It was time for an encore at the PrivateBank Theatre Tuesday morning.
Another round of tickets for the second season of “Hamilton” shows went on sale, and Elizabeth Moreno wasn’t going to miss it.
Moreno, 20, drove in from Indiana with her dad, Jose Moreno. They got in line outside the theater, 18 W. Monroe, about 4 a.m.
“I grew up on the South Side before we moved to Indiana. We were the only Hispanics. It’s really important to me,” Elizabeth Moreno said of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap-infused take on Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.
“We’ve been planning for a month and a half or so.”
The show is “a sign of diversity, how creative people can be,” she added.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before. … All these people are here for the exact same reason,” Elizabeth Moreno said. “I feel like I learned more about history from the cast album than I did in school.”
And Moreno, who’s studying to be a teacher, said she’ll use that album as part of her history lessons someday.
“Oh yeah, yeah,” she said. “Every day.”
Jose Moreno and daughter Elizabeth drove in from Indiana to wait in line. | Jesse Betend/For the Sun-Times
Lynn Perryman, 65, tried and failed to get tickets in June, so she was back on Tuesday.
Some people had been in line since Monday afternoon, but as much as Perryman wants tickets, that was a bit much, even for her.
“They’re insane. They just want to be on TV,” Perryman said, who was feeling optimistic about her chances.
In June, she noted, “the line was twice as long.”
Daniel Hawkins, 25, tried a more modest approach, arriving about 5:30 a.m. — and waiting out some less-hardy folks.
“When I got here the line went all the way around the building,” he said.
“Then it got cold. A bunch left. They weren’t prepared.”
Jose Moreno, 46, Elizabeth’s father, said a musical inspired by U.S. history also could inspire young people today.
“This being an election year, you know…it could be a turning point,” he said. “For young people it’s important to see you can use your voice.”
Who knows, he added: “There could be a musical in 20 years about Trump and Hillary.”
That’s a little way off. For now, Elizabeth was just happy to get to the front of the line — and get those tickets.
Which she did.
“I’m going to probably go cry now,” she said, leaving the theater with her prize.
She planned to keep them under her bed, but her father wondered, jokingly, if they should be concealed — and protected.
“Do we need to hide them?” he asked. “We have a few guns at the house.”
The line to buy tickets for the musical “Hamilton” stretched around the block from the PrivateBank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe. | Jesse Betend/For the Sun-Times
