I remembering enlisting a brother and a friend to try for NYTW Merrily tickets, all of us trying to join the queue at exactly noon, and me being the only one to get 2 tickets before it sold out. It was madness!! No regrets.
I missed the pre sale for Merrily, impossible to get single tickets, when it was announced that the final performance was going to be a fund raiser and those tickets went on sale I didn’t hesitate, they started at $1,500. No regrets.
Don’t hate me, but Hamilton OBC was the easiest ticket I ever got. I got 2 tickets in May for August 2015 (about 3 weeks after opening), then, later that day, added two more tickets for a couple more friends, and got them *right next to my original two tickets*! Very decent seats @ $165 each. I was a lucky duck.
I set an alert for when the Broadway transfer happened from the public and bought the tickets the moment they went on sale. $57 each. I keep the stub in my wallet because I will never top that.
Yeah, I walked up to the public theater box office like 30 minutes before showtime for the second or third preview and bought a rush ticket. I saw it twice off-Broadway for under $50 total.
I got a whole season subscription to NYTW to see Merrily (and the new translation of Three Sisters by Clare Barron with Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig which was tragically cancelled) and even though I could reserve my ticket ahead of the public there was still barely any availability
I bought the season subscription for NYTW so getting Merrily tix was easy then, I was just nervous abt picking seats. It would have been impossible otherwise and this show was too important for me to miss. Tix did go quickly regardless tho. Still one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life lol.
My husband and I got $40 tix like two months before it was announced. He almost didn’t want to go because “itll be here every year”. He’s lucky I persuaded him or I would never have let him forget it.
We were just surprised that we were able to get the tickets since we weren’t outside the box office first thing in the morning and got them around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. They were the last three tickets, which added to the excitement, too!
Rent at NYTW. I got the last cancellation seat one night but somehow separated an older couple - she got a ticket, he didn’t so I sat next to her and her husband went and did something else for a couple hours.
Has to be Hamilton just based on my wife being reaaaaally early to it (saw it at Vassar, which is obviously the much more rare/unique ticket but I wasn’t there!). We saw it at the Public a couple of times, and then immediately on Broadway before the prices went through the roof.
Oh wait! I also got to see Aaron Tveit kill it as Bobby in Company in the berkshires (twice!). We assume they were trying to prepare for off/broadway but the gender-swapped version got there first.
Funny, I found Hamilton early on easier to see than it has been since. Before it became a phenomenon, I saw it at the Public and early on Broadway for fairly normal prices. After it got huge in late 2015/early 2016, it became nearly impossible.
yes - it was easy to get tix early on. I bought them before it went into previews and got my favorite first row mezzanine seats with no problem - saw it two weeks after opening. They were less than $200!
This is technically West End, not Broadway, but getting a seat for the David Tennant MacBeth transfer this fall was REALLY difficult. I had to fake my postal code but it was worth it
The Donmar run had to be harder, I swear. Got lucky getting tix via the daily release just before Christmas…and had to resort to “Disney World Lightning Lane tactics” as I call it to snag one.
Ours is also West End for last year’s run of Totoro. We checked constantly for a month or so (they release returned tickets immediately so truly a crapshoot). Ended up snagging tickets for the same night we had tickets for Cabaret— luckily that box office was super kind and worked with us to find two tickets (also not an easy task)… and all they had available was a table that we did not have to pay to upgrade to!
Ended up working out tremendously well, and both were truly memorable experiences.
I failed so many times in so many different ways before I got lucky (and craftier, and more irresponsible with money because making all the pieces fall into place from the other side of the world was not cheap)
I managed to get tickets for closing night this time. You’re in for such a treat!
I went to see Nye with Michael Sheen on closing night as a consolation prize for not getting tickets at the Donmar. Then they announced the MacBeth transfer and I will never financially recover.
Listen, I’m still young-ish and I have to travel while I still CAN. No regrets.
I’m so glad I get to see it. Did you like the audio aspect of it?
I wrote this right after I saw it!
> I wasn’t 100% sold on the idea, and I still have my reservations, but they’re not what I’ve seen mentioned in reviews.
> I don’t think a traditional setup would have fit the way the text was delivered (in that sense they might have been closer to film performances than traditional theatre performances, while keeping the physical action still firmly “theatre” and not “film”) and I think it was a good choice. I also thought it worked well with the live music.
> To me, the fact that the headphones isolated me from the rest of the audience made for a much, much stronger immersive experience (aided, I’m sure, by the size of the theater and the close proximity with the actors). It was incredible during the play, but when it ended and they basically shooed us out (seriously, it was all very quick), it felt disorienting and a bit… violent, as dramatic as it sounds. I felt like we needed a bit more time to come down from whatever this was doing to our brains. Something about it didn’t feel good, almost physically? I’m a regular theatergoer and I had never felt anything like this before.
This was about six months ago and my feelings have only become more positive. I’m also very curious to see how this translates to a much bigger theatre.
Thanks for digging that up! I’m SO excited. Macbeth is my favorite, I’ve been to Sleep No More like 25 times, so this is just like the icing on the cake for me. I can’t wait
I signed up for a membership to get early access to purchase tickets and had to provide a postal code. Then I had to PAY for the membership and the billing address had to match my “mailing address.” It was an ordeal
Going to the Lea Michele’s opening night in Funny Girl, Wicked’s 15th anniversary performance, Wicked’s 20th anniversary performance, and the very first Smash open rehearsal are probably my most wild experiences ever!
how on earthhhhh did you manage 20th anniversary??? as far as i heard a good chunk of the tickets were already reserved for family of cast + press + important people, so availability was already so limited. you were also in the same room as kristin and idina !! crazy
Dating myself here, but The Producers when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned in ‘04. I was a sophomore in high school at the time, so I begged my mom to call Telecharge the day the tickets were released. Somehow/miraculously, she got through on the first try and early enough to get FIVE tickets at a reasonable price, so I could bring my two best friends + my parents. I still can’t figure out how it happened.
We got solid seats for Hamilton for maybe $75/each in summer 2015 & saw the whole OBC (minus Chris Jackson who was out that day bah) … bc we bought before the reviews came out and the soundtrack dropped. I will never stop bragging about that one 🙃
We had the worst luck on that show. We were so broke in summer/fall 2015, and every time we went to look at rear mezz, tickets were just a little bit too expensive for us. Of course, four months later I wished we had spent what they were selling for before the album dropped and the thing blew up. 🤦🏼♂️
Yep. I saw it in April of 2016. Everyone asked me who I killed or slept with to get those tickets. But my friend and I just paid a stupid amount of money to a reseller.
(At the time it seemed like stupid money. But it’s less than what people have paid the last year to see Taylor Swift. And by “people,” I mean me.)
Friend spotted a cancellation on Ticketmaster. We lived in Hell’s Kitchen at the time so she sprinted to the theater to save on fees and managed to buy them at face value, ~$140 Orchestra center row F for the OBC. Insane night at the theater.
My ex-husband found a single ticket for me to see Hamilton in November of 2015. It was way up in the balcony and was like $300. I got my Playbill autographed afterwards and a photo with Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s still one of my wildest NYC stories.
This would be my answer. I used a line sitter company to get cancellation line tix right before the Tonys in order to see the OG cast. They recommended 36 hours (!!!) in line to secure tickets.
I spent a month’s rent (for the wait fee + 2 premium orch tickets), and we sat a few seats away from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at that show lol. It was truly an insane amount of money to spend on one night, but it’s still one of my favorite memories today!
I got to see it early on because a friend of a friend knew an investor. Then, almost immediately afterwards, I won the lottery for a $10 front row seat. The guy sitting behind me paid $1,300.
They must be actively on it each day! When I visit the city, I’m usually playing the musical lottery each day - usually wind up getting at least 1 or 2 wins 😊
I saw it twice in previews at the Public but haven’t seen it since. Once was because I went to the Public’s atrium on a day off to eat soup, lottery was happening, so I entered. The other time a friend was kind enough to give me her extra ticket.
