It may be hard to believe a cheapskate like me paid to see Hamilton, but I did this past weekend. Too bad I didn’t get a ticket for my wife. She would have enjoyed the show.

Just kidding. I got us both tickets, and excellent seats. Here’s our view from the first row of the mezzanine …

I would definitely sit there again. But as I sat there, I became obsessed with the seats in this section …

I always think seats like that are so cool. Everyone can see you, people think you’re important, and you are very close to the stage. Apparently, they are cool seats until you realize that you can’t actually see much of the stage. Solution?

Sure, sit back a little bit. That’ll make it better, right? Nope. Maybe you should try single file along the railing.

Just don’t lean to the right. Oh, well. It’s a quirky old theater with plenty of obstructed sight lines. And don’t get thirsty at the show. The drinking fountain scared me off.

Yikes! So with scary drinking fountains and obstructed sight lines, how can they justify the outrageous ticket prices? I thought that maybe I could get a discount if I put my thinking cap on and looked around at intermission. I noticed that there are lights everywhere.

Hundreds, if not thousands of light bulbs dot the theater including this central dome in the ceiling.

What’s that we see? A burnt bulb? For these ticket prices? Outrageous! I headed to see the theater manager to demand a refund, while being ready to accept a sizable discount or a concessions snack. After some wrangling, we negotiated an agreement where I was ushered back quietly to my seat. So much for my revolutionary idea.