Happy Monday, friends? How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was such a fun one—I saw Hamilton at the Kennedy Center (!!!!) with my sister, Jennifer. Amazing is an understatement.

To back things up, Hamilton has been running here in DC since June as part of its US Tour and the Angelica Cast is at the Ken Cen Opera House through September 16. We’ve long been fans of the soundtrack and really wanted to see it during its DC run. In order to have the first option to buy tickets, you had to be a member of the Kennedy Center last year and this year. My sister and I (obviously!) are not members, so we looked to the ticket re-sell market. Like in other cities, when Hamilton tickets are re-sold here, there’s a huge markup by the seller, so we knew it’d be quite an investment.

Last weekend, we just decided to YOLO and buy tickets on StubHub—and I am so glad we did! It was worth every penny. We had no issues with finding or buying tickets or having the seller ship them to us on time. Just a heads up that StubHub puts fees on top of the ticket price shown online, so add the tickets to your cart to see the actual price. We ended up opting for the 1:30pm showing over the 7:30pm one to save about $100.

A note that there are still some tickets for Hamilton available on the Kennedy Center website here. We were able to get our tickets for $300 cheaper on StubHub than what the Kennedy Center was selling them for, so just price compare! The Kennedy Center does tend to drop the ticket price day-of if they still have seats. For instance, I am writing this post on Sunday afternoon, and the 7:30pm showing in two hours has Orchestra tickets now available for $299. You can also enter the lottery for $10 tickets here. I will be entering everyday from now on, hah!

We parked on a residential street about a ten minute walk away from the Kennedy Center, but Watergate has $14 flat-rate parking on the weekend right across the street. Because we were overzealous, we showed up about an hour early—however, we were not the only one with this idea! There was a whole flock of people taking pictures with the Hamilton banners and marquees outside, and inside, there was a really cute Hamilton x Kennedy Center step-and-repeat.

The doors to the Opera House open about half an hour before the show starts. We used the restrooms in the concourse below the Hall of Nations, which was a rookie mistake—the lines were super long, whereas the restrooms after you pass through security and ticket entry had no lines. Our seats were pretty much in the center of Tier 2, and we had a great view of the entire stage.

The show itself was incredible—I’ve had the privilege of seeing many on- and off-Broadway shows over the years, and this one is by far and away my favorite. I am very happy that I had listened to some of the soundtrack and had a basic understanding of the plot before we went, otherwise, I think it could have been hard to follow at times—especially during the rap-heavy songs. So, my advice to anyone who has tickets (or wins the Hamilton lottery!) would be to read the Wikipedia synopsis before the show and give the soundtrack a listen! My favorite songs are: The Election of 1800, My Shot, Helpless, Cabinet Battle #1, Guns & Ships, The Room Where It Happens, Alexander Hamilton, Wait for It, Right Hand Man, and What’d I Miss.

I’ll conclude by saying that Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius, and I hope everyone has the opportunity to see this show!