Review: I got to see ‘Hamilton.’ If you’re jealous, well, you should be.
John Patrick Walker stars as King George in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
A company photo from the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton. Joseph Morales and Nik Walker lead the second national tour of "Hamilton" as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, respectively.
Elijah Malcomb as John Laurens/Phillip Schuyler, Joseph Morales as Alexander Hamilton, Kyle Scatliffe as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Fergie L. Philippe as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison and company perform in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Joseph Morales as Alexander Hamilton performs with the company in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Joseph Morales as Alexander Hamilton and Marcus Choi as George Washington perform in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Joseph Morales and Nik Walker star in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton." Morales and Walker lead the second national tour of "Hamilton" as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, respectively.
Joseph Morales and Nik Walker star in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Nik Walker stars in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Shoba Narayan as Eliza Hamilton and Joseph Morales as Alexander Hamilton star in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
Shoba Narayan, Ta'Rea Campbell and Nyla Sostre star in the touring Broadway production of "Hamilton."
As the proverbial curtain fell on “Hamilton” at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on Thursday night, and as everyone sat back in wonder trying to comprehend what they’d just experienced, I turned to my friend and theater buddy and asked her, “If you couldn’t have gotten tickets to this show, what would you want to read in a review?”
Her answer was pretty simple, so I’ll include it here for those of you who did not manage to snag tickets before the show’s less-than-four-hours Salt Lake City sell-out.
She told me she’d want to hear that it was awful, so she wouldn’t feel so bad about missing out on something she’d considered so incredible and monumental for so long. So, though it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I can’t in good conscience lie to you for long, here you go:
“Hamilton” … was awful. You should be so, so incredibly glad you didn’t get tickets and waste your money. It definitely doesn’t live up to the hype, and there are so many better ways I could have spent my evening.
Now you can either move on with your life believing you didn’t miss anything, or you can hang around a little longer and read what the show was actually like, because I’m fairly confident every American should beg, borrow or steal (OK, maybe not literally) to find a way to go see “Hamilton.” There are ample reasons why the production’s popularity has snowballed since its first debut, and though I’m no good at hip-hop (which carries the entire story of “Hamilton”), I’ll break some of those reasons down for you in the best way I can.
’Every action’s an act of creation!'
For those who don’t mind a quick history lesson, “Hamilton” is the incredibly astute brainchild of actor, singer and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda. Known first for his creation of the Tony-award-winning musical “In the Heights,” Miranda said he was reading the 2004 biography “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow when the inspiration for his second musical accosted him.
“I was thunderstruck,” Miranda said in an interview with “60 Minutes.” “I got to the part where, you know, a hurricane destroys St. Croix where Hamilton is living. And he writes a poem about the carnage and this poem gets him off the island. … I drew a direct line between Hamilton’s writing his way out of his circumstances and the rappers I’d grown up adoring.”
It took Miranda years to cultivate the idea, and he finally introduced it to the public when he was invited to share a song from “In the Heights” at an event at the White House. He chose instead to perform his opening song from what would become “Hamilton,” and, though his first comments inspired some laughter, a video of the event is something Miranda said is “a microcosm of my entire ‘Hamilton’ experience.”
“I say, ‘Hip-hop, Alexander Hamilton,’ and everyone laughs. And then, by the end, they’re not laughing. Because they’re in it. Because they’ve been sucked into the story, just like I got sucked into the story,” Miranda told “60 Minutes” of his White House debut.
’If you stand for nothing … what’ll you fall for?'
Though I tried to keep “Hamilton” initially at arms’ length (I don’t like trends), as soon as the show started at the Eccles, I got sucked into the story as well. There is a reason “Hamilton” has received an astonishing 16 Tony nominations with 11 wins as well as a 2016 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It’s incredibly written, completely different than anything else that has ever graced the stages of Broadway, and comes complete with a history lesson that has countless parallels to America today. Plus, literally 99.9 percent of the show made it into the soundtrack. It doesn’t get much more musical than that.
Told partially from the perspective of Aaron Burr, the man who ultimately brings Alexander Hamilton’s life to an end in a duel, “Hamilton” as a whole is a tapestry as beautiful and diverse as our country itself.
The basic premise of the show follows the founding fathers of America as they fight for independence from England through the Revolutionary War, then struggle to create a foundation for America. The undercurrents of it all are the impact of one man, Alexander Hamilton, and a pretty clear truth: Though the founders of our country are often held in the highest esteem, as paragons of virtue and creators of a free nation, well, nobody’s perfect.
