To take or not to take: prices for "Hamlet" with Yura Borisov have reached 165 thousand rubles

Hundreds of people lined up at the ticket offices of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater on March 16 to try their luck first to get tickets to the most anticipated production of this theatrical season and see Yura Borisov return to the stage firsthand. This time — in the image of Hamlet directed by Andrey Goncharov. The audience had been queuing since seven in the morning and had been standing for five hours. Meanwhile, speculators put up a record price for a Russian theater box office ticket online — 165 thousand rubles per seat. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Website breakdown and soldier out in two hours

Ticket sales for the May performances at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater began on Monday, March 16, at noon sharp. The theater warned in advance: the part for "Hamlet" and the previously sensational "Cabal of Saints" will be sold only at the box office, and no more than two in one hand, and reservations for these performances are not provided. But the chronicle of the first day showed that even such restrictions could not contain the excitement. The tickets were disappearing before our eyes.

At exactly 12:00 p.m., the sale opened on the official website of the theater for four dates — May 14, 15, 20 and 21. In just 45 minutes, most of the main stage of the Moscow Art Theater (862 seats) was sold out for all upcoming dates. The cost of tickets ranged from 1.5 to 35 thousand rubles.

By 13:00, there were only a few seats left on the site — 10-15 tickets for individual screenings. Half an hour later, the first offers appeared on the resellers' websites. For speculators, prices started at 11.5 thousand rubles and reached up to 165 thousand rubles for a seat in the center of the stalls. On some resources, it was possible to find out the cost only through the operator.

At 13:40, the official website of the Moscow Art Theater could not withstand the influx of applicants and issued a notification of a technical error. After about twenty minutes, the system started working again, but it was already impossible to buy a ticket online: there were no empty seats left.

The queue is like in Soviet times

Meanwhile, in Kamergersky Lane, where the theater is located, the ticket hunt unfolded live. Officially, the queue at the ticket offices was supposed to be formed at 11:00, but in fact people arrived much earlier. The first spectators appeared at the entrance around seven in the morning, those gathered on the spot told Izvestia, and the main mass pulled up by half past ten. Among them was Valery Frolov, who came to buy tickets for himself and his granddaughter.

— The atmosphere is like in Soviet times. Early in the morning, people gather at the deli, where they will give caviar. Everyone is standing and waiting: they will bring, they will not bring. In the end, the director comes out and says, "We'll start selling at 12 o'clock." But only to party members," Frolov joked in an interview with Izvestia. — My granddaughter sent me to buy tickets for Yuri Borisov. She's my student. I haven't read Hamlet in the original, but I've seen a lot of plays. And my granddaughter wanted to see Borisov on stage.

According to him, at exactly 11:00 a.m., the theater staff began giving out paper bracelets to the audience. 200 people received them. By about 11:30 a.m., the bracelets were gone, and there were significantly more people in line — about 300. Such an accessory actually became a ticket to the checkout and a purchase guarantee. The rest could only hope for luck and a waiting list.

Valery Frolov ended up in line 115th and waited his turn only five and a half hours later.

— I bought two tickets to the stalls on the 13th row for 11.5 thousand rubles. I would like to be closer, but in the 12th row the price was already 25 thousand, " he told Izvestia.

However, not everyone in the queue was a theater-goer. According to eyewitnesses, the first 30-35 people turned out to be speculators, whom many regular viewers already know by sight. No matter how annoying their presence is, the theater's regulars are used to this reality.

— According to the rules, one person can buy four tickets to "Hamlet" — two for different dates — and two for "The Cabal of Saints" (another high-grossing performance by the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater, for which there are almost no tickets available. — Ed.). On the one hand, this is a limitation. On the other hand, the tickets are not registered, and they do not require a passport when buying. This makes life easier for viewers, but at the same time it frees the hands of speculators," says Frolov.

Cool work: Yura Borisov at the "Lesson", Germanika at the "Art Moscow"

How the secular capital spent the last week

Elizaveta Maksimenko, like many others, arrived at the ticket offices at 10:45 a.m. and found herself 112th in line. She managed to buy two tickets to Hamlet and two tickets to The Cabal of Saints. To see Yuri Borisov in the role of the Prince of Denmark, the girl paid 7 thousand rubles for two seats on the balcony, and bought two tickets for 6.5 thousand rubles each for Kabala.

Cash trend

The new production of Shakespeare's tragedy became known in September 2025, when the theater announced plans for the season. Even then, the future premiere was called the main event of the year.

The central role in the play will be played by Yura Borisov, one of the most sought—after actors of his generation, a nominee for the Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Fans have not seen the actor on the stage for a long time. In 2013-2014, he was a member of the Satyricon troupe. Then he participated in two Shakespearean tragedies at once — Othello (the role of Ludovico) and Romeo and Juliet (the role of Balthazar).

Borisov's partners in Hamlet will be Anya Chipovskaya, Artyom Bystrov, Andrey Maksimov, Nikolai Romanov, Sofya Shidlovskaya and Kuzma Kotrelev. The production was directed by Andrey Goncharov. He, like the artistic director of the theater Konstantin Khabensky, is a graduate of the workshop of Veniamin Filshtinsky.

The story of Hamlet continues the trend of recent years. Earlier, a similar excitement accompanied ticket sales for the play "The Cabal of Saints" starring Konstantin Khabensky and Nikolai Tsiskaridze. At that time, the increased interest was attributed to Tsiskaridze's theatrical debut, and dealers massively bought tickets and resold them at inflated prices. The cost of seats in the stalls reached 70 thousand rubles.

A similar pattern was observed around the play "Without Witnesses" in Nikita Mikhalkov's Workshop 12 with Mikhail Yefremov and Anna Mikhalkova. To see the actor's first theatrical work after the fatal accident, the audience was willing to pay 93 thousand rubles per ticket.

But even against this background, the story of Hamlet looks special. Today, an almost mythological halo is forming around the new production of the Moscow Art Theater. The play has not yet appeared on stage, but it has already become an event — the rare case when a theatrical premiere turns into a hot hunt. It remains to wish the artists and the production team perseverance, so that the new "Hamlet" will be remembered not only for ticket prices, but also for its outstanding artistic component.