‘Hamilton” isn’t the only revolution coming to The Bushnell. The show’s popularity has added a virtual army of thousands of new subscribers to the theater’s Broadway series.
Beth Hyland, The Bushnell’s director of marketing, estimates that the theater’s subscriber base has increased 50 percent since “Hamilton” was first announced, from around 6,000 in 2017 to more than 9,000 for the current season.
“This is the largest subscription base we’ve had in 15 years or so,” Hyland says. The surge is comparable with 2006, when The Bushnell brought in the first national tour of “The Lion King” for 53 performances.
“There’s a significant amount of new subscribers who are traveling a little further than we’re used to seeing — from New Haven, Milford, even Springfield,” Hyland says. “The average age is also a little younger now.”
To acclimate all these newfound theater fans, The Bushnell has been holding special events and other “fun stuff for new subscribers,” Hyland says. “We held an open house in September, with a tour of the theater, so we could let them know where the bars are, where the restrooms are.
“We’re offering other little touches throughout the year, like thank-you cards. There may be some treats during ‘Hamilton’.” Subscribers and donors got special invitations to see a special show at the theater Nov. 26: “Hamiltunes,” a one-of-a-kind “Hamilton” sing-along event hosted by Broadway actor Seth Rudetsky, known to established Bushnell subscribers as the host of the annual season-announcement events.
Hyland says the subscriber surge “really started when we first announced, a year and a half ago, that we’d be getting “Hamilton.’ It was a wonderful opportunity, as the community’s eyes were on The Bushnell, and we could say ‘Look what else we can do.’” That initial announcement in the spring of 2017 simply stated that The Bushnell would be hosting “Hamilton” at some point during the 2018-19 season, with few other details. “As I remember,” Hyland says, “at the announcement event, Seth Rudetsky played the first few opening notes from ‘Hamilton’ on the piano, and the house just went crazy.”
Just the idea of “Hamilton” eventually coming was enough for some folks to become subscribers for the season before that show was even due. After the 2018-19 season, and the specific performance dates, were announced in March of this year, things got real.
The first group to be guaranteed tickets to “Hamilton” were existing Bushnell subscribers who were renewing their subscriptions. Next came new Broadway series subscribers. Some so-called “special donors,” financial supporters of The Bushnell who aren’t season subscribers, had a shot at purchasing “Hamilton” tickets before they went on sale to the general public Sept. 8. The entire 23-performance run sold out then, though a few tickets have been made available since, and a daily lottery for tickets will be held while the show is in town.
The vast majority of new subscribers went for the whole Broadway package because they wanted “Hamilton.” But Hyland is also encouraged by the hundreds who’ve purchased “mini-package subscriptions” that don’t include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster.
“That tells us there’s still a group that wasn’t just subscribing for ‘Hamilton.’ ‘Hamilton’ aside, we still have a really strong season.”
The remainder of the 2018-19 season offers the national tours of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Rent,” “Come From Away” and “Waitress.” The season began in the fall with “The Play That Goes Wrong” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The Bushnell hopes to hold onto the “Hamilton” subscribers when the 2019-20 season is announced in April. Fortunately, there are many other strong tours that have yet to visit Connecticut that are in The Bushnell’s sights, presumably including such hits as “Dear Evan Hansen.”
“Anecdotally, we’ve seen on social media, people say they subscribed to see ‘Hamilton’ but really enjoyed seeing ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’,” Hyland says. They’re not giving those tickets away.”
Kathy Daugherty, who lives in South Windsor, bought a pair of subscriptions in May so she and her husband could plan to have regular “date nights” throughout the year.
“I really didn’t subscribe just to see ‘Hamilton’,” Daugherty says. “That was just a perk. It’s just a beautiful theater. It makes you feel very warm and welcome. It’s very family-oriented, the cost is very reasonable. They take that all into account.”
Daugherty found “The Play That Goes Wrong “completely hysterical — it was a brand new type of a show me,” and “Fiddler on the Roof” “just great.” She’s “really looking forward to the “Waitress” in June, but intends to give her tickets to “Rent” to her children. She bought extra tickets to “The Sound of Music” in May so she could bring two of her grandchildren.
Daugherty attended the open house event in September. “They had brochures there for all the shows, not just the ones in our subscription package.” She was inspired to buy tickets to the musical “Cats” in January, which is not part of the subscription series.
Daugherty says she and her husband went to “at least one show a year” at The Bushnell before subscribing. Does she plan to renew her subscriptions when the 2019-20 season is announced in the spring?
“I don’t think there’s even an option for us not to do this again.”
