HAMILTON!!!1!one!
B and I saw Hamilton last week (the day before Bernie Sanders did!) and yes, it is all that. I kind of feel as though a review will be pointless to those of you familiar with the musical, and pointless to those of you unfamiliar with it, but, um. Excelsior!
When I bought the tickets back at the beginning of November, most of my RL acquaintances had no idea what I was talking about; there were only two people who were familiar with it, through NPR segments and other news. When we left on our trip, basically everyone we mentioned it to commented on how envious they were!
Certainly the audience was diverse, in terms of "people you might not expect to be at a performance of Hamilton" - it certainly wasn't diverse in terms of "people who look like the cast members" as I saw maybe a half-dozen black audience members overall. In the row behind us was a family of four, with two boys of (I don't know kids well, so I'm guessing) maybe 8 and 10 years old. Next to me were three old ladies in the 75-year-or-so bracket. Spoiler alert: all of these people thought it was amazing, though the old ladies wished they could have had subtitles. Also, B, who said, "I'll watch it if you want, sweetheart," when I announced I wanted to go see it on Broadway, and who patiently listened to the album once through while reading the lyrics on genius.com, was completely won over. I was so proud, listening to him telling others what a magnificent experience it was!
The Richard Rodgers is a lovely theater. Our seats were in the left orchestra, in the section directly behind the broad aisle by the door, so we had excellent views, though occasionally things happening on the stage left balcony (which wasn't much) were obscured by the boxes.
At our performance, the only non-primary actors were Austin Smith as Aaron Burr and Andrew Chappelle as Mulligan/Madison. Smith has an excellent voice, though slightly less powerful than Leslie Odom Jr (but doesn't everyone?), but his acting seemed very stiff in the first act, and "Wait For It" was not very exciting. I don't know if that was intentional (showing Burr as less emotional and spontaneous at first, then slowly growing into his role as Hamilton's nemesis) or if he just took some time to warm up, but by the time "The Room Where it Happens" happened, he was fully engaged and quite solid. Still, I wish we'd seen Odom! Chappelle was superb in both parts of his role. I was impressed by his slow, stolid Madison in particular, and the contrast with his devil-may-care Mulligan. No complaints about him at all.
Jonathan Groff was King George, in his final week in the role, and he was magnificent, as you might expect. He really brings a wonderful presence to the part, as he plays directly to the audience, and he's got a tremendously powerful voice; on stage, the role is much more than it is on the soundtrack (more later under the spoilery section). I was pleasantly surprised by Anthony Ramos, who - while listening to the soundtrack I never had much of an opinion, but he's a fine singer and a very good actor, and carried off both parts of his role with a lot more verve than I would have thought from just the soundtrack. Actually, Lin-Manuel Miranda himself has the least-powerful voice on stage, though his acting is solid.
Other actors who impressed me in particular were Phillipa Soo, who manages to show Eliza's graceful aging through her carriage and gestures (and also admittedly through the costuming changes) and Daveed Diggs, who both B and I are half in love with. When he's Jefferson, he turns it up to ELEVEN. All the minor roles were well done, from Seabury to Eaker.
Watching the show adds, unsurprisingly, a whole new dimension to the (familiar to me by now) soundtrack. If you've seen the performance of "Alexander Hamilton" for the Grammys on YouTube, you saw how the rotating circles within circles stage is used, with characters walking in different directions either with or against the rotation to end up in staged positions. That continues throughout the show, and is super effective in the various duels.
As I mentioned above, King George is amazing in the staging. He sings directly to the audience, and it's camp as hell. In his first song, on the line, "I'm so blue" he waves a hand and his lighting goes blue, which is hilarious. In his last, singing about who might replace Washington, he makes air quotes when he sings, "There's nobody else in this "country" who looms quite as large" and it's EVEN MORE HILARIOUS. Groff manages to be both dignified and ridiculous, and the audience ate it up with a spoon.
Other little bits I really loved were: Peggy Schuyler's annoyed "And Peggy!" interjections during "The Schuyler Sisters" - she pops out from behind the others, looking pissed off, like she's tired of being overlooked. The way Hamilton and Laurens mug together during the first act - they obviously ship it. The rap battles are done with (dummy) hand-held microphones, which is of course completely ahistoric but really plays up the performance aspect of these Congressional arguments. (And Jefferson is in purple and Hamilton in green. It's lovely.) In "Your Obedient Servant", Burr and Hamilton are on opposite sides of the stage, and it's done as though they're writing letters: Burr sings as he writes his letter, and as he finishes, he folds the paper and hands it to a background cast member who carries it over to Hamilton. The awesome bit is that as Hamilton gives his response, he sends a flurry of letters by multiple people, who one by one hand them to Burr, and it is so absolutely Hamilton, the frenzied missives, the outpouring of words.
The vocal performances were definitely distinct from the album, which I appreciated. Things like Hamilton's "I was chosen for the constitutional convention!" came off a little differently, and I really liked having it that way.
On Saturday we followed the Hamiltons uptown, to The Hamilton Grange National Memorial. The NPS ranger there said that visitation has skyrocketed since the musical became popular. There's a short film, a small museum with a timeline and exhibits about his life and the history of the building itself, and then upstairs visitors can see the rooms on the main floor of the home, furnished as they were during Hamilton's time, along with a copy of the famous bust of Hamilton, in the hallway. A few items are original (and there are five books in the study that Hamilton owned, though newly rebound) but most are just period. It's free, and worth the visit for people interested in the actual history.
