How To Get Hamilton Tickets

Disclaimer: This post is based off of 3 days’ worth of anecdotal experience.

The only way to get Hamilton tickets besides forking over $500+, waiting until Feb. 2017, or being the 21/50,000 to win the online lottery, is through the cancellation line.

What’s the cancellation line? The cancellation line is a combination of no-shows with special reserved seating and folks who won the lottery but didn’t pick up their ticket within an hour.

Note: Because there’s no way to distinguish no-shows from late-shows, this line doesn’t include “normal” seats where the ticket owners don’t show up.

How does the line work? There are three windows where they might hand out tickets. First, they give exactly three tickets around noon. This happened every day I visited. The next opportunity comes 1.5 hours after the lottery closes—sometimes they have tickets (typically around 4–8), sometimes they don’t. Lastly, right before the show starts (or a few minutes after), they’ll hand out the remaining tickets. You’re allowed to acquire up to 2 tickets and they go for face value (between $44-$178). Premium tickets are sold at $178. Most people in line just want 1 ticket.

How many tickets do they hand out per day? The guys at the box office say around 4 to 12. For my three days, the numbers were 9 (Tuesday), 11 (Wednesday matinee), 15 (Wednesday evening), and 15 (Thursday).

How early do you have to get there? Obviously varies a lot on individual whim, weather, and ticket cancellations. To be the first one there on Tuesday (4:30 a.m.), Wednesday matinee (8 a.m.), Thursday (7 a.m.). By noon, Tuesday (11 people), Wednesday matinee (18 people), Thursday (10 people). By 6 p.m., Tuesday (21 people), Wednesday evening (24 people), Thursday (~25 people).

Note: this excludes people who were in line but gave up, does not factor in people who want 2 tickets, and does include the 3 who won tickets and left.

Peak lineup times are at 9 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m.

When should I get there?

The Thursday line and I agreed that it makes the most sense to either get there way early in the morning ~7 a.m., be the first three, and get your tickets by noon, or to arrive around 11:30 a.m. and beat the noon rush. Getting there at 4 p.m. makes some sense too because you have (taking a wild guess) maybe a 50% chance of getting tickets, but your wait is drastically shortened. Almost certainly, there will be no tickets left if you arrive after 5 p.m.

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Hope that helps!