you guys realize that when a show gets professionally recorded (which btw, lin never promised. he was referring to the cast album in that one tumblr post everyone keeps talking about, but letâs pretend itâs about an actual video), it almost never gets publicly released right? itâs in an archive in the nypl (new york public library) which is only accessible to those who live in ny state, have a valid state ID + library card, and itâs not a dvd you can take out of the library and return in 2 weeks like you would with a book. you have to make an appointment to go in (and sometimes you would have to do this waaaay in advance) and watch it. walk-ins are available but thereâs no guarantee. even then, you need a valid reason for a streaming of the show. you canât go in there by saying âoh i just want to see hamilton i know the soundtrack forwards and backwards!â youâd have to be a theatre student who needs it for actual school work, with valid proof. the reason they have this archive is for research purposes, not for fans who canât afford to see a show. (sources [x] [x])
the only time it could possibly be publicly released is when every run of hamilton is over. this means every tour (national/international), the broadway run, regional productions, etc. this would take YEARS, even if it gets recorded this year. for example, if i wanted to go see a pro-shot of wicked or book of mormon, i would not be able to because they are still running on broadway/west end/etc. this goes for the library as well. the recordings are not available until all productions are over.
if youâre willing to wait for it (pun intended) for god-knows-how-long for the possibility of an official recording being released or if itâs coming (or has a chance of coming) to a city near you, awesome! (wow!) i, personally, donât have that kind of patience, but I am fortunate to have seen the show live because of the lottery (which iâll talk about a bit later) i donât care what your stance on bootlegs are, but for the love of god stop shitting on people who watch them and rely on them to have some actual access to theatre as opposed to the tiny 2 seconds clips we get during promotional shots. if you donât want to watch it out of respect to lin, thatâs perfectly valid! just donât shame others because they donât have the mindset! no one would ever choose a shitty bootleg over seeing it live (and trust me, the boot is nothing compared to the show. it misses a LOT. seriously, why is it so zoomed in during hurricane?! but i digress) but i would say a good 95% of hamilton fans donât even have that option, whether itâs because of money or living too far away or whatever else. you are not doing your âlord and savior/biological father/jonathan groffâs future husbandâ (seriously, i see this in the hamilton tags on twitter/tumblr all the time. yaâll know he seeâs these right?) lin or any of the cast any favors by yelling about how much you respect them enough to not watch a bootleg.
you can argue that you can just save up money to buy a face value ticket, but (and trust me, i have witnessed this trying to buy my own tickets), scalpers camp outside of the theatre and wait in line to buy an entire row of tickets the second they become available (because there are some tickets you have to buy in person that arenât available online, such as box seats) and just recently, when november 2016-january 2017 tickets came out, they were sold out within seconds. lin, of all people, understands this and he has said that it is awful and that he wants to do something about it, but there is nothing that he, or the legal team within their union, can do. once somebody pays for their tickets, the theatre/the union/whoever else are not allowed to ask âso what are you gonna do with this ticket?â because in the end, itâs all about money. yes, they know itâs shady as hell that the first 20 people on line at the box office are buying entire rows of tickets, but legally, they are not allowed to say/do anything. itâs a liability issue and it fucking sucks for both fans and workers. (i have a friend who works at jujamcyn who told me all of this) no one should ever have to pay more than $100 for the last row of rear mezzanine, but the resales go for $300+. thatâs fucking ridiculous. if you wanât to save up $300+ for the last row of mezzanine, go right ahead (beware of scalpers though, iâve seen people get kicked out and itâs actually heartbreaking) iâve heard stories (and i donât know if this is entirely accurate) but even the cast canât reserve seats for their families/friends because of how booked this show is. iâm pretty sure most hamilton fans (like a solid 90%) that I see on twitter, tumblr, instagram, etc are around the ages of 13-25, give or take. do you know what kind of people i see when i pass by the theatre when the show is letting people go in? rich old white people who donât exactly know anything about the show, but are going just because âitâs a hot ticket!â and then they come out of the show confused âi didnât understand/like the music why is it all rap??â of course there are exceptions; i have seen some of them come out and they fell in love, but that doesnât happen that often as far as iâve seen. Â
