Audience demand for tickets to “The Book of Mormon” jammed the Kennedy Center’s Web site this morning, causing consumers to be directed to a virtual waiting room or to be kicked off the site entirely.  Kennedy Center officials said high traffic was overwhelming the Web site. The smash hit will run from June 16-Aug.16.  “We hate to see any of our patrons experience frustration, and are working hard to rectify the problem. Book of Mormon will be at the Kennedy Center for 9 weeks this summer, and despite high demand, we expect to be able to accommodate patrons looking to buy tickets today,” spokeswoman Amanda Hunter said.  The Feb. 18 pre-sale for the smash show from the creators of “South Park” also caused intermittent outages, but that was a different problem and the arts center’s IT team was able to fix it, Hunter said.  For Monday morning’s general sale, the arts center’s Web site loaded but immediately placed visitors in a virtual waiting room that listed their place in the ticket line. “Due to an extraordinary demand for tickets, we have placed you in a virtual ‘waiting room,’” the site explained.  Minutes later, a server error replaced the virtual waiting room, forcing potential buyers to lose their spot.  The Web site also crashed in 2013 when the pre-sale for the show’s first run in D.C. began and tens of thousands of buyers tried to access the site.  Peggy McGlone joined the Washington Post in 2014 as its local arts reporter. Prior to that, she covered the arts for The Star-Ledger in New Jersey for more than a decade.
High demand for tickets to the smash Broadway show caused major headaches for customers and Kennedy Center officials Monday morning.