Photograph by Joan Marcus/courtesy Broadway in Atlanta
If you’re a diehard Hamilton fan, you know what #HAM4HAM means—it was how Lin-Manuel Miranda entertained fans who eagerly waited outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City for the ticket lottery of the original Broadway run. When the lottery went fully digital in 2016, the Hamilton team went from performing outside to releasing a series of fun YouTube videos. But the name stuck, and has become synonymous with ticket lotteries for Hamilton shows in every city.
As announced previously, Atlanta’s #HAM4HAM lottery will release 40 orchestra-level tickets for each of the 24 Hamilton performances at the Fox Theatre for just $10 each. The first lottery is for the May 22 show and will open up on May 20 at 11 a.m.
So how do you snag these cheap tickets?
Step one: Grab your lucky penny/rabbit’s foot/T-shirt/vial of Felix Felicis—you’re gonna need all the luck you can get.
Step two: Either download and open the official Hamilton app or visit hamiltonmusical.com/lottery at 11 a.m. two days before the date of the performance you want to see. (Makes sure you select that Atlanta show! This is an international app, so you don’t want to accidentally win tickets to a New York or London show.) The lottery stays open from 11 a.m. two days before the performance to 9 a.m. the day before the performance. (So for the May 22 show, it opens at 11 a.m. May 20 and closes at 9 a.m. May 21.) You’ll be asked to enter your name, email, zip code, and you can enter a mobile number for text alerts. You can request either 1 or 2 tickets, and you’ll have to verify that you’re at least 18 years old. And unlike buying normal tickets, the order of entry does not matter. As long as you’ve entered during the open window, you have the same chance of winning as everyone else.
Step three: Don’t cheat! Come on, they’ve been doing Hamilton lotteries since the show debuted on Broadway—they know people will try to outsmart the system. One entry per person per performance. If you try to use a disposable email address, you’ll be disqualified. If you try to enter multiple times, you’ll be disqualified. (But you can have multiple people from your household enter, as long as they have valid emails and only enter once per performance.)
Step four: Wait. We advise not thinking about it too much—you may go mad.
Step five: If the odds were in your favor, you’ll receive either an email or text message at 11 a.m. the day before the performance telling you that you won. From there, you have to pay for your $10 seats online with a credit card by 4 p.m. the day before the show. (If you miss this deadline, you will lose your seats.) Then you can pick up your tickets at will-call two hours before the show. Bring a valid photo ID—the name on the ID must match the name on the ticket for entry.
Step six: Don’t try to use this as a get-rich-quick scheme. The official rules state, “lottery tickets are void if resold,” so no buying them just to toss them up on StubHub for a quick buck. And they’re non-transferable, so you can’t give them to a buddy for free either.
And that’s all there is to it. Good luck, Hamilton fans!
