Industry News

‘Hamilton’ to use Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan in its return to Broadway

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan is being used to beat scalpers for the world’s biggest theatre show, ‘Hamilton’, as it makes its way back to Broadway.

Tony Award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical about the US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton has developed into a billion-dollar hit since it launched two years ago in an off-Broadway theatre. However, secondary ticketing of the show has proved controversial, with seats changing hands for as much as $10,000 (£8,000/€9,500). In response, Miranda became a champion of the federal BOTS Act that was passed earlier this year.

Verified Fan is used when acts show an interest in the feature and a registration page is created for fans to sign up for a special presale. They will be required to enter a host of information to verify their identity, then based on a fan score, people will get a code that they can use for a specific presale, preventing bots from competing with them to get the best seats.

As recently revealed, Hamilton will be returning to Broadway in New York City from March 6 to August 19, 2018. Ticket registration for the Verified Fan pre-sale began on Tuesday and will run through until Friday. General sale begins on August 22 at 10am.

Producer Seller said in a release: “I am confident that Verified Fan will be a valuable service to our fans. We know how challenging it is to buy tickets and this new Ticketmaster programme will make the process a whole lot easier.”

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan feature has been successfully used with several concerts before, such as Ed Sheeran and Linkin Park. However, it could prove to be a tougher test for the extremely high-demand Hamilton, since many people could be tempted to pay extra to touts for a seat.

Hamilton recently went curtains up in Los Angeles with $600 tickets shifting at a fast pace.The musical, which will be performed at the Hollywood Pantages, runs through to December 30.