🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟HAMILTON – A Musical History

Broadway’s hip hop Based musicaL

HAMILTON, the musical is a work of pure genius. Having grown up on musicals including The Phantom of the Opera, 42nd Street, and Starlight Express just to mention a few, they all pale when compared to Hamilton. Every word, every note and every movement has reason. Nothing is wasted. Don’t worry about the rap delivery, it makes the actors even more articulate.

Who is the forgotten American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Watch the trailer!

My Trip to London

I saw a matinee in London in March on the first full day we arrived, having scored our tickets online in December for $130./each. We had great seats in the “stalls,” aka. main floor.
My knowledge of Hamilton, the musical came mainly from a 2 hour special on our PBS station that talked about all the aspects of its creation and path to Broadway, and played several clips of the play itself. I recorded it and still watch it often.
Seeing that, I was curious about the role of the dancers showed running around in 18th century underwear in those clips. Turns out they are important to the story as with minimal additions to their outfits at different times, they become the crowd or soldiers or whatever is needed and often provide the chorus.
The story is told against a simple but impressive set which easily, with only minor stealthy additions is perfect as it supports and never interferes with the story. The Victoria Palace Theater also had a rotating floor in the middle of the stage which was handy for several scenes.
I laughed when during the banter within the “My Shot” number, a line about the British treating the Americans like shit (sorry) made the audience gasp. They caught me off guard… Oops, right we’re in England. King George was more involved in the show than I’d foreseen and provided
comic relief several times.

HAMILTON is my pick for best all time theater production. Sadly, we had tickets for Wicked, one of my favorites, and it was a good performance but it pales compared to Hamilton.
We went on to see several more productions in the famous West End during our visit, but Hamilton most definitely was several cuts above them all. It really raises the bar for theater
going forward.

The official Website

https://officiallondontheatre.com/show/hamilton-366811/

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Olivier and Tony Award-sweeping modern musical masterpiece Hamilton continues to take the refurbished Victoria Palace Theatre by storm.

Following the story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, a West Indies immigrant who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War, the show follows his epic journey. Starting as a child born out of wedlock, his marriage to a wealthy heiress, Hamilton goes on to become America’s first Treasury Secretary, ultimately leaving a vast legacy in forging the country’s financial system.

A sung- and rapped- through musical, Hamilton’s score fuses hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway to tell the tale of a leading figure at a crucial juncture for America, with music, lyrics and book by the global sensation Lin-Manuel Miranda. Having only graduated from RADA in 2016, Jamael Westman stepped into the shoes of the show’s popular creator the following year to play the eponymous role.

The production claimed claimed seven Olivier Awards with Mastercard at the 2018 ceremony (having been nominated for a record-setting thirteen), adding to its glittering haul of eleven Tony Awards on Broadway (from an also record-setting sixteen nominations).

Although the demand for tickets is extremely high, audiences can participate in a £10 daily lottery, with more information available via the show’s website.

The musical was inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton, written by historian Ron Chernow. The show was the winner of a record-setting 11 Tony Awards including Best Musical (having been nominated for a record 16), the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, and a film adaptation based on the musical has been confirmed to be in the pipeline.

Hamilton’s juggernaut success has seen it garner swathes of critical and audience acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. “Do not throw away your shot”: catch this spectacular West End hit at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

Review of the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/nov/05/why-hamilton-is-making-musical-history

Photo on Top ©Joan Marcu