I’m seeing Hamilton stuff on my dashboard, and it’s reminding me of a big regret I have. See, back in 2016, I won cheap front row tickets to see Hamilton’s original cast twice. But the second time wasn’t as cut and dry, and involved me denying someone else.
The first time, my now wife and I just won the $10 tickets from the online lottery. We were living in NYC, so we had plenty of opportunities. We actually won the tickets the day they got their Tony nominations! We hadn’t listened to the soundtrack, and by the third song we were looking at each other asking “is this the best musical we’ve ever seen?” Naturally, we got super into it. I looked up all the Hamilton things. I planned a day trip all around the city, going to different important places related to Hamilton (his grave, his house, and the scene of the crime that led to him and Burr sharing a case). I listened to Chernow’s audiobook. I was ENTHUSED.
A few weeks later, I needed to get something looked at by Apple tech support. I went into Manhattan, and it was a Wednesday - they had the live Ham4Ham going on, I figured I’d drop by myself. Nice time, fun stuff! And then they started drawing winners, and an older woman next to me was also alone. She turned to me, and said, “hey, if you win, take me, and if I win, I’ll take you!” Sure, okay, right? I said yeah! Chances are super low, but why not double them? Well, then the woman won! So I was going to see Hamilton a SECOND TIME with the original cast! Front row! Super pumped! So the woman leaned in and asked, “hey, can you give me $100 for this?” I mean. Yeah. Kinda bad to ask after the fact, but at this point, Hamilton was at PEAK popularity and tickets were going upwards of $1000. I’m not sure the lady was even aware of this, but yeah. I’d pay $100 for front row, “I could pet Hercules Mulligan if I reached out just a bit” seats. I told her yes. And then I fucked up.
As we formed the line to grab the tickets, a young woman and her dad walked up to the lady. They looked to me like they were probably tourists. And apparently, she’d made the same deal with them. They were excited. The young woman, clearly also enthusiastic, thought she’d just scored her ticket. And then the woman who had won the tickets gestured to me and said “well, he said he’d pay me.”
Guys, I froze. Fight and flight both completely failed to kick in and I went full deer in the headlights. I’d already had my chance to see the show, this was probably this girl’s one shot, pun not intended when I wrote it but fuck it it’s staying in. But guys. I wanted it bad. And I hesitated at doing the right thing. I didn’t immediately volunteer my ticket. And the young woman and her dad, giving me dirty looks, decided not to get into a bidding war, and quickly departed. The whole interaction probably lasted 30 seconds.
Once we were out of the line, I looked around. Maybe the girl was still around and I could give her my ticket? No, she wasn’t. I was kicking myself pretty hard for not acting when I should have. From there, I had to stick with the woman who had won the tickets until the show, so we had a quick cheap lunch together, where someone commented on how expensive Hamilton tickets were, and her price went up to $200. I said sure. I wasn’t going to say no at this point - but I was feeling awful. When we made our way back to the theater, I kept looking around to try to find the would-be ticket winners. I was very confident I would be able to recognize them - they’ve faded from my memory now, but at that moment, they were just SEARED into my mind. But no such luck. They had fully moved on. And so I got to see Hamilton, on Broadway, with the original cast, in the front row, for the second time. The woman who’d won the tickets was surprised that I knew the songs, which… surprised me?
And it was great! I felt terrible the entire time, but I mean, it’s a great show! I couldn’t, and still can’t, believe I got to see the show twice that way. At the time, I don’t think I even fully appreciated how lucky this was - I knew it was, of course, but the magnitude didn’t really dawn on me until I started getting reactions from people. I’ve heard a lot of incredulous shouts of “TWICE?!” since then. But when I tell my anecdote of unbelievable Broadway luck, I typically leave out the part where I unintentionally swooped in and stole something from someone else.
I know it doesn’t count for much, but I’d love to be able to tell that young woman that I’m sorry. She had no way to know either that this was my SECOND TIME. It’s 8 years on, and no one follows this dead tumblr of mine, but if somehow this reaches your eyes, I think you’ll know who you were. And I should have done better.
