“Hamilton,” the ultra-popular musical has come to Denver, bringing with it national attention and a competitive fight for tickets. According to the Denver Post, around 113,560 tickets were available total for sale, including pre-sale tickets that Denver Center for the Performing Arts subscribers were able to buy early, lottery tickets (available nightly), and premium tickets. Tickets went on sale on January 22 and were sold out by 3:15 p.m. that day. While many prospective buyers were left empty handed, a few Arvada West students got lucky.

“Hamilton”–which won eleven Tony Awards in 2016, including Best Musical–tells the story of the ten-dollar bill founding father, Alexander Hamilton, and his life from his birth on a Caribbean island to his role in the Revolutionary War and the post-war creation of the U.S. government.

Sophomore Julia Trujillo saw the show on Tuesday, February 27–opening night at the Buell Theater. She got the coveted tickets through a friend of her mother’s, who had extra tickets.

“It was totally surreal. It was so cool because it was something that I had been building up to seeing for so long. It was incredible … all the choreography on stage, it was just such a good presence and the whole thing was really overwhelming,” says Trujillo.

Trujillo got hooked on “Hamilton” when her cousin introduced it to her a few years ago, and she has been listening to the soundtrack since. Her favorite song of the show was “Burn,” the song that Eliza Hamilton sings after finding out that her husband Alexander has cheated on her.

“I cried so hard,” Trujillo says.

Sophomore Emily Burg was also lucky enough to score tickets. Her mother, Connie “wrote repeated emails to the people in charge of tickets” after their computer malfunctioned while they were trying to purchase the tickets online.

“We never heard back from them, but we got tickets because Connie just randomly went in and checked the website and they had released more tickets.”

Burg became hooked on “Hamilton” after the A-West choir performed a few of the show’s songs at the Pops concert last spring.

“I had heard a couple songs, and some of my friends were listening to it,” she says.  

Burg is seeing the show on March 25 and is looking forward to seeing the song “Non-Stop” performed live.

“Hamilton” will run in Denver until April 1. For those who could not get tickets and are not throwing away their shot, there is a daily lottery for $10 tickets. Information about how to enter the lottery can be found on the Denver Center website–but only for those over eighteen.