It is always an exciting atmosphere to experience, it's happened a few times for me in the National Theatre: Richard Eyre's original production of GUYS AND DOLLS, the premiere of WAR HORSE, and the recent revivals of ANGELS IN AMERICA and FOLLIES; in the West End there were the original casts of 42nd STREET, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and THE BOOK OF MORMON and on Broadway there was Patti LuPone's GYPSY and WICKED.
And now I can add HAMILTON at the Victoria Palace...
As the World and it's significant other knows, HAMILTON is Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop musical biography of the American founding father and first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, a man who could obviously start a fight in an empty room and who ended up dead after a duel with the Vice-President and longtime adversary Aaron Burr in 1804. However the term 'hip-hop musical' does the show a dis-service as Miranda's punchy, intricate score incorporates rap, hip-hop, r&b and pop but all filtered through a definite Broadway musical idiom.
While appearing in his earlier Tony award-winning musical IN THE HEIGHTS, Miranda read Ron Chernow's biography of Hamilton and was taken with the idea that this controversial historical figure had been a poor white immigrant from the West Indies who had risen to the higher echelons of American power. After a lengthy workshop period HAMILTON opened off-Broadway in 2015 and quickly moved to Broadway later that year, winning the Pulitzer Prize and 11 Tony Awards. The London production has just won 7 Olivier Awards.
The show is totally sung/rapped-through but not for Miranda the dreary, bum-clenching recitative beloved by Lloyd Webber but his tricky, intricate rhymes are spun across the stage with fizzing dexterity by the cast which keep you involved in the fast-moving action of the plot of Hamilton's rise from poor immigrant to George Washington's secretary and then onto the USA's first Treasury Secretary. I had "Aaron Burr, sir" stuck in my mind afterward... I hasten to add, Owen and I appeared to be the only ones in the theatre who did not know the score: the girls next to me screamed with laughter ON every joke line and knew every swerve of the music.
Thomas Kail's production is a whirl of inventive movement and, certainly in the first half, conjures up the feeling of a country in the tumult of changing times. The second half - as the plot concentrates on Hamilton's personal and political troubles - feels becalmed with one too many standard love songs for Hamilton and his wife Eliza. It's a natural consequence of telling a tale of life after war but it is noticeable.
As good as Kail's direction is, equal praise must go the non-stop choreography of Andy Blankenbuehler, the ensemble helping to shape the story through dynamic moves and martial line-ups. David Korins' tiered wooden stage certainly gives the show a strong look, Paul Tazewell's costumes help define character - I particularly liked Jefferson's flashy mauve and purple outfit which immediately gave his cocky, larger-than-life character a Prince-like sheen. Our seats in the upper circle also gave us the chance to fully appreciate Howell Binkley's excellent lighting.
My main problem with HAMILTON was with the female characters. Eliza and her sisters Angelica and Peggy are introduced with the swaggering "The Schuyler Sisters" - think Destiny's Child in hoop skirts - giving them the persona of liberated women who want to be in the thick of intellectual company. Eliza marries Hamilton while Anjelica hides her unrequited love for him in writing letters. At the end of the first act Anjelica leaves for married life in England but as she is a much more interesting character than dreary Eliza, the show suffers for her being sidelined. Hamilton, of course, has an affair with a married woman which bring shame on him and Eliza but apart from a solo number along the lines of "You Hurt Me And I Hate You", all Miranda can have her do is mope around the stage being noble. For a show that aims to be radical in it's story-telling, Miranda's stereotypical female characters are disappointing. Owen also pointed out that the female ensemble's costumes of figure-hugging leggings and tight bodices was all the more obvious against the male ensemble's loose clothes. A CHORUS LINE's 'tits and ass' song seemed all too relevant.
As I said, the cast are feeling pretty fearless as they are in THE show to see so there are plenty of eye-catching performances. Jamael Westman certainly commands the stage with his rangy height and swagger but Hamilton remains a cypher; everyone says what they think about him and we build up the character through the reactions of others to him but he remains ultimately unknowable, so his fate left me unmoved. It's a knowing irony that Hamilton goes through the show telling the world he's not going to throw away his shot... but he does in the end.
