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julietThis week I finally got to see Hamilton, after about two years of listening to the music, and a year after buying the tickets. It was absolutely fantastic; my main thought on leaving the theatre was "I need to see that again". Obviously I love it and I was expecting it to be great, but it was if anything better than I expected. Herewith a set of somewhat disjointed observations.
The biggest thing that struck me from seeing it on stage rather than just listening to it is the extent to which it's Burr's story as much as Hamilton's. I knew that Burr, as narrator, is frequently around outside of his own songs, but it shows up way more on the stage; and Giles Terera (who was great) played him more sympathetically than I expected, too. On the record[0] I love Wait For It; on stage that wasn't as powerful as I'd expected, but The Room Where It Happens absolutely blew me away and more than made up for it.
Rachel John as Angelica was amazing, and though I knew what to expect with the staging of Satisfied, it had more impact than I'd anticipated; the rerun of events from her perspective, with her direct-to-audience commentary, made the second arrival at the wedding toast devastating. Rachelle Ann Go as Eliza was a bit meh in the first half (good, but not great), but in Burn, which on record I don't find all that compelling, she was amazing.
I think Jamael Westman's Hamilton was perhaps a bit better in the second half; he seemed a bit too focussed/frowny at times in the first half, but really got into the shady politicking in Act 2 (especially in The Room Where It Happens, where his smile as he sat at the table with Madison and Jefferson was something else again). Having said that I loved all the interaction between him and his mates in Act 1 -- "let's steal their cannons!" to Mulligan and they bounced off the stage like teenagers off on a prank (which they more or less were); and I definitely read more of the Laurens/Hamilton thing than is in the lyrics[1].
Jason Pennycooke did a fab job of both Lafayette and Jefferson, especially Jefferson, without whose exuberance I think the second act would be emotionally much harder going. I loved his entry in What Did I Miss? where he was stood at the top of a set of stairs being wheeled around the stage by the ensemble, gesturing to the audience for a bigger cheer. I was also really impressed with the difference in Tarinn Callender's body language between Hercules Mulligan and the buttoned-up Madison. Michael Jibson's King George was bloody funny. Though I was surprised by the laugh that "I will kill your friends and family" got -- on record at least I always find "send a fully armed battalion" funny but the second one much more chilling. he was definitely playing the whole thing for laughs though and very successfully so. I didn't realise that he stays on stage after I Know Him but I did like his bit in The Reynolds Pamphlet. The staging in that was great fun, especially when Jefferson leant down to give the conductor a copy of it with "Did you see this?".
Hurricane was more convincing on stage than it is on the record, in terms of "why are you making this FUCKING AWFUL decision" -- Hamilton looking at everything in his past and concluding that he wrote his way out of all of that, he can write his way out of this too. (Argh.)
The run of Blow Us All Away/Stay Alive/It's Quiet Uptown did, as expected, have me in tears; but whilst I got pretty emotional in other bits of the show (Dear Theodosia always makes me cry, too). I wasn't quite as weepy as I feared I might be. Possibly because I was just enjoying the whole thing too much.
One general comment about staging/blocking: these days with radio mics, you can get away with turning your back on the audience, but I still wish they wouldn't. I think One Last Time in particular suffered from this which was bloody annoying because I love it. (The end of that was wonderful, though, with Obioma Ugoala on the edge of the stage singing his heart out.)
So, yes, overall it was bloody amazing, and probably the best thing I've ever seen on a stage. I was emotional for lots of reasons at the end but at least one of them was that it was over now and that in and of itself was somewhat devastating. We were very close to the front (Stalls, Row C) which was great for close-up detail but not so good for overall choreography, so CLEARLY as soon as they open the next lot of bookings I am going to have to go again, possibly up in the Grand Circle or something :D
[0] Well, on the Spotify, I suppose, but in my head they're all still records.
[1] Though I cop to the ownership of slash goggles, generally, I guess ;)
The biggest thing that struck me from seeing it on stage rather than just listening to it is the extent to which it's Burr's story as much as Hamilton's. I knew that Burr, as narrator, is frequently around outside of his own songs, but it shows up way more on the stage; and Giles Terera (who was great) played him more sympathetically than I expected, too. On the record[0] I love Wait For It; on stage that wasn't as powerful as I'd expected, but The Room Where It Happens absolutely blew me away and more than made up for it.
Rachel John as Angelica was amazing, and though I knew what to expect with the staging of Satisfied, it had more impact than I'd anticipated; the rerun of events from her perspective, with her direct-to-audience commentary, made the second arrival at the wedding toast devastating. Rachelle Ann Go as Eliza was a bit meh in the first half (good, but not great), but in Burn, which on record I don't find all that compelling, she was amazing.
I think Jamael Westman's Hamilton was perhaps a bit better in the second half; he seemed a bit too focussed/frowny at times in the first half, but really got into the shady politicking in Act 2 (especially in The Room Where It Happens, where his smile as he sat at the table with Madison and Jefferson was something else again). Having said that I loved all the interaction between him and his mates in Act 1 -- "let's steal their cannons!" to Mulligan and they bounced off the stage like teenagers off on a prank (which they more or less were); and I definitely read more of the Laurens/Hamilton thing than is in the lyrics[1].
Jason Pennycooke did a fab job of both Lafayette and Jefferson, especially Jefferson, without whose exuberance I think the second act would be emotionally much harder going. I loved his entry in What Did I Miss? where he was stood at the top of a set of stairs being wheeled around the stage by the ensemble, gesturing to the audience for a bigger cheer. I was also really impressed with the difference in Tarinn Callender's body language between Hercules Mulligan and the buttoned-up Madison. Michael Jibson's King George was bloody funny. Though I was surprised by the laugh that "I will kill your friends and family" got -- on record at least I always find "send a fully armed battalion" funny but the second one much more chilling. he was definitely playing the whole thing for laughs though and very successfully so. I didn't realise that he stays on stage after I Know Him but I did like his bit in The Reynolds Pamphlet. The staging in that was great fun, especially when Jefferson leant down to give the conductor a copy of it with "Did you see this?".
Hurricane was more convincing on stage than it is on the record, in terms of "why are you making this FUCKING AWFUL decision" -- Hamilton looking at everything in his past and concluding that he wrote his way out of all of that, he can write his way out of this too. (Argh.)
The run of Blow Us All Away/Stay Alive/It's Quiet Uptown did, as expected, have me in tears; but whilst I got pretty emotional in other bits of the show (Dear Theodosia always makes me cry, too). I wasn't quite as weepy as I feared I might be. Possibly because I was just enjoying the whole thing too much.
One general comment about staging/blocking: these days with radio mics, you can get away with turning your back on the audience, but I still wish they wouldn't. I think One Last Time in particular suffered from this which was bloody annoying because I love it. (The end of that was wonderful, though, with Obioma Ugoala on the edge of the stage singing his heart out.)
So, yes, overall it was bloody amazing, and probably the best thing I've ever seen on a stage. I was emotional for lots of reasons at the end but at least one of them was that it was over now and that in and of itself was somewhat devastating. We were very close to the front (Stalls, Row C) which was great for close-up detail but not so good for overall choreography, so CLEARLY as soon as they open the next lot of bookings I am going to have to go again, possibly up in the Grand Circle or something :D
[0] Well, on the Spotify, I suppose, but in my head they're all still records.
[1] Though I cop to the ownership of slash goggles, generally, I guess ;)
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Date: 2018-01-26 09:23 am (UTC)