HAMILTON's new $849 top ticket price spurs worries over theater elitism [View all]

[brooklynite]

Crain's New York Business:

With 11 Tony Awards for Hamilton on June 12 at the Beacon Theatre, Broadway insiders showed that they treasure the hip-hop-infused blockbuster musical as much as paying audiences do.

But the new $849 Hamilton tickets that producers introduced to American Express cardholders on June 7 and to the general public a week later are less of a hit in some quarters of the business. Although they appear to be selling well on Ticketmaster, there are concerns that the 55% price hike could advance the perception that theater is elitist and inspire other increases. Broadway "might price itself out of the marketplace," Stephen Byrd, lead producer of the drama Eclipsed, said on the red carpet before the awards. "We're getting into opera ticket price range." He didn't make a scapegoat of Hamilton, however, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime" phenomenon. "Scalping is driving the prices up."

Lead producer Jeffrey Seller said on June 8 that he introduced the new price after being frustrated that resellers were charging many times his tickets' face value and that the Hamilton team wasn't sharing in the profits. He told The New York Times that he arrived at $849 by averaging prices he saw in the secondary market.

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Luis Miranda Jr., a political and corporate consultant and father of Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, noted that producers are also doubling the number of same-day, $10 lottery seats, to 46. "I always try to see the glass half-full rather than half-empty," he said while approaching the Beacon.