Social media—at least the channels I hang out in—has been abuzz today talking about the Hamilton ticket lottery in New York. The Broadway production moved its day-of #Ham4Ham lottery from in-person to online for the winter, and the massive volume of entries (reportedly more than 50,000) crashed the website so badly that the production couldn't name any winners. (The lottery will be in-person again tomorrow while they work out the technical kinks.)
Well, turns out Hamilton did similar damage today in Chicago, where group sales began for the show's second production. The show's creator and chief social media evangelist (not an official title) Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted late this afternoon that the call volume to Broadway in Chicago's group sales line "crashed the phones."
Oof. We also crashed the phones in Chicago on our first day of group sales. pic.twitter.com/SEwLcNDHey
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 5, 2016
Sales for the Chicago production of Hamilton, which begins performances September 27, are currently open only for groups of 20 or more. Individual tickets, as well as the next round of Broadway in Chicago season subscriptions (which will include Hamilton as their big draw), will go on sale at a still unspecified date.
What a day! The group sales office is now closed. We'll reopen for @HamiltonMusical orders tomorrow at 9am. Call 312-977-1710 for Groups 20+
— Broadway In Chicago (@broadwaychicago) January 5, 2016