In an effort to cut down on online ticket scalping, Hamilton is changing its pricing structure: The show’s producers tell the New York Times that they’re doubling the number of tickets available in the show’s lottery, as well as dramatically raising the prices for the best seats. Starting in January 2017, the Broadway sensation will set aside 46 seats for each performance — up from 21 — to be won in the daily Ham4Ham lottery, which is 25 more seats the scalpers can’t get. In other words, you will literally have better luck next year at winning the Hamilton lottery (unless, of course, this news prompts even more people to enter). Now you have two snowballs’ chance in Hell of getting tickets!
While the lottery tickets will still be in the show’s first two rows, tickets in the center orchestra will now go for $849, a record for the most expensive seat on Broadway. This, too, is meant to tamp down on secondary sales: By raising the face value of tickets up to what they go for on the black market, producers hope to cut into scalpers’ profit margins. Together, producer Jeffrey Seller tells the Times, the changes are “taking from the rich to give to the poor,†while also making more money for the show’s investors. Alexander Hamilton himself would be proud.