Anyway, A+, would see again (if I could get a ticket, which I can't!), so thankful I had the opportunity.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth
When I bought the tickets back at the beginning of November, most of my RL acquaintances had no idea what I was talking about; there were only two people who were familiar with it, through NPR segments and other news. When we left on our trip, basically everyone we mentioned it to commented on how envious they were!
Certainly the audience was diverse, in terms of "people you might not expect to be at a performance of Hamilton" - it certainly wasn't diverse in terms of "people who look like the cast members" as I saw maybe a half-dozen black audience members overall. In the row behind us was a family of four, with two boys of (I don't know kids well, so I'm guessing) maybe 8 and 10 years old. Next to me were three old ladies in the 75-year-or-so bracket. Spoiler alert: all of these people thought it was amazing, though the old ladies wished they could have had subtitles. Also, B, who said, "I'll watch it if you want, sweetheart," when I announced I wanted to go see it on Broadway, and who patiently listened to the album once through while reading the lyrics on genius.com, was completely won over. I was so proud, listening to him telling others what a magnificent experience it was!
The Richard Rodgers is a lovely theater. Our seats were in the left orchestra, in the section directly behind the broad aisle by the door, so we had excellent views, though occasionally things happening on the stage left balcony (which wasn't much) were obscured by the boxes.
At our performance, the only non-primary actors were Austin Smith as Aaron Burr and Andrew Chappelle as Mulligan/Madison. Smith has an excellent voice, though slightly less powerful than Leslie Odom Jr (but doesn't everyone?), but his acting seemed very stiff in the first act, and "Wait For It" was not very exciting. I don't know if that was intentional (showing Burr as less emotional and spontaneous at first, then slowly growing into his role as Hamilton's nemesis) or if he just took some time to warm up, but by the time "The Room Where it Happens" happened, he was fully engaged and quite solid. Still, I wish we'd seen Odom! Chappelle was superb in both parts of his role. I was impressed by his slow, stolid Madison in particular, and the contrast with his devil-may-care Mulligan. No complaints about him at all.
Jonathan Groff was King George, in his final week in the role, and he was magnificent, as you might expect. He really brings a wonderful presence to the part, as he plays directly to the audience, and he's got a tremendously powerful voice; on stage, the role is much more than it is on the soundtrack (more later under the spoilery section). I was pleasantly surprised by Anthony Ramos, who - while listening to the soundtrack I never had much of an opinion, but he's a fine singer and a very good actor, and carried off both parts of his role with a lot more verve than I would have thought from just the soundtrack. Actually, Lin-Manuel Miranda himself has the least-powerful voice on stage, though his acting is solid.
Other actors who impressed me in particular were Phillipa Soo, who manages to show Eliza's graceful aging through her carriage and gestures (and also admittedly through the costuming changes) and Daveed Diggs, who both B and I are half in love with. When he's Jefferson, he turns it up to ELEVEN. All the minor roles were well done, from Seabury to Eaker.
Watching the show adds, unsurprisingly, a whole new dimension to the (familiar to me by now) soundtrack. If you've seen the performance of "Alexander Hamilton" for the Grammys on YouTube, you saw how the rotating circles within circles stage is used, with characters walking in different directions either with or against the rotation to end up in staged positions. That continues throughout the show, and is super effective in the various duels.
As I mentioned above, King George is amazing in the staging. He sings directly to the audience, and it's camp as hell. In his first song, on the line, "I'm so blue" he waves a hand and his lighting goes blue, which is hilarious. In his last, singing about who might replace Washington, he makes air quotes when he sings, "There's nobody else in this "country" who looms quite as large" and it's EVEN MORE HILARIOUS. Groff manages to be both dignified and ridiculous, and the audience ate it up with a spoon.
Other little bits I really loved were: Peggy Schuyler's annoyed "And Peggy!" interjections during "The Schuyler Sisters" - she pops out from behind the others, looking pissed off, like she's tired of being overlooked. The way Hamilton and Laurens mug together during the first act - they obviously ship it. The rap battles are done with (dummy) hand-held microphones, which is of course completely ahistoric but really plays up the performance aspect of these Congressional arguments. (And Jefferson is in purple and Hamilton in green. It's lovely.) In "Your Obedient Servant", Burr and Hamilton are on opposite sides of the stage, and it's done as though they're writing letters: Burr sings as he writes his letter, and as he finishes, he folds the paper and hands it to a background cast member who carries it over to Hamilton. The awesome bit is that as Hamilton gives his response, he sends a flurry of letters by multiple people, who one by one hand them to Burr, and it is so absolutely Hamilton, the frenzied missives, the outpouring of words.
The vocal performances were definitely distinct from the album, which I appreciated. Things like Hamilton's "I was chosen for the constitutional convention!" came off a little differently, and I really liked having it that way.
On Saturday we followed the Hamiltons uptown, to The Hamilton Grange National Memorial. The NPS ranger there said that visitation has skyrocketed since the musical became popular. There's a short film, a small museum with a timeline and exhibits about his life and the history of the building itself, and then upstairs visitors can see the rooms on the main floor of the home, furnished as they were during Hamilton's time, along with a copy of the famous bust of Hamilton, in the hallway. A few items are original (and there are five books in the study that Hamilton owned, though newly rebound) but most are just period. It's free, and worth the visit for people interested in the actual history.
Anyway, A+, would see again (if I could get a ticket, which I can't!), so thankful I had the opportunity.
Crossposted from isis at Dreamwidth where there are
comments. | Comment at Dreamwidth