What is Ham4Ham?
What is Ham4Ham? Or as they say in the twitterverse, #ham4ham? I can start by saying it has nothing to do with a ham sandwich. If you heard the phrase chances are you know at least one of the hams mentioned in the ham4ham is for Hamilton the most popular Broadway Musical of the day. It is starting to stack up more awards than we can count and for good reason. If you have not seen the play it should be on the top of your list and knowing what Ham4Ham is will help you get tickets. Hamilton the musical is the second “Ham” in the Ham4Ham.
The first “Ham” in Ham4Ham refers to a what is known as a Hamilton, a ten dollar bill. So $10 for tickets to Hamilton sounds to good to be true right? Only $10 to see Hamilton. Well it gets even better it is $10 for 2 tickets to see Hamilton. Can’t get any better than that right? Actually you can, Ham4Ham is $10 for 2 tickets to see Hamilton in the front row! Now you know a part of why there is so much buzz about it everywhere.
No wonder no one can get tickets to this show, they are giving them away for $10 a pair for the front row, of course they are sold out, right?! Well, not so fast, it is a lottery. You have to enter to win and if you are lucky, very lucky, you and a very lucky friend can wind up sitting front row center for the hottest show on Broadway and forever be the envy of all your friends. I don’t know the exact odds. I haven’t found them published anywhere, but I do know it is hard to win. There is a recent story about a guy trying 30 times and then getting tickets, he got them eventually but not from the lottery. It is not powerball lottery hard so don’t be afraid to take your shot, but it is not a sure thing either. If you want some other tips for getting tickets at face value, we wrote this article. https://theatertickets.com/tickets-to-see-hamilton-on-broadway
Ham4Ham Lottery
How do you enter this Ham4Ham lottery? Right now you can do it online: https://hamiltonlottery.broadwaydirect.com/show/hamilton/ and enter once before each show. You can give them your email and then if they pick you, you better be sitting by your computer because you have one hour to claim those seats before they disappear and you miss your shot. You can only enter for the upcoming show, which means no trying your luck at a show for a month from now when you are planning on being in NYC, it is the next show only.
Update as of 4/6/16
The live Ham4Ham lottery is back every Wednesday for the matinee only. All other shows will remain on the digital lottery mentioned and linked to in previous paragraph. Here is the announcement from Mr. Lin Manuel-Miranda’s twitter feed: O. Starting tomorrow (4/6), live #Ham4Ham shows & lotteries are back for Weds matinees ONLY. Start entering @ 12:00, drawing @ 12:30.
If this were all there was that would be wonderful, but as they say on infomercials, wait, wait, there’s more! If you haven’t been to Broadway you probably don’t know that they are very strict about no cameras. If you pull out your phone there prepared to be yelled at almost immediately. Most New Yorkers don’t care what people say to them, but even this tough crowd puts away their phones or risks getting kicked out. So you don’t get to see much of the show unless you have a ticket. With Hamilton it is different. They are doing something truly amazing and so wonderfully simple and yet remarkable that you wonder why it hasn’t taken off before. When people are waiting to find out who won the lottery members of the cast perform. While Lin Manuel Miranda used to come out for this, as we all sadly know he has moved on to other ventures in his life. The new person leading the Ham4Ham lottery live entertainment is Rory O’Malley a.k.a. George Washington. You will be able to see him or others from the cast and perform something and they normally have some great special guests. Well, honestly in this case, everyone is the winner. You can hear things as varied as Thriller, to poetry, seeing other fans give it their shot at singing, and often there are special guests from other Broadway shows. Bottom line, it is amazing. Obviously for this you have to be at the theater and not entering online only if you want to see the Ham4Ham show.
Right now they are taking a break from the live Ham4Ham but there is a digital Ham4Ham you can watch. Have no fear if you wanted to see it live, rumor has it they will be back in about a month with a promise of a better sound system. The best way to stay up to date on the Ham4Ham is to follow Hamilton Musical’s twitter account, https://twitter.com/hamiltonmusical or @hamiltonmusical.
To get an idea of what you can see, you can get lost in the YouTube videos and see some of what I mean on there. Here is the opening night Ham4Ham where Lin reads from the Hamilton Book that inspired him to write the musical.
Here is one of the most popular Ham4Ham shows where Lin sings with Kyle Jean-Baptiste from Les Miserables.
Everyone who is part of the live lottery is a winner in my opinion. If you don’t win tickets though, we sell tickets which are completely verified and guaranteed 200% by us which is the best in the industry. We have instant delivery via email on most tickets so you won’t miss your shot to see Hamilton. From the bottom of my heart, I wish you all the best of luck, except of course on the days I am entering this summer 🙂