Two days after announcing it, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts is postponing public sales of tickets for the touring Broadway musical “Hamilton.”
Mere hours after DCPA rolled out its ticketing plan Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Jared Polis said at a press conference that Coloradans should expect some social distancing for months to come.
“Based on Governor Polis’ recent press conference, and out of an abundance of caution, we are going to postpone the on-sale for ‘Hamilton’ scheduled for Monday, April 20,” DCPA officials said late Friday morning. “At present we are still hoping to host ‘Hamilton’ at the Buell Theatre Aug. 12-Oct. 4, 2020. That said, we are mindful that our plans may change as the situation evolves.”
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The musical, which first visited Denver in 2018, is arguably the year’s hottest ticket in the metro area. Its former run at the Buell Theatre led more than 100,000 people to compete online for a limited number of tickets to the Tony-winning production.
DCPA had hoped to satisfy the demand with a lengthier return of the production. However, even as recently as Wednesday, other cities were seeing their performances postponed for weeks or months.
“So many people have been excited about (‘Hamilton’s’) return so, to some degree, putting these tickets on sale feels like a delivery on our promise,” John Ekeberg, executive director of Broadway at the DCPA, told The Denver Post this week. “That’s what’s within our control at this point.”
On Friday, however, the DCPA’s optimism was tempered by the reality of the ongoing COVID-19 stay-at-home orders from the city and state.
“(This) is a dynamic situation requiring tremendous flexibility in our response,” officials said in a Friday press statement. “Of the utmost importance to us is the health and well-being of our valued theatergoers, staff and the traveling performers.”
Going through with “Hamilton’s” public ticketing period — only to later have to cancel and refund tens of thousands of dollars in ticket costs — would present yet another challenge for the DCPA during an already turbulent, uncertain time. The nonprofit theater company has already canceled many of its lucrative touring shows and, earlier this month, cut staffing costs by more than half, including with layoffs and furloughs.
There is currently no rescheduled date for “Hamilton” tickets to go back on sale. DCPA officials urged people to visit denvercenter.org/hamilton for updates and denvercenter.org/response for information on how COVID-19 has affected DCPA’s overall programming.
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