🔒Musical gave The Bushnell and city a boost, though some arts venues say it crimped their attendance

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The musical phenomenon “Hamilton” is long gone from The Bushnell after its three-week, 24-performance run in December that attracted more than 66,000 patrons, some willing to spend more than $1,000 a ticket.

But what effect did the show have on The Bushnell — and the Capital City?

Financially, it brought in big bucks to the box office: more than $13 million, according to David Fay, president and CEO of The Bushnell.

Of that gross figure, the theater — through a complex multi-tiered contract — got to keep more than $2 million.

“It was one of the fairest deals for a blockbuster I have ever seen in my career,” says Fay, without mentioning previous mega-hits from Disney and producer Cameron Mackintosh.

“We can say now it was a completely sold-out run,” says Fay, noting that producers resisted marketing that distinction while the show was in town because some tickets were being held back and then released to consumers up to the final performance. It was all part of the producers' strategy to foil scalpers who resell tickets at exorbitant prices — with none of that big bump going to those who created and produced the show.

“We fought hard to keep the tickets out of the hands of brokers who were gouging people,” says Fay.

Working with the attorney general's office on consumer protection, The Bushnell developed techniques to identify brokers who were buying tickets on the theater's website and then reselling them at a much higher figure. At the same time, the musical's producers developed a fluid pricing strategy — also known as “dynamic pricing” — that undercuts whatever figure brokers are selling tickets for online.

“We cancelled 900 orders we identified as broker-bought and then put them back into our system,” says Fay.

“We had a [woman] buy four handicapped tickets on our website [for the face value of the ticket price] and then two of the tickets showed up on StubHub selling for $1,000 a piece,” says Fay. “I could tell you other stories that would curl your hair.”

If regular customers needed to return tickets for one reason or another The Bushnell had a policy of re-entering them back into the system at face value.

The highest “dynamic pricing” ticket sold by The Bushnell was around $800, in an effort to undercut the high $1,200 ticket price brokers were asking for at one point. “But $500 was the highest standard ticket we sold — and that was for our 'gold circle,' ” says Fay.

To counter criticism that the show was out of reach for many theater-goers, producers created a lottery system where 40 tickets per show were available for $10, which meant that close to 1,000 people saw “Hamilton” in the 2,800-seat hall at drastically lower rates.

Then there was the special performance as part of “EduHam,” a special initiative that promotes an American history curriculum to sophomores and juniors at select low-income high schools around the country. Shortly after the musical opened, 2,800 students from around the state were bussed into the arts center and presented their school projects and live performances on the “Hamilton” stage at an event that was emceed by one of the cast members. After a box lunch, the students saw a full special performance of the show. That event was paid for by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the show's producers and money raised by The Bushnell. (This program is not presented in every city of the tour, which had to have local financial support, which The Bushnell raised.)

Then Gov.-elect Ned Lamont was there for the student event where he witnessed the relationships among the arts, schools and students. It also didn't hurt that it was an opportunity for The Bushnell to bond with the incoming governor who is a key figure in determining state bond money for the arts.

Impact beyond the theater

Not so easily quantified is the financial benefit the musical provided to downtown restaurants, hotels and shops, but those establishments certainly took advantage of the increased foot traffic.

Likewise, it's hard to determine if Hartford area theater-goers spent all of their entertainment dollars on “Hamilton,” leaving little for other area theaters, most of which reported lower-than-normal attendance in the final quarter of the year — though TheaterWorks reported an increase for its holiday show.

Similarly, Broadway producers groused when “Hamilton” opened four years ago that many theater tourists spent most of their entertainment dollars to see that high-priced musical instead of spending money to see a number of different lower-cost shows.

“I would counter that by saying it's like having the Super Bowl in Hartford,” says Fay, adding that the excitement and financial pluses the show brought to the region offset any temporary downside.

“Don't forget a lot of people who had never walked through the doors of The Bushnell before came here and were introduced to theater here for the first time,” says Fay.

The show also boosted Bushnell's Broadway subscription series — its main financial engine — over the past few years by 50 percent to 9,250 subscribers. That number is expected to decline for the 2019-20 season, following patterns at other post-“Hamilton” cities.

What’s next?

So, how do you follow “Hamilton?” The 2019-20 season is expected to feature one recent Broadway blockbuster — “Anastasia” — along with a mixed bag of newish musicals and revivals.

But “Hamilton” will be back, says Fay.

The Bushnell recently announced the musical is set to return for the 2020-21 season.