Hamilton

This was hands down one of my favorite weekends.  The whole thing could not have worked out better.  To understand, I must give you some background.

Adrienne did not want a graduation party. We talked about it more than once, and she just didn’t want one.  Mark was pretty bummed about it, but it was her choice and we respected that. 

So, I started thinking about gifts we could give her.  Adrienne is not a “stuff” girl though.  She prefers experiences over things.  One of our favorite things has always been musicals.  We’ve been to many shows over her years, and we both love it.  I couldn’t think of a more perfect gift than to take her to see Hamilton.  Number one, I was dying to see it myself, so win, and number two, it’s so popular right now that it’ll be a great memory tied to this point in time. 

Emily called me one morning and was asking about graduation gifts.  She literally said, “I was trying to think of an experience we could have instead of buying something”.  I told her I had been thinking about Hamilton, and it was a done deal.  Well, almost done.  See, once we started looking into it we realized tickets were close to $300 for the highest level last row.  We were still committed and felt it was perfect enough that we were willing to spend the money. 

Emily did a lot of research on seating and best values for your money.  I called the box office and spoke to a woman who said you can buy tickets at the box office and avoid the Ticketmaster fees.  This show is so popular you can only buy tickets resale.  It’s a very confusing process.  The box office doesn’t have any available tickets to sell at face value, but they do work with Ticketmaster on some resale tickets.  By getting them from the box office you can avoid the $75 per ticket online fee.  So we decided we would ask Adrienne’s friend who lives in Chicago to go to the box office and see if she could get us some good tickets!  She went and checked it out for us, but alas, the tickets they had were all $500.  However, this was not a wasted trip because we learned that you can buy tickets the day of the show.  Apparently they hold back tickets for various reasons, and if they aren’t being used they go up for sale the day of.  It’s no guarantee.  Sometimes there aren’t any available and sometimes there’s only a few. 

We went back and forth on what to do.  On one hand, this was a gift.  We wanted to have this experience.  We were willing to spend a fair amount of money to do it.  On the other hand, it’s just annoying to pay more than face value for anything, and we really wanted decent seats!  Adrienne was the one who finally said, “Listen, we are smarter than this.  We are not paying top dollar.  That’s just not us.”  So that was it.  We decided to head to Chicago and see what happens.  We were staying in Adrienne’s friend’s apartment, so no loss there, and we figured if the tickets didn’t work out at least we had a fun weekend in Chicago.  We vowed we would enjoy our weekend either way, but if we had to leave without seeing Hamilton, we would go home and order the tickets without a second thought.  At least we tried. 

 

   We rolled into town on Friday and went straight to the box office.  We wanted to confirm the process and get an idea of what time we should get in line the next morning.  We pulled up, I jumped out, asked a bunch of questions, and got back in the car still not quite positive how it all worked, but knowing I wanted to be in line by 8am the next morning.  We had a mix of excitement and nerves about the whole thing.  We kept saying it was okay either way, but really it wasn’t.  We NEEDED to see this show! 

We dropped our things off in the apartment and did some walking looking for dinner.  We ended up at Hop Cat with some crack fries.

We were up bright and early the next morning.  We were taking no chances.  We had a plan.  I was to wait in line, and Em and Adrienne were to go get coffee.  I was there at the door right at 8.  First one.

The box office opens at 10.  There were two darling girls, Adrienne’s age, waiting with me.  They were so excited and we chatted about how it was all going to play out.  They were a little worried that the line would get confusing, or someone would go in front of us.  I was like, hell no.  No worries there girls, that will not be happening.  Over time people started coming and we had the best time chit chatting and exchanging stories.  Everyone understood the order of the line.  The air was electric with anxious excitement.  A little before 10, a worker came and informed us before he went in that we were at the wrong door.  I used my teacher to voice to explain to the line that we would snake around to the proper door staying in our places.  Everyone was great and happily did it.  However, there was one woman standing next to the door.  She had been there the day before and had not gotten tickets, but she knew what door would open.  I chatted with her cordially a bit, and then suggested she join her friends who were actually in the line where they were supposed to be.  She actually said no!  Who does that?  Em and I exchanged heated words with her and she joined her friends in the line where she should’ve been.  There is no way I wouldn’t confront someone like that, but it was a bummer that she ruined the friendly mood we had going.  Asshole.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming…the doors opened and we were told where to stand.  All of the sudden the windows were opened and we were told to go to the first one.  It all happened so fast and we weren’t prepared to have choices.  Turns out all the tickets they have are sold for $180.  It doesn’t matter where they are, or what show they're for.  We ended up with 3 tickets in Orchestra row H, middle, 8:00 show, for $180 each.  I have never felt so accomplished in my life!  We were literally jumping up and down and hugging our fellow line members(except asshole).  So fun.

We had the whole morning/afternoon to walk downtown and shop.  The weight of the world lifted knowing we had those tickets.  Every once in awhile we’d look at each other and go “OMG!!!”       

We had dinner at Eatily before the show.  So good.

We wanted to be at the theater as soon as the doors opened. 

Our seats were absolutely amazing.  It was fun to see some of the friends we’d made in line. 

When they say the show starts at 8, they mean it.  There’s no overture to this show.  The lights go off, the actors are on stage and you’re off and running.  It was amazing.  There are no words.  It’s fresh and current, but old and classic. The talent in this show unprecedented.  I can’t say enough. It ends as abruptly as it starts.  The cast takes a bow together and the lights are on.  They know how to leave you wanting more. 

  It felt weird to just go home after, but it was late. 

In the morning we hit up the cutest coffee shop.  I bought my Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbucks and brought it in, but the atmosphere was on point.

We got donuts from Firecakes as a souvenir for the other kids.

 

Then it was back on the road home.  It was the best story we couldn’t have written for Adrienne’s graduation gift.  She certainly got an experience out of it, and we’ll all never forget it.