Super brief Hamilton notes
More pics forthcoming later, but today was Hamilton day! First we did the full pilgrimage, going to Trinity Church to see the Hamilton family and Hercules Mulligan's graves, then going to Federal Hall (the site where George Washington was sworn in; the original building is no more but they had the surviving stone balcony where he took the oath and gave the first inaugural address, and bonus! a printing press in an exhibit on the Zenger Case! much commentary forthcoming), then had lunch at Frances Tavern (site of a regular meeting place for the Sons of Liberty, one of Mulligan's hangouts, and where Washington held a farewell dinner for his officers at the end of the war, plus a little museum with a couple of exhibits and one of which was all about Lafayette), then went to the American Finance Museum (Scott can give TONS of commentary on that) to see the Hamilton exhibit. We hit the Hamilton store (because apparently you need it with that much demand) and got a light dinner, and then we SAW HAMILTON. YOU GUYS.
Okay so we were in second row center, which meant we were less than four feet from the stage, when the actors would come up for their big moments they were RIGHT THERE, it was amazing. Especially when at the start of act 2 one of the ensemble climbed out of the music pit to start and waved at us. I brought a bunch of tissues because despite having listened to it a million times for the past year and a half, I *still* tear up at the sad bits and figured it was gonna be worse in person, which, yes. I cried a loooooot. And in person, seeing the actors emote, I mean, the Hamilton actor was in tears throughout "It's Quiet Uptown" and that just starts the sympathy feedback loop. The new Burr is absolutely freaking incredible, as is the new Washington. We got the Hamilton alt but he was still excellent. Anyway at the very end I was among a number of still crying people and so when they took their bows the Laurens/Philip actor winked in our general direction; I like to imagine he went backstage and was like "we got a bunch of the fangirls again." But yeah, wow. Dude. WE SAW HAMILTON AND WAS AS AMAZING AS WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!!!!!!!!
Okay so we were in second row center, which meant we were less than four feet from the stage, when the actors would come up for their big moments they were RIGHT THERE, it was amazing. Especially when at the start of act 2 one of the ensemble climbed out of the music pit to start and waved at us. I brought a bunch of tissues because despite having listened to it a million times for the past year and a half, I *still* tear up at the sad bits and figured it was gonna be worse in person, which, yes. I cried a loooooot. And in person, seeing the actors emote, I mean, the Hamilton actor was in tears throughout "It's Quiet Uptown" and that just starts the sympathy feedback loop. The new Burr is absolutely freaking incredible, as is the new Washington. We got the Hamilton alt but he was still excellent. Anyway at the very end I was among a number of still crying people and so when they took their bows the Laurens/Philip actor winked in our general direction; I like to imagine he went backstage and was like "we got a bunch of the fangirls again." But yeah, wow. Dude. WE SAW HAMILTON AND WAS AS AMAZING AS WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!!!!!!!!