Season tickets for ASU’s Gammage, including ‘Hamilton,’ sell out in hours
May 15, 2017, 12:09 PM | Updated: 2:21 pm
(Photo courtesy of ASU)
(Photo courtesy of ASU)
PHOENIX — If you were hoping to get season tickets for Arizona State University Gammage Auditorium’s upcoming Broadway season — including the smash hit “Hamilton: An American Musical” — you ran out of time.
All available season tickets for the 2017-2018 Broadway season sold out for the first time in the auditorium’s history on Monday.
Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. They were gone by noon.
Some people said ASU Gammage’s website moved slowly when they were trying to buy tickets. Victor Hamburger, the senior director of marketing and communications, said the delays were caused by high demand.
“ASU Gammage season tickets are more popular than ever and we had an unprecedented amount of people trying to buy tickets,” he said in a statement.
“It felt like half of the Valley was trying to buy season tickets [Monday] and our web servers and Ticketmaster’s servers certainly felt that,” Hamburger continued.
There is a wait list for more tickets. Interested people can sign up online.
Season ticket prices started at $190 and include admission to multiple shows, including “Hamilton.”
Single-show tickets may be on sale at a later date.
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, executive director for ASU Gammage and associate vice president cultural affairs for ASU, said in the release that the upcoming Broadway season has “truly raised the bar.”
“Hamilton” will open on Jan. 30, 2018 and will close Feb. 25, 2018 and will feature 32 performances. It will be the first time the show is performed on a college campus.
Other shows that will be featured during the theater’s 2017-2018 Desert Schools Broadway Across America – Arizona season include “Fun Home,” “The Bodyguard,” “The King and I,” “The Color Purple” and “School of Rock.”
The brainchild of Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Hamilton” opened on Broadway to rave reviews. It tells the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, who was instrumental during the Revolutionary War and later became the nation’s first Treasury secretary.
However, instead of traditional Broadway singing, “Hamilton” uses hip-hop to move the story along. The play won 11 Tony awards.
The show’s effects were felt across the nation this year, cheered by politicians, stars and rappers alike and even helping shape the debate over the nation’s currency (Hamilton stays on the $10 bill, in part due to Miranda’s show.)
But the musical also sparked controversy when the cast delivered a pointed message about diversity to Vice President-elect Mike Pence while he attended a performance in November. President-elect Donald Trump demanded an apology, which did not come.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