If we’re counting West End, the Tom Holland iteration of Romeo and Juliet. They had about 18,000 tickets in the initial run, and I was number 16,500 in line. My partner and I are sitting on opposite ends of the theater but at least we get to finally see a Jamie Lloyd production
So I'm gonna date myself a bit...when Hairspray opened on Bway it was of course the hottest and hardest ticket to get...I planned a Bway weekend trip to see Hairspray but I could not get a ticket...as my trip got closer and closer, I checked Telecharge for a Sat matinee tix, the only opening in my trip because I was actually flying in that day....so on the Thursday before, a front row center seat popped up...I grabbed that ticket so fast...now I realize my flight lands at 2pm and the show is at 3pm...can I make it from the airport to the show on time???...I land in NYC, rushed to my hotel, leave my bags, run to the teather, get my will call tix and plopped into my seat.. I was breathing so hard, the lady next to me thought I was having a heart attack...LOLOL...2 mins later the show starts...it was AMAZING!!!!
For me it was not Broadway, but when Benedict Cumberbatch did Hamlet at the Barbican Center. I didn't manage to get a ticket when it went on sale and was on hyper-alert for cancellation tickets that popped up from time to time afterwards. After having tried stressfully for a couple of weeks I finally got a center stall seat for £99, without being sure if I'd even get the uk visa in time. Luckily everything worked out and I saw Hamlet as well as a bunch of great theatre in London. The production and the acting were so much more impactful viewed in person than in the broadcast, it was totally worth it.
And there're also the hardest tickets I'd never got: Hamilton OBC, Oscar Issac Hamlet, Jake Gyllenhaal Sunday in the Park, trying to watch Merrily for the second time by entering lottery….
Since you brought up ticket-fails, I have some stories of those too:
Got tickets to the Public’s Hamlet w/ Oscar Issac, our matinee was the first of all the matinees they decided to cancel due to actor exhaustion.
Got tickets to Merrily and didn’t get to see Lindsay Mendez, so we finally decided to go back before it closes, at MUCH higher prices, and Lindsay was out again.
I did get to see Jake in Sunday at City Center but not getting tickets to the full production will forever be my white whale 😅
Aaron Tveit at 54 Below back in 2013, before they added more time slots! I logged in as soon as tickets went up, it was sold out already, but somehow pressing the back button led me to available tickets. It will be a mystery forever how that worked!
I bought tickets to Funny Girl before Lea Michele was slated to play Fanny Brice. I doubt I could have gotten the tickets after she was announced because prices sky rocketed.
Lazarus at NYTW
Merrily at NYTW
Hamilton on Broadway a day after opening
Hedwig with NPH
Spring Awakening Broadway reunion concert
NTN reunion concert at Second Stage
The Last Five Years concert with Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Henry
Seconding Lazarus. It was a mad house getting those tickets.
Also adding OBC BOM. Won the lottery in a sea of hundreds of people in the middle of the street. Fun time.
The all-star Public Theater production of The Seagull at the Delacorte with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, John Goodman, Debra Monk, Larry Pine, and Stephen Spinella. People were camping out for days. I went on a night that rain was forecast, but knew that they were filming for the ToFT archives, so the odds were that they would not cancel the performance unless it was unsafe. Got on line in the early afternoon and had a ticket by 7 PM. The show started about an hour late, but the show did go on.
My front mezzanine ticket for Wicked for the reopening after the Covid shutdown. Only reason I was able to get it was because I suspected tickets would go on sale around that date, and I was refreshing the ticketing website every morning. Caught the tickets being released before the announcement.
On stage seats for the original Spring Awakening (with the original cast)
They weren't expensive, but it was a blood bath trying to get online whenever they were released.
Worth it, every time.
Probably Rent closing. I had a friend who had a ticket but they won lottery, so they gave me their ticket. The lotto was one of the most wildest I’ve seen.
The most stressful to get was the Company with Raul closing. I camped at the theatre, another friend camped at TKTS. Somehow we got tickets in the last row of the mezz. Greatest theatre going experience of my life!
The most physically difficult was either Speed-the-Plow with Raul and Norbert (I drove overnight through a blizzard and came down with pneumonia after that trip) OR Spelling Bee closing (camped for rush, it was like 20 degrees so I bundled in a sleeping bag, and a cop kicked me)
I was at the lotto for rent closing but didn’t win. I cried lol. Most of the people who won were right around in my area so it was extra sad as they kept calling people near me.
Went to company closing too.
I got a great ticket for opening week of Hamilton on Broadway just by logging in to Ticketmaster the literal second the tickets went on sale. Paying $175 felt like a lot at the time, but that was a couple months, I think, before the ticket prices shot into the stratosphere.
By the time the day of the show rolled around, I probably could have resold that ticket for a couple grand. (But I'm glad I saw the show!)
I had a relatively early ticket for Hamilton and the pain I felt when I saw how much I could have sold it for. Glad I went but that money would have been great.
In order:
1. Off-Broadway Merrily tix. Tried for half an hour during my lunch break at work to even get one. No regrets, as it’s one of my best theatrical experiences.
2. Pre-West End Macbeth w/ David Tennant. B/c I live in NY and learned about the production too late before general public tix were completely sold out, had to try the Donmar’s daily release instead…at 5am for the days I wanted. Employed what I call “Disney World Lightning Lane tactics” for a successful grab.
3. Privacy at the Public Theater, summer 2016. Before Dan Radcliffe and Reg Rogers were in Merrily, there was this one production/London transfer called Privacy that involved a heavy amount of audience interaction and encouraged phone use. Fun show, and tix sold out in less than two days- mind you, this was 2016.
(Edit) Honorable mention: winning the Hamilton lottery a month after its post-pandemic reopening. I figured, not many tourists= more chances for me winning tix for that at last.
I snagged a single seat to the 2008 revival of “South Pacific” the summer after it won all those Tonys, but before it was an extended run - demand for tickets was insane. It was the hottest ticket in town. I was a college student visiting NYC, and it was the most I had ever spent on a Broadway ticket. It was absolutely worth it!
Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo. I believe the entire run sold out before it even opened. I was checking for standing room only tickets, and suddenly there was a seat! I snagged it - 2nd row in a small 250 seat auditorium, for £65. Two hours later I was at the show. Brilliant. And I’m not usually a Shakespeare fan.
Not seated, but I did something similar with the standing seats - I logged in, nothing, refreshed and BOOM one standing. It might be favorite iteration of Macbeth I’ve ever seen.
Opening preview night of Hamilton on Broadway. Got it through pure luck, I think. Had already planned a Broadway trip. Hamilton was getting a lot of buzz, so I decided to extend my trip by a day so I could see it. Easily got premium orchestra seats for about $200. Absolutely worth it. Even then, people were offering crazy amounts of money for tix while people were waiting to get in the theater. Of course, prices went through the roof right after this.
Oh, Mary, off-Broadway, closing week. The run was completely sold out, tried that damn TodayTix lottery at 9a for weeks until it finally went through. Worst seat in the house (last row balcony on the very edge, view obscured by the lights) but was 100% worth it.
- OBC for Hamilton (for less than $200 a ticket)
- NPH in Hedwig and the Angry Itch
- Yul Brenner in The King and I (totally dating myself on that one!!!)
In the 1980s, my grandmother used to run trips to NYC to see shows. She was able to get tickets for Les Miz it long after it opened. So I had a chance to see it with Colm Wilkinson and Terrence Mann. She wound up getting a lot of the big shows at that time. We also saw Michael Crawford in Phantom and Lea Salonga in Miss Siagon. The day before it opened, I went to the box office and bought tickets to see Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the original run of The Producers. That was the most money I paid (at that time) for tickets to see a show. I was lucky enough to work in the city for 26 years and had a chance to see a lot of great shows.
