You can still buy ‘Hamilton’ tickets in Sacramento. But you might have to sit by yourself
It’s the hottest ticket Sacramento has seen in years. Naturally, the computers have been struggling to keep up.
Customers ran into major website problems when tickets went on sale Monday morning for the Sacramento debut of the blockbuster musical “Hamilton” this fall.
Officials at Broadway Sacramento, which is hosting the four-week run at the newly renovated (and renamed) SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, say those problems were resolved in less than an hour. Nonetheless, Broadway Sacramento’s website appeared to be running slowly when a Sacramento Bee reporter checked on ticket availability Wednesday.
In any event, tickets for the hip-hop-themed biographical musical about Alexander Hamilton have been disappearing quickly in what marketing director Matt Hessburg called a “rock concert-type” frenzy of sales activity.
“Hamilton” isn’t just one of the biggest musicals of all time — it will be one of the first big live theatrical events to open in Sacramento since the COVID-19 pandemic left theaters darkened in March 2020.
“People are ready — they’re ready to come back,” said Richard Lewis, president of Broadway Sacramento.
“There’s been a lot of livestreams and movies and this and that,” he said. “Live on stage ... is totally different.”
The fact that millions have watched a movie version of “Hamilton” on the Disney+ streaming service since last July doesn’t seem to have diminished enthusiasm for tickets, he said.
He noted that season ticket subscriptions rose by about 3,000 in the past year — a likely testament to the popularity of “Hamilton.” Season ticket holders were able to buy “Hamilton” seats in advance.
Hessburg said tickets were still available Wednesday for every show. But the pickings were slim for some performances.
At some of the weekend shows, especially early in the run, there were just a handful of seats available, and many of them were single seats.
Ticket availability is better in October — a testament, perhaps, to the unusual length of the run. Hamilton is running for four weeks, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 10. Most shows that come to Broadway Sacramento stay for only a week or two.
Hessburg said “Hamilton” ranks among the most popular shows in Broadway Sacramento’s history, ranking alongside such hits as “Wicked,” “The Lion King” and “The Book of Mormon.” Most seats are priced at $49 to $179, with a few $299 premium seats.
Ironically, he said Monday’s website problem “had nothing to do with the demand for ‘Hamilton’ tickets.”
Rather, he said the difficulty occurred because Windcave, the company that processes payments for online ticket purchases at Broadway Sacramento, experienced a significant system shutdown.
Officials with the company couldn’t be reached for comment.
Hessburg said Broadway Sacramento’s ticketing partner was able to switch the payment process to another vendor in about 40 minutes. He said Broadway Sacramento was able to find tickets for customers who’d been unable to complete their purchases.