It’s been more than a year since Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, knocking out power to the entire island and leaving large parts of the U.S. territory without clean water.
Since then, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer of the Broadway musical Hamilton, has been a vocal advocate of helping the island rebuild. And now Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent, will reprise his role as Alexander Hamilton when he brings the hip-hop musical to San Juan from January 11 to 27, 2019, at the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center (Bellas Artes) in San Juan, to “raise millions” for hurricane relief efforts.
“We’ll have hundreds of $10 tickets available for Puerto Ricans on the island,” Miranda said on Good Morning America back in May. “But we’re also having super-expensive tickets and with those super-expensive tickets we’re hoping to restore arts funding to Puerto Rico for the next few years.”
The regularly priced tickets ($99 to $338.40) that went on sale on Saturday, November 10, 2018, at ticketpop.com sold out almost immediately, but there are still several ways to see Hamilton in Puerto Rico. Here’s how to purchase them:
Win a Trip to Closing Night
From January 10 to January 16, JetBlue is hosting daily sweepstakes for trips to San Juan with tickets to see Hamilton in its opening week. You can enter each day for a chance to win two roundtrip tickets from JFK to San Juan, two tickets to the show, and one night at a hotel in San Juan. The sweepstakes opens at 9 a.m. ET on January 10 at jetblue.com/hamilton.
Starting January 10th, you can enter for a chance to win the hottest ticket in (and out of) town. Ready! Aim! Mark your calendars. https://t.co/k5eFd2PI0g NoPurNec18+US48/DC pic.twitter.com/uXe83eqRu6 — JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) January 4, 2019
Until January 16, you can enter a new contest on Prizeo.com to win one of 50 trips to the closing night of Hamilton in Puerto Rico on January 27, 2019. Each of the 50 winners will receive two round-trip flights (so you can bring a guest), two nights in a hotel, two tickets to the show, and two passes to the closing night party. A $10 donation gets you 100 entries into the contest and the money raised will benefit both the Flamboyan Arts Fund and the Hispanic Federation.
ONE. MORE. PUH PUH PUH PUH @Prizeo. The biggest one we’ve ever done: 50 WINNERS, 100 tickets to VIP tickets for closing night of #HamiltonPR. All supporting @HispanicFed & @FlamboyanFDN. A $10 donation gets you a chance to win. https://t.co/4RTJyBnfhw pic.twitter.com/z8EdMQb1By — Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) January 7, 2019
Flamboyan Arts Fund VIP Fundraiser Tickets
Those “super-expensive” tickets Miranda mentioned are still being sold for $5,000 each, $4,593 of which will help raise money for Miranda’s Flamboyan Arts Fund that supports the arts community in Puerto Rico. Each ticket will include a premium seat at the show as well as an invite to a VIP post-show reception hosted by chef José Andrés, chef Mario Pagán, and World Central Kitchen’s #ChefsForPuertoRico. These VIP tickets are still available for seven shows and can be purchased at flamboyanartsfund.org.
$10 Lottery Tickets
Residents of Puerto Rico can now enter the lottery to purchase $10 tickets to the show on the HAMILTON mobile app or via Lucky Seat. There will be 10,000 $10 tickets available (about 25 percent of the tickets to the three-week engagement) and 1,000 will be saved exclusively for college students with valid ID. Winners must present a valid, non-expired photo ID that shows their Puerto Rico address when claiming tickets.
Puerto Rico Tourism Packages
In addition to the regular ticket sales, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company is offering four different packages, all of which include tickets to the show. For information on each package, visit welcome.discoverpuertorico.com/hamilton.
Your chance to nab a ticket through booking a hotel package in San Juan is long gone. But if you have a ticket and haven’t booked your hotel yet, consider staying at one of the Marriott International properties on the island. From now through February 29, 2019, Marriott International is donating $1 for every room booked at San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, AC Hotel by Marriott San Juan Condado, and St. Regis Bahia Resort to the Flamboyan Arts Fund. If you book a room at Dorado Beach, a Ritz Carlton Reserve, Marriott International will donate $10.
Why Go to Puerto Rico Now
As of June 2018, there were still thousands of Puerto Ricans without power, but most of the island is ready to welcome travelers once again and need the tourism dollars to support their economy. In August 2018, the community of Humacao, Puerto Rico even recreated the S.O.S. image that went viral after the storm with one that reads “Bienvenidos!” this time to encourage tourism.
This article originally appeared online in August 2018; it was updated on January 10, 2019, to include current information.
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