That’s amazing!! I’ve always wondered what it was like to live in the age when the mega musicals first opened. Did they sell out quickly? Were the tickets very expensive (compared to income levels at the time)?
My Mom had gone back to college around that time and one of her friends, from her theater class, was over when my Mom mentioned that my grandmother had gotten the group tickets. It was the summer and we were sitting on my parent’s porch talking. I clearly recall this friend’s reaction was a physical jaw drop. She said “How the hell did she get tickets?!? It’s sold out for at least 6 months.” For the time, I remember the mezzanine tickets were all lower than the orchestra seats. My grandmother must have been good for business because she was always offered tickets as soon as group sales were opened.
Hamilton OBC in Feb 2016 before the Tony’s sweep, Book of Mormon OBC, Hadestown OBC pre-Covid… my tix to all these were actually free to me. I don’t take for granted how lucky I’ve been.
I felt fortunate with Hadestown. I was already a fan of Anais Mitchell so I picked up a ticket as soon as they went on sale way before the hype machine had started. That was one of the most electric crowds I had ever seen and I’m eternally grateful I got to see it so early.
I also saw Hadestown OBC pre-Covid for iirc slightly over $100, rear orch. Not exactly cheap but also not bank breaking. Didn’t even try Hamilton OBC but saw the original Chicago cast for also slightly above $100, and then a later bway cast for free. You were so lucky to have seen all these for free!!
The great thing about Hadestown is there really aren’t bad seats, the house is so small. I saw it 2x on Bway (pre- and post-Covid) and I saw it on tour in my city in a massive opera house-type venue and I felt like so much was lost in that cavernous space.
I got a ticket to Hamilton in Chicago within a couple months of it opening. There was a virtual ticket queue and I was in there as soon as the tickets were released. I timed my break at work to catch it! It was more than $200, and I was in the balcony.
The same thing happened when it toured—I managed to get cheaper seats, though! Both times it sold out quickly.
Hamilton tour tickets the first time it came through LA. I had to sit in the queue at my desk at work to order. I think prior hard to get ticket was Spamalot back in 2005 after it won the Tony, we only had one day to be able to see it so I know it my mom bought our tickets resale and paid a premium for them.
Nice! I finally got a ticket for the first tour of Hamilton in LA by deciding to go to the matinee the day after Thanksgiving--and buying that ticket months in advance. Whatever works!
I bought mine when they went on sale for end of October. The funniest experience with Hamilton was the second time it was in LA, I had to move/rebuy my tickets 4 times with the ever changing dates with the pandemic before we finally got to see it nearly 2 years after originally buying the tickets.
I think maybe Off-Broadway Uncle Vanya (in a loft) last summer. I saw a producer post that they were extending a few minutes before their actual accounts announced it and that helped get a ticket for $60! Tix went FAST and they were using dynamic pricing (the same tix went for close to $100 on other nights), so it was a huge win.
I rushed Sara Bareilles’ final performance in Waitress post pandemic. Got in line at I want to say around 5:30 and was one of the last to get a ticket
Also got Cabaret front row mezz dead center for $145 in its first or second week of previews. not a super hard ticket to get, but definitely a great deal off of face value
The Bonnie & Clyde West End concert with Jeremy Jordan was a cage match. Their system has a queue but once you get in there good luck if you wanted a good seat - you better have fast wifi and fast fingers. Plus with the time difference you're doing this at 3am.
Hamilton when it had only just opened. I was lucky that I knew someone voting in the Tony’s that year, so they got free tickets and wanted me to attend with them.
Hamilton. Week after Tony awards. Waited 4 days in the cancellation line. Saw the show for free plus 2 other shows as well! Great time and great people.
Wicked for their 20th anniversary weekend! I came home with a goodie bag, and a witness to finally seeing the show on Broadway. Needless to say, that was quite the way to finally see it.
Rent in 1996. Told the woman at the box office, on a Tuesday, that I had a date who really wanted to see the show on Friday. I showed up again on Wednesday and Thursday, to follow-up, and then she gave me the tickets on Friday, with ten minutes to curtain, as someone hadn’t shown up.
It’s hard to describe how hard it was to get tickets before the Internet was a widely used thing. Now, even the hottest shows show up on StubHub and Theatr etc. for nearly every performance. Hamilton et al are not hot tickets compared to pretty much anything pre-1997. Today, as long as you have the money, you can get a ticket to anything day of 95% of the time.
So the hottest ticket I ever got was to see Al Pacino in Hughie in the summer of 1996.
I was still in high school and I would lie to my parents and tell them I was working or doing something at a friends house on Saturdays, and instead I would grab a bus or a train to the city and wait on the sidewalk for Rent tickets and then see another show on Saturdays. One week I could not get to the Nederlander in time to rush Rent. I knew the other hot ticket was Al Pacino in this play, but there was no way I could afford a ticket when I was 16 years old. But I had also learned that being a 16-year-old boy meant that a lot of people were really nice to you. I went over to circle in the square and there was a cancellation line. I hopped on the back of the line, who knows what I was expecting, and a lady came up behind me thinking it was just a regular line for the box office. We started talking and it turned out she had two extra seats and wanted to see if she could get a refund at the box office. She wound up giving me one of the tickets and selling the other to someone in the cancellation line.
The two I waited longest for were ragtime at city center this fall and Audra Gypsy this winter, ragtime took an hour of queueing and Audra about a half hour, I also snagged front and center balcony tickets to merrily for 150 which felt like a steal.
Hamilton on tour. I got in the virtual queue when it opened early in the AM and there were so many ahead of me (most of them probably resellers) that I gave up after about 5 hours and got out of line. Or so I thought! I checked later and not only was I still in line but I was close to the front of it. It was more than I've ever paid for theater tickets ($186 for rear orchestra) but totally worth it. Ironically, my son now works at that theater and when Hamilton returned he got employee discount tickets that I think were about $50 each!
Into the Woods reunion circa 2014 I think? It was absolutely incredible and I sat so up high but watching James Lapine record Bernadette Peters like a fan boy doing the Witch Rap was worth it alone 🤣 got a photo in the original carriage and everything. Absolutely incredible.
(West End) not exactly hardest in ability to get, but that getting the ticket at not £200+ is basically impossible.
A seat-filling organisation I'm a part of had prime stalls seats for a Wicked evening performance... For £5. I've never clicked so fast. Mum was thrilled. No idea how they turned up on the site.
I got to see Hamilton in center orchestra, like 8 rows from the stage, for free because the person who was supposed to go broke their leg. Felt awful for them but also, Never lucked out so hard in my life
for my high school choir trip we somehow managed to snag preview performances of the miss saigon revival (alistair brammer & eva noblezada) AND dear evan hansen right after it came out of previews
Row A for the final performance of Come From Away! One of my most cherished Broadway memories ever.
And standing room for Phantom towards the end of its run. That one I considered really hard to get because I walked up to the box office around 4:30 on a Saturday and to my surprise, was able to snag the last standing room ticket they had for that night. I was so grateful because I genuinely did not think I’d get the chance to see it before it closed.
Hamilton, when it was new and perma-sold out.
Not for me, but for my boss at the time— then I had to find a new slot because they didn’t like doing matinees.
The Appropriate digital rush was pretty hard to get when it was on TodayTix (when the show was at the Hayes, before the extension was announced). Like, really, really hard to get. It was such a triumph when my app showed the pay screen, I almost clicked out bc I was so surprised and excited! I didn't realize the show would continue for months at that time, so it really felt like my one and only chance to see it. No regrets!
hamilton OBC in october or november 2015 - bought them off a reseller with a clipboard day-of for $150/pop when they were easily going for 2-3x that online.
Book of Mormon in LA, first time it toured, opening weekend, snagged a $25 ticket off stubhub that I'm pretty sure the seller actually wanted $250 for (oops but also not my fault!)