’In the room where it happens'
As we settled into our Tier 3 seats, we could see the entire theater slowly begin to pack with eager crowds, and couldn’t help but smile as the minutes ticked toward show time and we were surrounded by eager chatter, selfies and social media posts. Lights, like stars, twinkled magically above us and we knew we were “in the room where it happens.” The excitement was tangible.
The stage was basically set. Intricately designed, but simple, creating merely a backdrop that would later allow the cast to shine, with the main features including a single moving staircase and two circles of rotating floor. The scene was set, and the show had only to begin.
’Talk less … smile more.'
As the words started flowing from the actors on stage, the audience kept breaking into spontaneous applause, their enthusiasm barely contained. Soon after, the character of Aaron Burr, masterfully and powerfully played by Nik Walker, offered Hamilton (Joseph Morales) some basic advice: “Talk less” and “smile more.” Though those words ended up being the downfall of Burr in the show, there’s actually some truth to them for audiences of “Hamilton”: As I watched the show unfold onstage, I found myself speechless, which is a very strange experience for me. Every time something arose that I thought could have been cut or simplified, moments later it became a vital addition to the plot and the ultimate creation of each character, with masterful performances especially by Shoba Narayan as Eliza Hamilton, Alexander’s wife, whose exquisite voice far transcended any expectations set by the original Broadway recording; Kyle Scatliffe, who incredibly shifted between the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson (two more of my favorite characters); Marcus Choi as General George Washington; Elijah Malcomb as John Laurens and Philip Schuyler; and Fergie L. Philippe as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison.
It takes something more than talent to accomplish what they, and the rest of the cast, pulled off in the show, and it didn’t take long for me to realize I wanted to talk less, smile more, and enjoy the theatrical masterpiece taking place before me.
’And when push, comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!'
“Hamilton” comes with an extraordinarily diverse cast covering a wide range of ethnicities, but I can’t help the fact that the very obviously white King George of England, played by Jon Patrick Walker, was among my most favorite characters.
Though the show is pretty much entirely composed of carefully phrased, elegantly flowing hip-hop lyrics, the words do more to compel you into the action than they do to alleviate the seriousness of what’s happening, and that’s where George comes in. With his … love songs. To the colonies. The humor provides a much-needed reprieve from the depth of “Hamilton,” and the hard-hitting, but extraordinarily important issues it addresses. Hundreds and thousands on both sides of the Revolutionary War are dying, and then there’s the character of King George. A much-needed chuckle in a show that had me both laughing and crying within minutes. And I pride myself on being stoic during plays — so much for that.
’What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.'
Aside from just the well-placed humor, Hamilton notes again and again that, “I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.”
Audiences see firsthand that there’s importance in learning from the past and also in recognizing that America is a country of immigrants. We were all strangers here at one point, and that’s a message more profound today than probably ever. Though artistic liberties were obviously taken, the show is presented in a way that regardless of what side you stand on with the issues facing America today, you’ll have a reason to love “Hamilton,” and maybe even take a step back and consider why you believe the way you do.
Another impactful realization the show helped me have is we are far more than where we came from. Again and again, Burr defines Hamilton as he did from the beginning, questioning to himself: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”
The answer Hamilton gives is pretty simple: “I am not throwing away my shot. Hey yo, I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry, and I’m not throwing away my shot.”
’History has its eyes on you.'
It was around 10:30 p.m. when I finally stood up, took a deep breath, and began making my way out of the theater. I’d just witnessed some of the most incredible and impactful lighting designs in my entire history of theatrical involvement, and seen a cast so utterly devoted to the production they were in that the choreography and presentation never ceased affecting my breath. As my friend had told me before the show, “Hamilton” is “clever, it’s innovative, it’s very well done, it’s smart, it addresses current affairs … (and) it combines hip-hop and traditional Broadway musical music to tell a story of real people whose lives had a profound effect on every person living in the U.S. today, and broader than that, anyone who interacts with the U.S. I think it challenges what people think they know, and that’s a good thing. And it’s so gosh darn catchy.”
Yes, yes it is. “Hamilton” will continue to play at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake through May 6, and if you can find a way to get there, well, you should probably get there.
HAMILTON
What: The touring Broadway show of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed historical hip-hop musical featuring the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton
Where: The Delta Hall of the Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St. in Salt Lake City
When: Now through May 6 with performances daily excluding Mondays
Cost: $215-$425. Tickets sold out within hours of becoming available, but could possibly be found as single seats on the Eccles website or for re-sale through sites such as visitseats.com.
Info: broadway-at-the-eccles.com/Hamilton