Westman is easily overshadowed by the sheer star quality of Giles Terera as Aaron Burr, an actor whose time has definitely come and who steals every scene he is in. His Burr is the respected man who cannot quite make the top table, who loses out to the flashier, more headstrong Hamilton for the big jobs and whose needling jealousy only grows with every slight. Playing Salieri to Hamilton's Mozart, Burr finally gets his chance to influence affairs and they come to an irreversible breaking point. Terera's watchful reserve explodes in the second act with the number "The Room Where It Happens". Tipping a silent nod to Sondheim's "Someone In A Tree" from PACIFIC OVERTURES, it's about how it's all about being in the right place at the right time.
There is also a teasing, lip-smacking performance by Jason Pennycooke: he is a passionate Lafayette in the first act but really explodes in the second act as Hamilton's other béte noir Thomas Jefferson. Embodying the cocky swagger of Prince or James Brown, his Jefferson turns up from the safety of France after the Independence wars are won and sings the jazzy "What'd I Miss?" Jefferson then locks horns with Hamilton over the latter's finance bill - the verbal spats in Congress nicely played as rap turf battles. It is when Burr and Jefferson both run for President that Hamilton, having to chose between his two evils makes a fatal choice. Along with Terera, it's great to see Pennycooke finally have a role to show off all his talents.
Obioma Ugoala as George Washington certainly had the gravitas to play the role but his voice was more suitable to singing than to the rap recitative. As I have said above, the roles for the women are frustrating in that the roles are imbalanced: Rachel John tears the roof off the Victoria Palace with her mid-first act number "Satisfied" - a real showstopper - but then has little to do but join in group numbers while the Steam-Whistle Soprano Of Death that is Rachelle Ann Go commandeers the second act as Eliza. Her big solo "Burn" doesn't so much shred our hearts as our ear-drums and she also takes the main part of the last song "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" - an honour which really should go to Rachel John.
There are many witty put-downs in Miranda's lyrics but there are few musical moments where you can just sit back and enjoy them - the brunt of the songs are rammed with exposition - but luckily for us (and the show) there are several musical interludes from the quite delicious Michael Jibson as King George III. He is absolutely hilarious in King George's dummy-spitting vignettes, they have the same tune but the attitude changes: "You'll Be Back" has George in a snit that his subjects have chosen Independence, "What Comes Next" has the King scoffing at the idea the Americans can govern themselves, and finally "I Know Him" has George rubbing his hands in glee at the internecine fighting following Washington's retirement. Jibson just won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Musical Actor and it is justly deserved, despite only 9 minutes stage-time.
The booking method for HAMILTON has come in for criticism for the mouse-in-a-maze way of actually getting to your seat. We booked when the tickets went on sale but no actual tickets were issued; Owen had to turn up with the original e-mail confirmation, the credit card used and a Government-issued ID! Just to get in to a theatre... The reasoning is that it will ensure that the seats go to paying punters and not ticket touts. But is this really about people power or just a way for Cameron Mackintosh to get every single pound? Owen discovered the day before that the card he booked with so long before the show had been thrown away when it expired, luckily a call to Ticketmaster got a substitute card put on the booking! We had to queue for about five minutes to get to the door, they checked the e-mail and card, ticket stubs were printed using a PDQ-style machine... and we were in. "Allow an hour" to gain entrance? It took about 15 minutes all-in-all. Though they never asked to see the passport... go figure!
I came out of it quietly thinking I would like to see it again. But knowing the clamour for tickets I would probably get tickets for the 383rd cast change with Aston Merrygold from JLS as Alexander Hamilton, Kenny Lynch as Aaron Burr and Sinitta as Angelica. Maybe they will have filmed it by then? Lin-Manuel Miranda said last year it was on the cards, now THAT will be a casting feeding-frenzy...
So there you are... HAMILTON not only lives up to the hype, it transcends it. An abiding memory of the show is the explosion of applause that greeted the line “Immigrants, they get the job done". This American cultural immigrant does just that.
HAMILTON... NOW AND FOREVER
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