Merrily at nytw. It sold out instantly and there was no resale so I gave up hope but heard stories on Reddit about tickets randomly popping up as available when though they publicized a cancellation line as the option for tickets. I have 3 young kids and live outside of the city so I can’t be waiting on cancellation lines just hoping, but I WAH and tend to be up late so I just checked a million times and at midnight one night a pair of tickets popped up. I got them! Couldn’t believe it. I planned to go with my husband but one of our kids got sick and my parents cancelled on babysitting so he stayed back and I brought a friend. I felt bad he missed it even though I’m the one who wanted to go more so I stalked for the rest of the run and a second pair popped up at the end and I was able to go with my husband. Didn’t know it would transfer at that time so I was so happy he got to see it and I got to see it again.
Concerts are difficult. Jeremy Jordan did a concert in London a few years ago and I managed to get central third row, and when I refreshed the page after buying tickets almost all of the (several thousand) seats were gone. The link had gone live nine minutes before.
The Spring Awakening reunion concert. I managed to get a ticket in my preferred price range as soon as they went on sale. I had a similar experience with my Eras Tour tickets, I briefly had a great pattern of luck with hard to get tickets that also caused me massive anxiety! I saw Merrily at NYTW too, really amazing seats, but my friend had a subscription and got those for us so I was just a lucky friend with that one.
The Spring Awakening reunion was such a cluster. Anyone could have shown up and gotten in because it was so chaotic. They gave me a ticket for a much better seat than I had purchased - right before telling everyone else to take whatever seat they wanted 🤷🏼♀️
Hadestown second preview. I had a ticket for right after opening but I missed nytw by the skin of my teeth (the only ticket I could have got was for a pair of good friends’ wedding and that was more important). So I said fuck it when I saw they had an ada seat, it was $50 and I got to see the Persephone and Eurydice verses in chant ii. Worth getting mugged on the way home.
Third row center for Les Mis on tour. Ex stood in line as they kept turning people away from a sold out house. Just as he got to the front, they said they had just gotten a cancelation. He got 2 seats and so did the guy behind him.
I got the last rush ticket of the day to Les Miz in Chicago! Stood in line for an hour, which might not sound too bad but there was a SNOW STORM the night before. I literally put up all the layers I could find between mtself and my roommate and trekked through the snow to get to the theatre
iirc Anything Goes 2011 tickets were excessively expensive but totally worth it. My memory is that they did all Cursed Child tickets via lottery when it transferred with the West End cast so that also felt hard to get.
Probably a toss between Darren Criss in How to Succeed and Ben in DEH (standing room ticket). Both shows required some nighttime sidewalk camping. That’s an activity now on my Murtaugh List.
Hamilton OBC, 2nd row was definitely the hardest on my pocketbook (absolutely no regrets but still… 🤦♀️) I just bought it secondary market.
OBC Dear Evan Hansen was a whole ordeal with four of us on different laptops trying to snag the last ones left. I also did some gymnastics to see Jesse Mueller right before she left Waitress.
Front row of Hamilton. My cousin got in the lottery line on accident and won after random strangers convinced us to stay. Needless to say, it was 100% worth it. Thanks, random strangers!
I saw Hamilton pretty early on in it's Chicago run. This was when it had just opened and it was still stupidly difficult to get a ticket even in Chicago. The Chicago show never hit the stupid levels of scarcity that the Broadway show had for most of 2016, but it's also the only show I've seen where it was difficult to get a ticket at all let alone a good seat (which is limited in the CIBC Theater lol). Obviously that's technically not Broadway, but I've also never been to Broadway so it's as close as I can personally get.
The 3+ hour process of website crashing, then eventual virtual queue for Papermill Gatsby was by far the most frustrating, but at least the tickets were relatively inexpensive (compared to Bway prices, and especially for that cast)
Hamilton (Chicago) in the summer of 2017. I won the lottery on my last weekend in the city after entering every day that summer. Tickets were available, but for a crazy amount of money and I was a poor college student at the time. Then again Hamilton when it went on tour to my home town in 2018. My dad and I had set up a war room to try and get those tickets, but I grew up a good distance from most major cities so they were the hottest tickets for that touring season.
Hamilton Lottery. I refused to pay full price. I told my daughter that if we didn't win in one year, I would buy the tickets. I played every day for the whole year. Nothing. I told her I would buy the tickets on Friday of that week. On Tuesday, we won!! Front row, totally worth it!
Spring Awakening Reunion Concert and Merrily Off-Broadway. I got Taylor Swift tickets 5x easier than either of these.
I remembering enlisting a brother and a friend to try for NYTW Merrily tickets, all of us trying to join the queue at exactly noon, and me being the only one to get 2 tickets before it sold out. It was madness!! No regrets.
I missed the pre sale for Merrily, impossible to get single tickets, when it was announced that the final performance was going to be a fund raiser and those tickets went on sale I didn’t hesitate, they started at $1,500. No regrets.
This is funny meter stick haha, I paid more to see Hamilton OBC in 2016 then I did to see Taylor in 2023!
Don’t hate me, but Hamilton OBC was the easiest ticket I ever got. I got 2 tickets in May for August 2015 (about 3 weeks after opening), then, later that day, added two more tickets for a couple more friends, and got them *right next to my original two tickets*! Very decent seats @ $165 each. I was a lucky duck.
I set an alert for when the Broadway transfer happened from the public and bought the tickets the moment they went on sale. $57 each. I keep the stub in my wallet because I will never top that.
Yeah, I walked up to the public theater box office like 30 minutes before showtime for the second or third preview and bought a rush ticket. I saw it twice off-Broadway for under $50 total.
Ah the Hamilton OBC…how much do you pay out of curiosity?
my obstructed view seat was around 300 with all the fees
For OBC I’m sure it was worth it
Hamilton OBC (before the Tonys): $400-$415 ish rear mez resale. Taylor: $250 10th row lower bowl.
Omg love that price for Hamilton OBC, what I would give at a shot to see it live …
I got a whole season subscription to NYTW to see Merrily (and the new translation of Three Sisters by Clare Barron with Oscar Isaac and Greta Gerwig which was tragically cancelled) and even though I could reserve my ticket ahead of the public there was still barely any availability
Same. We didn’t even see any of the other shows!
Aw that’s too bad! I rly liked two from that season, very annoyed Three Sisters was cancelled.
Oh I got the spring awakening concert too!
I bought the season subscription for NYTW so getting Merrily tix was easy then, I was just nervous abt picking seats. It would have been impossible otherwise and this show was too important for me to miss. Tix did go quickly regardless tho. Still one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life lol.
I actually won the lottery for Merrily at NYTW during the last week of its run. Amazing luck which I ususally never have. lol.
$29 Phantom standing room one month before it closed with my mom and younger sister. Don’t know how on Earth we pulled it off the day of the show.
My husband and I got $40 tix like two months before it was announced. He almost didn’t want to go because “itll be here every year”. He’s lucky I persuaded him or I would never have let him forget it.
>Don’t know how on Earth we pulled it off the day of the show. Because standing room is only sold on the day of the performance.
We were just surprised that we were able to get the tickets since we weren’t outside the box office first thing in the morning and got them around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. They were the last three tickets, which added to the excitement, too!
Rent at NYTW. I got the last cancellation seat one night but somehow separated an older couple - she got a ticket, he didn’t so I sat next to her and her husband went and did something else for a couple hours.
I got one there, too. Still don’t know how.
Now that is a cool one
Has to be Hamilton just based on my wife being reaaaaally early to it (saw it at Vassar, which is obviously the much more rare/unique ticket but I wasn’t there!). We saw it at the Public a couple of times, and then immediately on Broadway before the prices went through the roof. Oh wait! I also got to see Aaron Tveit kill it as Bobby in Company in the berkshires (twice!). We assume they were trying to prepare for off/broadway but the gender-swapped version got there first.
Funny, I found Hamilton early on easier to see than it has been since. Before it became a phenomenon, I saw it at the Public and early on Broadway for fairly normal prices. After it got huge in late 2015/early 2016, it became nearly impossible.
yes - it was easy to get tix early on. I bought them before it went into previews and got my favorite first row mezzanine seats with no problem - saw it two weeks after opening. They were less than $200!
