‘Hamilton’ is coming to Spokane … eventually
Get ready, Spokane. “Hamilton” is coming to town.
We’re just going to have to wait a bit.
In announcing the 2019-20 STCU Best of Broadway season, West Coast Entertainment on Monday teased a local run by the record-setting Broadway sensation during the 2020-21 season.
“Hamilton: An American Musical,” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the story of the founding of America through the life and death of Alexander Hamilton, the country’s first treasury secretary. The rap and sung-through musical opened in 2015, earned 16 Tony nominations – winning 11, including best musical – won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Grammy for best cast recording. In 2018, it grossed $161 million in New York alone.
Other Western stops on the 2020-21 “Hamilton” tour include Denver and Tucson, Arizona, as well as Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in Canada. It played Seattle and Portland in 2018, and is currently on an extended run through the summer in San Francisco.
Before they can be in the room where it happens, theater fans will have an assortment of classic shows and current Broadway favorites in 2019-20 to enjoy at the First Interstate Center for the Arts in Spokane. And there’s even something for the Parrotheads. Because here’s the thing: Getting season tickets this year will help you score seats to “Hamilton.”
“We are ecstatic to tease the Spokane engagement of ‘Hamilton,’ which is part of the 2020-21 season,” said Danielle Witte, West Coast Entertainment marketing director. “The best way to ensure you have tickets to ‘Hamilton’ is to subscribe to the 2019-20 season, as this season’s subscribers will have first access when renewing their season package the following year.”
Up first in 2019 is “Miss Saigon,” the epic retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly” set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr., this Cameron Mackintosh-produced show wrapped up a 10-month revival in January, after an initial run on Broadway that lasted a decade. It’s been a decade too since local audiences have had a chance to see it, since a production by Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater in 2009. (Oct. 23-27, 2019)
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic 1970 rock opera inspired by the events during the final week of Jesus’ life, is mounting its first North American tour in 10 years, visiting more than 50 markets. Spokane is one of them. The show, which was presented live on television in 2018 with John Legend as Jesus and Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, was last staged in the Inland Northwest in 2017 by Lake City Playhouse. (Nov. 20-24, 2019)
For Jimmy Buffet fans out there, or those who simply enjoy palm trees and tropical locales, there’s “Escape to Margaritaville.” The show, which enjoyed a Broadway run in 2017, tells the story of bartender who falls for a tourist, with songs by Buffet as well his classic hits. (Jan. 21-26, 2020)
It’s been seven years since “Jersey Boys” brought all those hits by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to Spokane’s INB Performing Arts Center (now the FICA). The Tony winner for best musical in 2006, the show brings the beloved hits “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” and “Rag Doll” to the stage, while exploring the ups and downs and backstage drama surrounding one of America’s most iconic bands. (April 2-5, 2020)
What’s old is new again, and in the case of Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls,” it’s a good thing. Based on the 2004 movie Fey wrote and co-starred in, “Mean Girls” centers on a new girl at school who must navigate the world of cliques, boys and other various social entanglements. The show, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary this month on Broadway, earned 12 Tony nominations last year. (Aug. 11-16, 2020)
Among West Coast Entertainment’s special engagements for the season, look for a return of “The Book of Mormon” (May 5-10, 2020), which ran in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015, the annual “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas” (Dec. 7, 2019), “An American in Paris” (Jan. 14-15, 2020) and “Once on this Island” (March 17-18, 2020). The speaker series National Geographic Live will return with three events this season as well.
Season ticket packages are on sale now. Broadway packages include five engagements and prices range from $250 to $382. There is only one National Geographic Live package, including three speaking events, for $81. Get tickets online at wcebroadway.com, by phone at (800) 843-4667 or in person at the TicketsWest box office at the Spokane Arena, 720 W. Mallon Ave.