Hamilton: 95 per cent of tickets already snapped up for hip hop musical's Scottish debut

More than 120,000 seats for Hamilton’s run in Edinburgh were sold in advance

It is one of the most eagerly awaited stage musicals to arrive in Scotland in modern times – and will be one of the longest running when it leaves Edinburgh at the end of April.

And it can now be revealed blockbuster musical Hamilton has smashed all box office records at the Festival Theatre more than a month ahead of its much-anticipated opening at the 1,915-capacity venue.

Bosses have confirmed more than 95 per cent of the tickets which went on sale in March last year have been snapped up for Lin-Manuel Miranda's historical hip-hop sensation, which is inspired by the son of a Scotsman who would become America’s first secretary of the treasury under George Washington.

DeAngelo Jones, Shaq Taylor, Billy Nevers and KM Drew Boateng will be starring in the hit stage musical Hamilton in Edinburgh.

Just 7,500 tickets of the 130,000 available tickets are still to be sold for Hamilton's Edinburgh run, from February 28 until April 27, despite some tickets costing as much as £99.50.

The theatre is preparing to welcome fans from more than 40 different countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, the Philippines and the USA for the show. Hamilton has become one of the highest-grossing stage shows of all-time globally despite only launching less than a decade ago.

Edinburgh is the second stop on the first-ever UK tour of Hamilton, which is based on the life story of one of America’s “founding fathers”, Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the Caribbean, but was abandoned by his Ayrshire-born father and left orphaned when his mother died.

The show has been a box office sensation since it was launched off-Broadway in 2015 – ten years after Miranda appeared with a hip hop improv group at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – winning multiple Tony, Olivier and Pulitzer Prize awards.

Charles Simmons will be playing George Washington in the hit stage musical Hamilton when it opens in Edinburgh. Picture: Danny Kaan

Fiona Gibson, chief executive of Capital Theatres, which runs the Edinburgh venue, said: “The level of interest we’ve had in Hamilton has far exceeded our expectations. Hamilton is the global theatre phenomenon of the last decade. We expected it to be really popular, but we've never had anything on the scale of Hamilton.

"It’s on for a much longer run than any other show we’ve had here before. We actually sold more than 50 per cent of the tickets within 24 hours of the public sale launching.

"We had a week of priority booking for the members of our friends’ scheme and actually saw a significant increase in the number we have after Hamilton was announced as people were so keen to get the best seats and the dates they wanted. We still have some seats left, but it’s been selling really well recently, with people buying tickets for Christmas presents.”

The show is being brought to Edinburgh by the leading British producer Cameron Mackintosh, the son of a Scot himself, and Jeffrey Seller, the original producer of Hamilton, which mixes elements of hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap and R&B.

Ms Gibson said: “We’re the only Scottish venue on the UK tour, so it’s a real privilege to have it here. It will look amazing on our stage, which is just as important to Cameron Mackintosh when he's selecting venues for shows as the commercial realities of selling tickets.

“It does feel like Hamilton is coming home given that Miranda came to perform here at the Fringe and the fact that Alexander Hamilton had Scottish roots. I think it’ll land very well with our audiences.”