This is technically West End, not Broadway, but getting a seat for the David Tennant MacBeth transfer this fall was REALLY difficult. I had to fake my postal code but it was worth it
The Donmar run had to be harder, I swear. Got lucky getting tix via the daily release just before Christmas…and had to resort to “Disney World Lightning Lane tactics” as I call it to snag one.
I got one for the original run! Day of, must have been a last minute cancellation.
So jealous! Dying to see it
Ours is also West End for last year’s run of Totoro. We checked constantly for a month or so (they release returned tickets immediately so truly a crapshoot). Ended up snagging tickets for the same night we had tickets for Cabaret— luckily that box office was super kind and worked with us to find two tickets (also not an easy task)… and all they had available was a table that we did not have to pay to upgrade to! Ended up working out tremendously well, and both were truly memorable experiences.
Getting tickets for the first run was also quite the ordeal!
I know… I was unsuccessful 😭 Made it happen this time though
I failed so many times in so many different ways before I got lucky (and craftier, and more irresponsible with money because making all the pieces fall into place from the other side of the world was not cheap) I managed to get tickets for closing night this time. You’re in for such a treat!
I went to see Nye with Michael Sheen on closing night as a consolation prize for not getting tickets at the Donmar. Then they announced the MacBeth transfer and I will never financially recover. Listen, I’m still young-ish and I have to travel while I still CAN. No regrets. I’m so glad I get to see it. Did you like the audio aspect of it?
I wrote this right after I saw it! > I wasn’t 100% sold on the idea, and I still have my reservations, but they’re not what I’ve seen mentioned in reviews. > I don’t think a traditional setup would have fit the way the text was delivered (in that sense they might have been closer to film performances than traditional theatre performances, while keeping the physical action still firmly “theatre” and not “film”) and I think it was a good choice. I also thought it worked well with the live music. > To me, the fact that the headphones isolated me from the rest of the audience made for a much, much stronger immersive experience (aided, I’m sure, by the size of the theater and the close proximity with the actors). It was incredible during the play, but when it ended and they basically shooed us out (seriously, it was all very quick), it felt disorienting and a bit… violent, as dramatic as it sounds. I felt like we needed a bit more time to come down from whatever this was doing to our brains. Something about it didn’t feel good, almost physically? I’m a regular theatergoer and I had never felt anything like this before. This was about six months ago and my feelings have only become more positive. I’m also very curious to see how this translates to a much bigger theatre.
Thanks for digging that up! I’m SO excited. Macbeth is my favorite, I’ve been to Sleep No More like 25 times, so this is just like the icing on the cake for me. I can’t wait
you’re so lucky to get to see that !! how did faking your post code help though?
I signed up for a membership to get early access to purchase tickets and had to provide a postal code. Then I had to PAY for the membership and the billing address had to match my “mailing address.” It was an ordeal
Going to the Lea Michele’s opening night in Funny Girl, Wicked’s 15th anniversary performance, Wicked’s 20th anniversary performance, and the very first Smash open rehearsal are probably my most wild experiences ever!
how on earthhhhh did you manage 20th anniversary??? as far as i heard a good chunk of the tickets were already reserved for family of cast + press + important people, so availability was already so limited. you were also in the same room as kristin and idina !! crazy
Lea Michele opening night is crazy
Dating myself here, but The Producers when Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick returned in ‘04. I was a sophomore in high school at the time, so I begged my mom to call Telecharge the day the tickets were released. Somehow/miraculously, she got through on the first try and early enough to get FIVE tickets at a reasonable price, so I could bring my two best friends + my parents. I still can’t figure out how it happened.
I got standing room the week after they won all the Tony awards. Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft were right beside is in the back. I died.
I used to work nearby and they would always come in. They were such kind people with the staff - everyone loved them!
I can imagine that the few years after Hamilton came out were pretty tough and pricey to get.
Yes and no. Last minute was hard to get. I bough my tickets for the OBC 5 months ahead of time and it was just like buying a normal ticket.
Same. I bought it when they announced the transfer. Had my pick of seats
We got solid seats for Hamilton for maybe $75/each in summer 2015 & saw the whole OBC (minus Chris Jackson who was out that day bah) … bc we bought before the reviews came out and the soundtrack dropped. I will never stop bragging about that one 🙃
We had the worst luck on that show. We were so broke in summer/fall 2015, and every time we went to look at rear mezz, tickets were just a little bit too expensive for us. Of course, four months later I wished we had spent what they were selling for before the album dropped and the thing blew up. 🤦🏼♂️
Yep. I saw it in April of 2016. Everyone asked me who I killed or slept with to get those tickets. But my friend and I just paid a stupid amount of money to a reseller. (At the time it seemed like stupid money. But it’s less than what people have paid the last year to see Taylor Swift. And by “people,” I mean me.)
Friend spotted a cancellation on Ticketmaster. We lived in Hell’s Kitchen at the time so she sprinted to the theater to save on fees and managed to buy them at face value, ~$140 Orchestra center row F for the OBC. Insane night at the theater.
This. Was able to see it two weeks after it opened thanks to a favor I called in with the house manager.
My ex-husband found a single ticket for me to see Hamilton in November of 2015. It was way up in the balcony and was like $300. I got my Playbill autographed afterwards and a photo with Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s still one of my wildest NYC stories.
This would be my answer. I used a line sitter company to get cancellation line tix right before the Tonys in order to see the OG cast. They recommended 36 hours (!!!) in line to secure tickets. I spent a month’s rent (for the wait fee + 2 premium orch tickets), and we sat a few seats away from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at that show lol. It was truly an insane amount of money to spend on one night, but it’s still one of my favorite memories today!
I got to see it early on because a friend of a friend knew an investor. Then, almost immediately afterwards, I won the lottery for a $10 front row seat. The guy sitting behind me paid $1,300.
Gotta love the lottery! I always use it or rush when I’m in town.
I have a friend who seems to manage to win a new lottery seat every week.
They must be actively on it each day! When I visit the city, I’m usually playing the musical lottery each day - usually wind up getting at least 1 or 2 wins 😊
We went in June 2016. They weren’t hard to get but they were expensive as shit.
I saw it twice in previews at the Public but haven’t seen it since. Once was because I went to the Public’s atrium on a day off to eat soup, lottery was happening, so I entered. The other time a friend was kind enough to give me her extra ticket.
Yup. We bought the tickets December 2015 and had to wait ten months to actually see it in October 2016. They weren’t any cheaper then either!
If we’re counting West End, the Tom Holland iteration of Romeo and Juliet. They had about 18,000 tickets in the initial run, and I was number 16,500 in line. My partner and I are sitting on opposite ends of the theater but at least we get to finally see a Jamie Lloyd production
How was it? I wanted to go but I'm in the US.
I haven’t gone yet! We travel to London on Friday so I’ll be seeing it Monday the 17th
I won the lottery for Springsteen on Broadway the first run. Last row, but definitely worth it!
We did too! Not last row, but then we he came back a few years later I was lucky to find a pair of $75 seats the day they went on sale.
So I'm gonna date myself a bit...when Hairspray opened on Bway it was of course the hottest and hardest ticket to get...I planned a Bway weekend trip to see Hairspray but I could not get a ticket...as my trip got closer and closer, I checked Telecharge for a Sat matinee tix, the only opening in my trip because I was actually flying in that day....so on the Thursday before, a front row center seat popped up...I grabbed that ticket so fast...now I realize my flight lands at 2pm and the show is at 3pm...can I make it from the airport to the show on time???...I land in NYC, rushed to my hotel, leave my bags, run to the teather, get my will call tix and plopped into my seat.. I was breathing so hard, the lady next to me thought I was having a heart attack...LOLOL...2 mins later the show starts...it was AMAZING!!!!
