selling means that the arguments that still plague the movies for example are being blown away…primarily, that a cast that has a lot of folks who are non white, shows written by someone who isn’t white, can sell to a wide audience on broadway, that the old arguments are basically bs. When Hair hit broadway, with a score that contained rock music in it (not entirely, like Hamilton it was a mix of things), that had a cast with a lot of black actors, it was predicted it would crash and burn, it didn’t (and because of Hair, later shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent much later on, others were produced when they realized Broadway wasn’t just for blue haired old ladies pining for Oklahoma). It will be hard for some producer (who are almost entirely older white men) to argue against success, and that is the big point…and what broadway produces also has impact elsewhere, as others have said. Regional theaters may take a chance on a new musical or play by someone non traditional or cast plays with non traditional actors and so forth.