Will the And Peggy cast be classified as a tour? I thought it was just going to be in Puerto Rico in January then a sit-down production in San Francisco
That’s a good question. I personally am classifying it as a tour because that is how it has been advertised in casting calls and reported on Playbill.com, both as the And Peggy Tour as well as the Third National Tour (though less so than And Peggy Tour). Additionally, while Puerto Rico has its own tab on the Hamilton website, I see this as done mostly for logistic reasons since Lin is coming back and it’s such a highly anticipated few weeks of shows. (I for one am very excited.)
San Francisco, on the other hand, is simply listed as a stop on the U.S. Tour tab. SHN Orpheum in SF is currently only selling tickets through September 2019, about the same length as their prior stint in SF. Thus, it feels less like a proper sit-down production like Chicago or London and more so an extended stop. However, much of this is just speculation and I absolutely could be wrong.
I will let you know if I am!
UPDATE!! (1/12/19):
So about a month ago, the incredible Steve Flagg emailed me with a much better answer than what I gave. I will add it here for anyone interested because I sure was!
“To help you expand on your answer, West Coast sit downs are usually classified as tours even thought they don’t truly “tour.” The Les Miserables Second National Tour (Fantine Company) played 1988 - 1989 in Los Angeles before transferring to San Francisco, where it played from 1989 - 1991 and then closed. The Phantom of the Opera First National Tour (Christine Company) played 4 years in Los Angeles before transferring to San Francisco to perform an additional 5 years before closing. Wicked was never publicly given a company name the way the tours were, but it played two years at the Pantages before transferring to San Francisco to play for another 88 weeks and then close.
Hamilton in San Francisco will sit for a while. The current block of San Francisco tickets is selling through September 2019, but I expect at least one more block will open for performances into 2020. The Nederlander Group, which books the Pantages and owns a 50% stake in SHN, has signed a deal that will allow it to bring some tours into the Kodak Theater beginning in mid-2020. The date of the transfer could happen in 2020 depending on how sales hold up, but I expect there is an extension clause should it be a runaway hit in SF; SHN has stated Hamilton will stay as long there is demand. The other potential scenario is the Chicago company (isn’t it named Eliza?) can transfer to LA should demand soften there.
So we’ll see how long Hamilton sits in SF, but you are not incorrect in classifying it as a tour even if it doesn’t truly tour beyond two or three cities. Oh, and if you look at Hamilton’s site now, San Francisco is now listed as its own city in the drop down rather than having to find it on the tour page. [Very true, I think they updated that like a couple weeks after I answered this and I forgot to come back and mention that.]
Thanks for your interesting site,
Steve”
Major thanks to you, Steve!