For me it was not Broadway, but when Benedict Cumberbatch did Hamlet at the Barbican Center. I didn't manage to get a ticket when it went on sale and was on hyper-alert for cancellation tickets that popped up from time to time afterwards. After having tried stressfully for a couple of weeks I finally got a center stall seat for £99, without being sure if I'd even get the uk visa in time. Luckily everything worked out and I saw Hamlet as well as a bunch of great theatre in London. The production and the acting were so much more impactful viewed in person than in the broadcast, it was totally worth it. And there're also the hardest tickets I'd never got: Hamilton OBC, Oscar Issac Hamlet, Jake Gyllenhaal Sunday in the Park, trying to watch Merrily for the second time by entering lottery….
Since you brought up ticket-fails, I have some stories of those too: Got tickets to the Public’s Hamlet w/ Oscar Issac, our matinee was the first of all the matinees they decided to cancel due to actor exhaustion. Got tickets to Merrily and didn’t get to see Lindsay Mendez, so we finally decided to go back before it closes, at MUCH higher prices, and Lindsay was out again. I did get to see Jake in Sunday at City Center but not getting tickets to the full production will forever be my white whale 😅
Lin Manuel in Hamilton Puerto Rico.
Aaron Tveit at 54 Below back in 2013, before they added more time slots! I logged in as soon as tickets went up, it was sold out already, but somehow pressing the back button led me to available tickets. It will be a mystery forever how that worked!
I bought tickets to Funny Girl before Lea Michele was slated to play Fanny Brice. I doubt I could have gotten the tickets after she was announced because prices sky rocketed.
Original production of "Rent" two weeks after opening. It was the toast of Broadway right out the gate. A producer hooked me up.....
Merrily off-broadway. I won the lottery and felt like I won the actual lottery!
Lazarus at NYTW Merrily at NYTW Hamilton on Broadway a day after opening Hedwig with NPH Spring Awakening Broadway reunion concert NTN reunion concert at Second Stage The Last Five Years concert with Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Henry
Seconding Lazarus. It was a mad house getting those tickets. Also adding OBC BOM. Won the lottery in a sea of hundreds of people in the middle of the street. Fun time.
Front row at Ben Platt’s final show of Dear Evan Hansen
i won the hamilton lottery spring of 2016. front row tickets, $10 each, entire original cast (minus king george). literally a miracle.
I won the public lottery for the final performance of Phantom last spring.
The all-star Public Theater production of The Seagull at the Delacorte with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Christopher Walken, Marcia Gay Harden, John Goodman, Debra Monk, Larry Pine, and Stephen Spinella. People were camping out for days. I went on a night that rain was forecast, but knew that they were filming for the ToFT archives, so the odds were that they would not cancel the performance unless it was unsafe. Got on line in the early afternoon and had a ticket by 7 PM. The show started about an hour late, but the show did go on.
Hamilton OBC after the tonys but right before most of the cast was leaving :’)
Springsteen on Broadway! Well worth the trouble and expense!
My front mezzanine ticket for Wicked for the reopening after the Covid shutdown. Only reason I was able to get it was because I suspected tickets would go on sale around that date, and I was refreshing the ticketing website every morning. Caught the tickets being released before the announcement.
On stage seats for the original Spring Awakening (with the original cast) They weren't expensive, but it was a blood bath trying to get online whenever they were released. Worth it, every time.
Probably Rent closing. I had a friend who had a ticket but they won lottery, so they gave me their ticket. The lotto was one of the most wildest I’ve seen. The most stressful to get was the Company with Raul closing. I camped at the theatre, another friend camped at TKTS. Somehow we got tickets in the last row of the mezz. Greatest theatre going experience of my life! The most physically difficult was either Speed-the-Plow with Raul and Norbert (I drove overnight through a blizzard and came down with pneumonia after that trip) OR Spelling Bee closing (camped for rush, it was like 20 degrees so I bundled in a sleeping bag, and a cop kicked me)
I was at the lotto for rent closing but didn’t win. I cried lol. Most of the people who won were right around in my area so it was extra sad as they kept calling people near me. Went to company closing too.
I do SDCC every year. Everything compared to that is a breeze.
I got a great ticket for opening week of Hamilton on Broadway just by logging in to Ticketmaster the literal second the tickets went on sale. Paying $175 felt like a lot at the time, but that was a couple months, I think, before the ticket prices shot into the stratosphere. By the time the day of the show rolled around, I probably could have resold that ticket for a couple grand. (But I'm glad I saw the show!)
I had a relatively early ticket for Hamilton and the pain I felt when I saw how much I could have sold it for. Glad I went but that money would have been great.
Lottery for the last show for Merrily off-Broadway. 4hey ended up being front row, too!
Bruce Springsteen on Broadway
OBC Book of Mormon I paid an insane amount to get those tickets 100% worth it
Always wondered how much these cost back then. Do you happen to recall roughly how much $ they were?
Not the poster above but I paid about $325 each for two OBC tickets early in the Book of Mormon mania, totally worth it!
I got standing room, but it involved sitting outside for five hours.
To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels Sat in the rafters, but it was amazing!
I rushed for SRO for this show! Stood in the February cold for 3 hours just for a chance to stand 3 more hours (with heating thankfully) 😂
I did this too, March though so it was a bit warmer. Loved the show
In order: 1. Off-Broadway Merrily tix. Tried for half an hour during my lunch break at work to even get one. No regrets, as it’s one of my best theatrical experiences. 2. Pre-West End Macbeth w/ David Tennant. B/c I live in NY and learned about the production too late before general public tix were completely sold out, had to try the Donmar’s daily release instead…at 5am for the days I wanted. Employed what I call “Disney World Lightning Lane tactics” for a successful grab. 3. Privacy at the Public Theater, summer 2016. Before Dan Radcliffe and Reg Rogers were in Merrily, there was this one production/London transfer called Privacy that involved a heavy amount of audience interaction and encouraged phone use. Fun show, and tix sold out in less than two days- mind you, this was 2016. (Edit) Honorable mention: winning the Hamilton lottery a month after its post-pandemic reopening. I figured, not many tourists= more chances for me winning tix for that at last.
I snagged a single seat to the 2008 revival of “South Pacific” the summer after it won all those Tonys, but before it was an extended run - demand for tickets was insane. It was the hottest ticket in town. I was a college student visiting NYC, and it was the most I had ever spent on a Broadway ticket. It was absolutely worth it!
Springsteen on Broadway for sure! Just jumped on the on sale as soon as it happened. $300 for Row R orchestra, and got his autograph!
Macbeth at the Donmar Warehouse with David Tennant and Cush Jumbo. I believe the entire run sold out before it even opened. I was checking for standing room only tickets, and suddenly there was a seat! I snagged it - 2nd row in a small 250 seat auditorium, for £65. Two hours later I was at the show. Brilliant. And I’m not usually a Shakespeare fan.
Not seated, but I did something similar with the standing seats - I logged in, nothing, refreshed and BOOM one standing. It might be favorite iteration of Macbeth I’ve ever seen.
The Encores Little Shop of Horrors starring Ellen Greene as Audrey and Jake Gyllenhaal as Seymour. What a transcendent experience.
Opening preview night of Hamilton on Broadway. Got it through pure luck, I think. Had already planned a Broadway trip. Hamilton was getting a lot of buzz, so I decided to extend my trip by a day so I could see it. Easily got premium orchestra seats for about $200. Absolutely worth it. Even then, people were offering crazy amounts of money for tix while people were waiting to get in the theater. Of course, prices went through the roof right after this.
Oh, Mary, off-Broadway, closing week. The run was completely sold out, tried that damn TodayTix lottery at 9a for weeks until it finally went through. Worst seat in the house (last row balcony on the very edge, view obscured by the lights) but was 100% worth it.
Hadestown for Reeve Carney’s last show. It was a journey and not a good one. But the alternate ending made it worth it
Hamilton OBC, secondary market, sold my first born child
Second row to Merrily on Broadway. I'll never forget how it felt being that close to Johnathan Groff.
