Everyone knows that tickets to the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” are next to impossible to get, but for certain savvy fans, and keen-eyed passers-by, there are free, uncrowded “Hamilton” performances in Central Park every Thursday — on the softball fields.
Yes, “Hamilton” has a softball team. And anyone can walk up and watch it play, at the Heckscher Ballfields near Tavern on the Green.
No, you do not need tickets and no, sadly, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created and stars in the musical, does not play.
But other performers do, including Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington onstage and third base on the ball field.
He bats cleanup, right after Anthony Ramos, an outfielder, who in the Broadway production plays John Laurens as well as Alexander Hamilton’s son Philip.
The team’s left-fielder and fleet-footed leadoff batter is Ephraim Sykes, who is part of the ensemble, and also plays George Eacker.
Alysha Deslorieux, a standby performer for the roles of the Schuyler sisters, starts at second base and brings the team mascot to the games: Max, her dachshund-poodle mix.
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They play in the Broadway Show League, where teams are made up of the cast, crew, musicians, ushers and other theater employees from different productions.
The notoriously sold out “Hamilton,” which is nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards this year, is also mopping up on the field.
Five games into the season they are undefeated. All of the victories have been decisive, if not blowouts.
They shut out the team from “Beautiful” by a score of 5-0, beat “Kinky Boots” and “Phantom of the Opera” by seven runs each, and blew out the combined team from “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Finding Neverland,” 19 to 0.
On Thursday, they routed “Les Misérables” by 10 runs, putting them at 5-0 and at the top of the standings with “Matilda.”
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In a battle of revolution-themed musicals, “Hamilton” faced off against “Les Misérables” on Thursday at the Heckscher Ballfields. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
“Hey, we’re ‘Hamilton,’ we try to win everything,” said the team’s co-manager Sandy Paradise, poking fun at the show’s seemingly boundless success, which also includes Drama Desk awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Ms. Paradise, who operates the spotlight onstage, was penciling in the starting lineup before Thursday’s game, on Field 2, near the Central Park carousel.
She gathered the players and pointed across the infield at their opponents from “Les Misérables” — like “Hamilton,” a revolution-themed musical — and urged her players to kick some “French Revolutionary” posterior.
She led the pregame shout — “To the Revolution!” — and it was time to play ball.
The performers, who on the stage wear period costumes like frock coats and ornate dresses, take the field wearing black-and-yellow uniforms with the show’s name. The caps bear the “Hamilton” logo and the phrase, “Raise a Bat to Freedom,” a variant of a line from the song “The Story of Tonight” in the musical.
“There is still so much buzz around our show, and it translates onto the field,” said Chris Robinson, who operates the light board for the show, and is a utility player on the team.
While some teams have trouble fielding a full squad, more than 50 cast and crew members signed up for the “Hamilton” team, creating a roster “as big as the Bible,” said the team’s other co-manager, Angelo Gonzalez, who played first base on Thursday.
As the doorman at the stage door, Mr. Gonzalez makes sure things go smoothly when the cast exits to the swarms of fans awaiting them nightly.
While it’s fabulous to be in a show that has taken the theater world by storm, “the problem is, everyone expects us to win,” said Sean Quinn, the theater’s chief engineer and one of the team’s pitchers.
The team is tight-knit, said Mr. Sykes, who played Little League and high school baseball growing up in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“There’s a lot of love in the building,” he said, referring to the theater. “The games are a good time for the cast and crew, and the success and energy of the show definitely translates to the field.”
In the third inning, Mr. Sykes singled.
“Let’s get it started,” yelled Mr. Ramos, 24, who stepped to the plate and yelled “Yah!” as he swung, ripping a towering fly ball over the left fielder’s head for a double, and driving Mr. Sykes home.
Mr. Ramos, who grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and played baseball at New Utrecht High School, wears his childhood nickname, “Da Franchize,” on the back of his jersey. He said he strained his groin during a recent game and had to grimace his way through that evening’s performance.
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“Hamilton” remained undefeated, routing “Les Misérables” by 10 runs. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
“It’s a lot of fun, but we come here to win,” Mr. Ramos said of the games, which feature collisions and diving catches. This is unsettling to the show’s producers, players said, especially with the approach of the Tony Awards show on June 12, during which the cast is scheduled to perform.
Not to mention the fact that the games are sandwiched between the matinee and evening performance on Wednesdays and the Thursday evening performances.
The players are occasionally asked for photos by parkgoers who happen to notice the team name, and by the handful of “Hamilton” fanatics who have learned of the softball-playing offshoot of the hit show.
On Thursday, this included Lauren M. Wendt, 15, and Sabina Mamedova, 19, who recognized each other while sitting in the bleachers from the “Hamilton” content they had posted on social media.
Lauren had her face autographed by the cast at the stage door and posted a photo of it on Twitter, which made a splash among fans.
“Most people don’t know about this,” she said of the relatively fan-free games, and added that she knew nothing about softball.
“Seeing the crew is as great as seeing the cast, and it’s great to see them out of their element,” she said.
Lauren, a high school freshman from Princeton, N.J., who wore a black “Hamilton” T-shirt, said she had seen the show four times, usually by waiting overnight to buy cancellation tickets.
Sabina, 18, a sophomore at Hunter College, said she had entered the lottery for tickets 170 times, and had seen the show three times.
“It’s fun to see everybody cheering on each other here,” she said.
Lucy Stone, 15, from Peachtree City, Ga., watched the game, wearing a red “Hamilton” T-shirt and said her family was on a five-day vacation in Manhattan just to try to nab “Hamilton” tickets.
They booked a hotel near the theater where the show is playing so Lucy could wait outside the stage door each night. She had not gotten tickets, but a theater worker told her about the Thursday games.
Between innings, Mr. Ramos posed for a photo and allowed her to videotape him reciting one of his lines.
“If I can’t see them onstage,” she said, “at least, I saw them here.”