Since its debut on Broadway last summer, the musical Hamilton has taken the world by storm. The show is so popular that tickets are sold out for months.
Like most Broadway shows, in order to make the show more accessible organizers put together a daily lottery, where participants had to wait outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre to enter for a chance to win $10 front-row tickets.
It's called Ham4Ham (because you give $10, and then you get to see Hamilton).
no tickets but #Ham4Ham was a worth it experience
It's not unusual for the crowds to reach over 1,000 people, especially because actors from the show sometimes come out to do quick and fun performances.
Today's #Ham4Ham with @TaranKillam!! @Lin_Manuel @HamiltonMusical
To keep crowds safe in the winter while creating better safety measures for the city, organizers decided to host the lottery online for the winter.
By entering through the website Broadway Direct, the public could win the discounted tickets to the acclaimed show.
But on Tuesday, the first day the lottery, things didn't go exactly as planned when more then 50,000 people rushed at the chance to get the hottest (and one of the cheapest) tickets in town.
As it turns out, the ticket website couldn't handle all the traffic and ended up crashing.
Due to over 50K unique entries, @BroadwayDirect's lottery site has fully crashed. As a result, we cannot award any #Ham4Ham winners tonight.
Many people got error messages.
Ugh, #HamiltonLottery, stop trying to make 'Backend Fetch' happen!
Some got a lot of emails.
I get it....I lost. Thanks for all 7 emails #HamiltonLottery @rlynbrown
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda chimed in after getting a lot of flack from disappointed hopefuls.
Yay. Here I gently remind you that while I have a lotta jobs at Hamilton, none are in the IT Dept. Just here like 😍🖥 https://t.co/CpiKZkTCOW
In the wake of the crash, the show's official Twitter account announced that the lottery winners were refunded, and that tickets for Tuesday would not be used.
The tickets held for #Ham4Ham will go unsold and unused in an effort to be fair to everyone. https://t.co/lPZOE5k20v
Miranda said the problem was that more people won than there were seats available.
The issue is, the system sent "you've won" emails to more people than we have seats for. Which is the sh*ttiest. https://t.co/3IkcsIkVUG
New Yorker Lindsay Timmington tweeted her sad saga, from winning the tickets to being told she wouldn't be able to go.
got to 3rd base w/@HamiltonMusical last nite before he said he wanted to"take a break" @Lin_Manuel #theatreblueballs
And she wasn't the only one who experienced the heartbreak.
@heychay @HamiltonMusical I'm crying. I can't believe they told me I won and for 40 minutes I tried to give them my money and now nothing.
Tons of people were disappointed by the turn of events (though couldn't help themselves referencing the very show they were trying to get into).
@IvanTheK @HamiltonMusical @BroadwayDirect This is the biggest disaster since the Adams Administration.
@HamiltonMusical I will write a 5000 page essay on why I should be awarded with tickets for emotional pain and suffering from the lotto
@HamiltonMusical @BroadwayDirect tfw ur not in the room where it happens again
@HamiltonMusical I imagine death so much it feels more like the Hamilton lottery This is where it gets me, on the web-50k peeps dead with me
For now, the show's Twitter account said the lottery (and crowds) will return to the theater.
Tomorrow, while we work on remedying this problem, we will hold LIVE #Ham4Ham lotteries outside of the theater. Stay tuned for more details.
It looks like Hamilton officially broke its own part of the internet.
Break the Internet, Alexander Hamilton. #Ham4Ham #DigitalLottery