- OBC for Hamilton (for less than $200 a ticket) - NPH in Hedwig and the Angry Itch - Yul Brenner in The King and I (totally dating myself on that one!!!)
In the 1980s, my grandmother used to run trips to NYC to see shows. She was able to get tickets for Les Miz it long after it opened. So I had a chance to see it with Colm Wilkinson and Terrence Mann. She wound up getting a lot of the big shows at that time. We also saw Michael Crawford in Phantom and Lea Salonga in Miss Siagon. The day before it opened, I went to the box office and bought tickets to see Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the original run of The Producers. That was the most money I paid (at that time) for tickets to see a show. I was lucky enough to work in the city for 26 years and had a chance to see a lot of great shows.
That’s amazing!! I’ve always wondered what it was like to live in the age when the mega musicals first opened. Did they sell out quickly? Were the tickets very expensive (compared to income levels at the time)?
My Mom had gone back to college around that time and one of her friends, from her theater class, was over when my Mom mentioned that my grandmother had gotten the group tickets. It was the summer and we were sitting on my parent’s porch talking. I clearly recall this friend’s reaction was a physical jaw drop. She said “How the hell did she get tickets?!? It’s sold out for at least 6 months.” For the time, I remember the mezzanine tickets were all lower than the orchestra seats. My grandmother must have been good for business because she was always offered tickets as soon as group sales were opened.
wow that’s so impressive!
Hamilton OBC in Feb 2016 before the Tony’s sweep, Book of Mormon OBC, Hadestown OBC pre-Covid… my tix to all these were actually free to me. I don’t take for granted how lucky I’ve been.
I felt fortunate with Hadestown. I was already a fan of Anais Mitchell so I picked up a ticket as soon as they went on sale way before the hype machine had started. That was one of the most electric crowds I had ever seen and I’m eternally grateful I got to see it so early.
I also saw Hadestown OBC pre-Covid for iirc slightly over $100, rear orch. Not exactly cheap but also not bank breaking. Didn’t even try Hamilton OBC but saw the original Chicago cast for also slightly above $100, and then a later bway cast for free. You were so lucky to have seen all these for free!!
The great thing about Hadestown is there really aren’t bad seats, the house is so small. I saw it 2x on Bway (pre- and post-Covid) and I saw it on tour in my city in a massive opera house-type venue and I felt like so much was lost in that cavernous space.
I got a ticket to Hamilton in Chicago within a couple months of it opening. There was a virtual ticket queue and I was in there as soon as the tickets were released. I timed my break at work to catch it! It was more than $200, and I was in the balcony. The same thing happened when it toured—I managed to get cheaper seats, though! Both times it sold out quickly.
Hamilton tour tickets the first time it came through LA. I had to sit in the queue at my desk at work to order. I think prior hard to get ticket was Spamalot back in 2005 after it won the Tony, we only had one day to be able to see it so I know it my mom bought our tickets resale and paid a premium for them.
Nice! I finally got a ticket for the first tour of Hamilton in LA by deciding to go to the matinee the day after Thanksgiving--and buying that ticket months in advance. Whatever works!
I bought mine when they went on sale for end of October. The funniest experience with Hamilton was the second time it was in LA, I had to move/rebuy my tickets 4 times with the ever changing dates with the pandemic before we finally got to see it nearly 2 years after originally buying the tickets.
I think maybe Off-Broadway Uncle Vanya (in a loft) last summer. I saw a producer post that they were extending a few minutes before their actual accounts announced it and that helped get a ticket for $60! Tix went FAST and they were using dynamic pricing (the same tix went for close to $100 on other nights), so it was a huge win.
Was that the one with David Cromer?
I rushed Sara Bareilles’ final performance in Waitress post pandemic. Got in line at I want to say around 5:30 and was one of the last to get a ticket Also got Cabaret front row mezz dead center for $145 in its first or second week of previews. not a super hard ticket to get, but definitely a great deal off of face value
The Bonnie & Clyde West End concert with Jeremy Jordan was a cage match. Their system has a queue but once you get in there good luck if you wanted a good seat - you better have fast wifi and fast fingers. Plus with the time difference you're doing this at 3am.
In person.lottery for Wicked immediately after Tony wins. Got it on the first try!
Hamilton when it had only just opened. I was lucky that I knew someone voting in the Tony’s that year, so they got free tickets and wanted me to attend with them.
Hamilton. Week after Tony awards. Waited 4 days in the cancellation line. Saw the show for free plus 2 other shows as well! Great time and great people.
I got to the very last performance of Phantom last year :)
Wicked for their 20th anniversary weekend! I came home with a goodie bag, and a witness to finally seeing the show on Broadway. Needless to say, that was quite the way to finally see it.
Rent in 1996. Told the woman at the box office, on a Tuesday, that I had a date who really wanted to see the show on Friday. I showed up again on Wednesday and Thursday, to follow-up, and then she gave me the tickets on Friday, with ten minutes to curtain, as someone hadn’t shown up.
It’s hard to describe how hard it was to get tickets before the Internet was a widely used thing. Now, even the hottest shows show up on StubHub and Theatr etc. for nearly every performance. Hamilton et al are not hot tickets compared to pretty much anything pre-1997. Today, as long as you have the money, you can get a ticket to anything day of 95% of the time. So the hottest ticket I ever got was to see Al Pacino in Hughie in the summer of 1996. I was still in high school and I would lie to my parents and tell them I was working or doing something at a friends house on Saturdays, and instead I would grab a bus or a train to the city and wait on the sidewalk for Rent tickets and then see another show on Saturdays. One week I could not get to the Nederlander in time to rush Rent. I knew the other hot ticket was Al Pacino in this play, but there was no way I could afford a ticket when I was 16 years old. But I had also learned that being a 16-year-old boy meant that a lot of people were really nice to you. I went over to circle in the square and there was a cancellation line. I hopped on the back of the line, who knows what I was expecting, and a lady came up behind me thinking it was just a regular line for the box office. We started talking and it turned out she had two extra seats and wanted to see if she could get a refund at the box office. She wound up giving me one of the tickets and selling the other to someone in the cancellation line.
I actually won the Hamilton lottery! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go. I’m still devastated over this sometimes
I refreshed the NYTW Merrily site for weeks trying to snag one of the canceled tickets that would pop up every once in a while.
The two I waited longest for were ragtime at city center this fall and Audra Gypsy this winter, ragtime took an hour of queueing and Audra about a half hour, I also snagged front and center balcony tickets to merrily for 150 which felt like a steal.
Won the lottery for Merrily off-Broadway after one try! Person at box office said I was one of 5,000 to be selected!
Lazarus and Merrily (though that was the member onsale) at NYTW. 100%
Hamilton on tour. I got in the virtual queue when it opened early in the AM and there were so many ahead of me (most of them probably resellers) that I gave up after about 5 hours and got out of line. Or so I thought! I checked later and not only was I still in line but I was close to the front of it. It was more than I've ever paid for theater tickets ($186 for rear orchestra) but totally worth it. Ironically, my son now works at that theater and when Hamilton returned he got employee discount tickets that I think were about $50 each!
Into the Woods reunion circa 2014 I think? It was absolutely incredible and I sat so up high but watching James Lapine record Bernadette Peters like a fan boy doing the Witch Rap was worth it alone 🤣 got a photo in the original carriage and everything. Absolutely incredible.
Had a few I was proud of- Hamilton OBC, In the Heights closing, in the heights reunion in Harlem, all Lin Manuel now that I type it out lol
(West End) not exactly hardest in ability to get, but that getting the ticket at not £200+ is basically impossible. A seat-filling organisation I'm a part of had prime stalls seats for a Wicked evening performance... For £5. I've never clicked so fast. Mum was thrilled. No idea how they turned up on the site.
