TAMPA, Fla. — The opening night of "Hamilton" drew hundreds of people to the Riverfront and The Straz on Tuesday.
Ticket holders have been waiting for this night since tickets for the Tony-winning hip-hop historical musical went on sale back on Nov. 16. The first round of tickets sold out quickly.
The record-breaking show helped the Straz break some records of its own.
“We have a record number of season ticket holders, we have a record number of single tickets sold," said Summer Bohnenkamp, director of marketing for the Straz. "We have 80,000 people coming to see this show in the next four weeks, and that’s pretty remarkable.”
According to Bohnenkamp, season ticket holders are up 70 percent from last year.
The Straz is not the only place excited about Hamilton coming to town. Restaurants in the area have seen a huge bump from "Hamilton" fever.
Malio’s, a theater-goers' staple, is seeing customers like never before
“Absolutely fantastic," said Dina Kuchkuda, manager at Malio's. "Normally we don’t fill up till 6:30, 7 o'clock, normal dining time for most of our guests. With the show starting at 7:30 we tend to have a full house starting at 5 o'clock."
And Malio's was not only sold out for Tuesday. The restaurant is completely full for the next two nights as well. Normally, the book gets filled a day or two in advance, but according to Kuchkuda, the restaurant became completely booked almost two weeks in advance.
And while she is excited for the restaurant, she is also just happy to see this bump for Tampa.
"I think that its great for our city. Tampa is growing so rapidly. And having performances like 'Hamilton' really puts us on the map,” said Kuchkuda.
And while most ticketholders seemed pretty excited to be in 'the room where it happens,' no one was more excited than the "Hamilton" lottery winners.
For the entire four-week run, a lottery will be held for $10 tickets for each show. Around 40 tickets will be distributed by lottery for each show.
Brittney Davis was one of these lucky winners.
"I'm feeling overwhelmed and excited," she said, hardly believing her luck, "I was trying to figure out if it was real and do I really put in my credit card information to purchase the tickets."
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