if you have the patience, freedom, and money to do cancellation line, that has worked out for a lot of my friends and i plan on doing it when I have enough money, but even that is a very difficult option (if you want more info on how it works, feel free to message me!) also, i appreciate the lottery so so so much, especially considering how elitist broadway is (shout out to all of the shows with rush/student rush/lottery policies! yay for making theatre accessible! more on that later) they obviously donât need to do this, but they understand how hard it is for fans who arenât billionaires to see a show. i have my criticisms about the hamilton lottery being online, but the lotto is honestly an amazing thing and for $10, too. they couldâve easily made it around $30-50 like almost every other show (which isnât bad compared to face value, obviously, but still) and having ham4hams and the program for disadvantaged students and everything is incredible. i respect lin/the producers/anyone involved so much for these. HOWEVER, for those who donât have the chance to go to these lotteries and try their luck and canât wait in line for an entire day just for the chance of getting a ticket because theyâre too far and it costs too much to fly in (because honestly, if i were flying into new york for a limited time, i wouldnât want to sit on a line all day, but thats just me), it fucking sucks and itâs just not fair. yeah, itâll go all over to a national u.s. tour and itâll go to west end, but will it go to south america? asia? australia? africa? i donât know the theatre demographics of those places, so as far as i know, the show isnât going there any time soon. and who knows how expensive those tickets will be when it does start moving around? iâm assuming there will be scalpers at every tour stop/production because of how popular this show is (and that brings us back to the whole liability issue!)
[ham voice] ONE MORE THING
bootlegs, as shitty as the market is for them (just the fact that it is a market and you have to buy/trade bootlegs is ridiculous but whatever thats a different point), have contributed a lot to the theatre community. theatre would not be as popular as it is now if it werenât for bootlegs. how many of you have ever watched/downloaded a tv show or movie online that wasnât on netflix/hulu/a streaming service that you pay for/watched live when it aired on tv/at the movies? how many of you have listened to songs on youtube on channels that are not vevo or âofficial [whatever artist]â channels and/or downloaded songs/albums without paying for them? because essentially, itâs the exact same thing as watching a bootleg. the only difference is lin has said that he doesnât like them. andy mientus said the exact same thing when the deaf west spring awakening bootleg came out, but no one batted an eyelash at that. maybe because andy didnât create SA (this happened with les mis as well), but still: itâs the exact same thing. iâm sure any artist, whether theyâre singers, dancers, actors, etc, hates the idea of their work being âstolen.â do i like the idea of bootlegs/recording a show and going against the rules? absolutely not. but theatre is so inaccessible and it is not fair to anybody except those who are rich and that is exactly why bootlegs for theatre exist in the first place. there are shows that i would have never been able to see if it werenât for bootlegs and iâm not just going to settle for some commercials and a tony performance. sure, i can listen to the cast albums from musicals, but what about plays? those are even more inaccessible than musicals. you cannot put the blame on fans who ask for/watch bootlegs or the brave souls people who record these bootlegs. put the blame on the theater union(s) and production companies. if they really wanted to, they could release these pro-shot recordings after a shows run is over and sell them. they would make money and quite honestly, more people would probably be interested in actually seeing it happen live. itâs like when a book gets made into a movie. i would KILL for a proshot with the obc of in the heights or next to normal or any of the hedwigs in their last broadway run or heathers or spring awakening (both obc and dw) or great comet or hand to god ok ill stop now you get the point. (I remember lin said he wanted to professionally record and release In the Heights but they ended up not doing it, i donât exactly remember why) itâs time to stop making broadway exclusive to the rich. bootlegs are not about losing money (because trust me, hamilton isnât losing a fucking cent over this bootleg). theyâre are about keeping theatre exclusive to the elite and itâs awful.
i repeat: no one would ever choose a bootleg over seeing it live, but that is just not an option for most people.