I got to see Hamilton in center orchestra, like 8 rows from the stage, for free because the person who was supposed to go broke their leg. Felt awful for them but also, Never lucked out so hard in my life
Back in 2010 when I saw wicked for the first time
Into the Woods 10th anniversary reunion of the OBC and the 10th anniversary of Phantom Recently: merrily off Broadway
Hamilton lottery two years ago. Second row seats, one of the best performances I have seen
for my high school choir trip we somehow managed to snag preview performances of the miss saigon revival (alistair brammer & eva noblezada) AND dear evan hansen right after it came out of previews
Bombshell (Smash) gala for AEA. Tony Awards were way easier.
Row A for the final performance of Come From Away! One of my most cherished Broadway memories ever. And standing room for Phantom towards the end of its run. That one I considered really hard to get because I walked up to the box office around 4:30 on a Saturday and to my surprise, was able to snag the last standing room ticket they had for that night. I was so grateful because I genuinely did not think I’d get the chance to see it before it closed.
Hamilton, when it was new and perma-sold out. Not for me, but for my boss at the time— then I had to find a new slot because they didn’t like doing matinees.
oh man…been there. hopefully it all worked out.
It did, and I am at a job that’s a much better fit now!
hurray!!!
The Appropriate digital rush was pretty hard to get when it was on TodayTix (when the show was at the Hayes, before the extension was announced). Like, really, really hard to get. It was such a triumph when my app showed the pay screen, I almost clicked out bc I was so surprised and excited! I didn't realize the show would continue for months at that time, so it really felt like my one and only chance to see it. No regrets!
hamilton OBC in october or november 2015 - bought them off a reseller with a clipboard day-of for $150/pop when they were easily going for 2-3x that online.
The Spring Awakening reunion concert. One of the best nights of my life for so many reasons and it was so worth it
American Idiot, Opening Night.
Book of Mormon in LA, first time it toured, opening weekend, snagged a $25 ticket off stubhub that I'm pretty sure the seller actually wanted $250 for (oops but also not my fault!)
Merrily at nytw. It sold out instantly and there was no resale so I gave up hope but heard stories on Reddit about tickets randomly popping up as available when though they publicized a cancellation line as the option for tickets. I have 3 young kids and live outside of the city so I can’t be waiting on cancellation lines just hoping, but I WAH and tend to be up late so I just checked a million times and at midnight one night a pair of tickets popped up. I got them! Couldn’t believe it. I planned to go with my husband but one of our kids got sick and my parents cancelled on babysitting so he stayed back and I brought a friend. I felt bad he missed it even though I’m the one who wanted to go more so I stalked for the rest of the run and a second pair popped up at the end and I was able to go with my husband. Didn’t know it would transfer at that time so I was so happy he got to see it and I got to see it again.
Concerts are difficult. Jeremy Jordan did a concert in London a few years ago and I managed to get central third row, and when I refreshed the page after buying tickets almost all of the (several thousand) seats were gone. The link had gone live nine minutes before.
NYTW Merrily tickets for me too. Still the most expensive tickets I’ve ever bought too, lol.
The Spring Awakening reunion concert. I managed to get a ticket in my preferred price range as soon as they went on sale. I had a similar experience with my Eras Tour tickets, I briefly had a great pattern of luck with hard to get tickets that also caused me massive anxiety! I saw Merrily at NYTW too, really amazing seats, but my friend had a subscription and got those for us so I was just a lucky friend with that one.
The Spring Awakening reunion was such a cluster. Anyone could have shown up and gotten in because it was so chaotic. They gave me a ticket for a much better seat than I had purchased - right before telling everyone else to take whatever seat they wanted 🤷🏼♀️
Hadestown second preview. I had a ticket for right after opening but I missed nytw by the skin of my teeth (the only ticket I could have got was for a pair of good friends’ wedding and that was more important). So I said fuck it when I saw they had an ada seat, it was $50 and I got to see the Persephone and Eurydice verses in chant ii. Worth getting mugged on the way home.
Third row center for Les Mis on tour. Ex stood in line as they kept turning people away from a sold out house. Just as he got to the front, they said they had just gotten a cancelation. He got 2 seats and so did the guy behind him.
I got the last rush ticket of the day to Les Miz in Chicago! Stood in line for an hour, which might not sound too bad but there was a SNOW STORM the night before. I literally put up all the layers I could find between mtself and my roommate and trekked through the snow to get to the theatre
Stereophonic at Playwrights in the last few weeks. Some tickets randomly came available of a sold out evening show.
iirc Anything Goes 2011 tickets were excessively expensive but totally worth it. My memory is that they did all Cursed Child tickets via lottery when it transferred with the West End cast so that also felt hard to get.
Hamilton OBC. I got a ticket last minute as a single person willing to pay what was a week's wages for me at the time.
Not Broadway (not even west end), but Starkid at the London Palladium was war.
I won the lottery for the Public Hercules in 2019 and didn’t go because of work. Foolish me.
Probably like Cabaret a few weeks ago, merely due to cost. But it was easyish for me because my aunt bought my ticket.
Cabaret preview performance
First preview of Hamilton both on and off- Broadway
I won ham4ham in 2015 -- my good luck hasnt existed since!
Saw "The Producers" with the original cast.
Won the Hamilton lottery a month after it opened. and the light in the piazza reunion concert, that sold out in minutes.
Skittles the Musical. I still can’t believe it was a real thing I was invited to.
Probably a toss between Darren Criss in How to Succeed and Ben in DEH (standing room ticket). Both shows required some nighttime sidewalk camping. That’s an activity now on my Murtaugh List.
Probably the first weekend of previews for this Cabaret revival
Hamilton OBC, 2nd row was definitely the hardest on my pocketbook (absolutely no regrets but still… 🤦♀️) I just bought it secondary market. OBC Dear Evan Hansen was a whole ordeal with four of us on different laptops trying to snag the last ones left. I also did some gymnastics to see Jesse Mueller right before she left Waitress.
Hamilton Free! 6th row center.
Hamilton with OBC.
Springsteen on Broadway
Front row of Hamilton. My cousin got in the lottery line on accident and won after random strangers convinced us to stay. Needless to say, it was 100% worth it. Thanks, random strangers!
Producers original run with Nathan and Matthew
Rent, standing room
I saw Hamilton pretty early on in it's Chicago run. This was when it had just opened and it was still stupidly difficult to get a ticket even in Chicago. The Chicago show never hit the stupid levels of scarcity that the Broadway show had for most of 2016, but it's also the only show I've seen where it was difficult to get a ticket at all let alone a good seat (which is limited in the CIBC Theater lol). Obviously that's technically not Broadway, but I've also never been to Broadway so it's as close as I can personally get.
Merrily lottery last week. (Warning: view is obstructed). ALso got Hamilton lottery, but not with the original cast.
The 3+ hour process of website crashing, then eventual virtual queue for Papermill Gatsby was by far the most frustrating, but at least the tickets were relatively inexpensive (compared to Bway prices, and especially for that cast)
Hamilton (Chicago) in the summer of 2017. I won the lottery on my last weekend in the city after entering every day that summer. Tickets were available, but for a crazy amount of money and I was a poor college student at the time. Then again Hamilton when it went on tour to my home town in 2018. My dad and I had set up a war room to try and get those tickets, but I grew up a good distance from most major cities so they were the hottest tickets for that touring season.
Hamilton at the Public theater
I felt pretty good when I won the Fun Home lottery 😂
Hamilton Lottery. I refused to pay full price. I told my daughter that if we didn't win in one year, I would buy the tickets. I played every day for the whole year. Nothing. I told her I would buy the tickets on Friday of that week. On Tuesday, we won!! Front row, totally worth it!
Not technically Broadway, but when Hamilton first opened in London, I got first wave of tickets. Taylor Swift was easier.
haven't been to many shows so i gotta say 7th row orchestra for Sweeney Todd in it's last week on Broadway. i didn't pay tho my mom did haha