The Room Where It Happened: The Time I went to Hamilton

If you follow my online presence AT ALL, you’ve realized that last Saturday, I went to Hamilton: The Musical in Chicago. I haven’t exactly been quiet about it. It’s been one of the most exciting things to happen to me since...birth? IDK. 

Excited as I was, I admit I was nervous about seeing the show live. I love the soundtrack so, so much, and have listened to it countless times- as recorded by the original New York cast, who of course all are the cream of the crop in terms of Broadway talent. Could ANY other cast live up to my expectations?

As it turns out: Yes. YES.

I’m gonna break the whole thing down for you. I mostly have a lot of thoughts about how seeing the show live compares to listening to the soundtrack. However, since I’ve also seen most of the Original NY Broadway performance (acquired via the Black Market for Nerdy Stuff, which only opens itself to those truly worthy. It’s like a Room of Requirement for nerds. And if you don’t understand that reference, you’re definitely not getting in), I have a few thoughts on performance differences—broad strokes, not specifics.

Okay, first of all, let me *literally* (say that like Chris Traeger) set the stage for you. The PrivateBank Theatre is located in downtown Chicago, nestled amongst restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, and other retail venues. The Air BnB loft apartment my friend and I managed to snag was within walking distance, which meant we schlepped by the theatre multiple times both before and after the performance we attended. Every time my eyes lit on the iconic gold poster of Alexander with his hand thrown up to the sky, my heart went BOOM. I’m thinking that feeling will never go away. I’m okay with that.

(Did you get the Chris Traeger reference? That nerd Black Market door might have just slid open to you.)  

The theatre itself isn’t huge. It’s an old, pretty, tasteful venue with red carpet, red walls, and ornate scrollwork and columns. Janelle and I had seats on the floor, Orchestra left, closer to center than I’d thought, and closer to the front than I’d thought. Walking in to realize that we had not just good seats, but AMAZING seats, was thrilling. Worth every penny.

The view from our seats!

I got a Hamilton Cocktail, which is Hennessy and Ginger Ale in a collectible cup—which really turned out to be a sippy cup of booze with the Hamilton logo emblazoned around the outside. I was pretty proud of it.

This is how the show starts: King George over the loudspeaker welcomes you to his show (everyone laughs). Then, even as the laughter is still dying down, the opening violin strain – the oh so recognizable One-Triplet-One-One-One-sweet violin line—enter Burr.  "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..."

The first set of goosebumps rippled over me right then, the kind that start in your face and shoulders and fizz their way down your arms, leave a cold-but-not-unpleasant-tingle in your gut, and travel down your legs and into even your toes. My feet were cold, then sweating, then cold.

And then there was this burning haze over my vision. A lone tear overflowed and ran down my right cheek.

I know, I know, it’s a pretty dramatic response to attending a musical. But I tell you, this isn’t just any show to me. This particular musical represents a bunch of things that are dear and central to my identity and what I want to do in this world—social progress and equity for women and equity for people of color and immigrants and the importance of writing as a means of fostering social change. Lin Manuel-Miranda (LMM) has written about these things with the hand of Shakespeare but the beats of Biggie and it is NUTS. It’s the smartest piece of art I’ve yet to witness.

So, there’s my justification for all of my chills and crying, if you felt like you needed that to not judge me.

Anyway. Now just a bunch of thoughts about the show. (Those who don’t speak Hamiltonese might want to skip the end of this post, where I discuss my Madcap Bathroom Break.)

It was hard for me to imagine anyone but LMM in the role of Alexander, so I was especially nervy about what comparisons I might draw between LMM and Miguel Cervantes. HOWEVER, Cervantes was MADE for this role. He was so good. As soon as he walked on stage and his dulcet “Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton…” cut through the theatre, I was a believer. A helpless devotee. His voice is great, but his acting is maybe even better. He somehow—and I say somehow, because obviously the dialogue is exactly the same across shows—played a humbler Hamilton than LMM’s, and I liked this modified take. (Bonus: Cervantes is easy on the eyes, ladies and gents.)  

Miguel Cervantes

I learned from seeing the show live that I’m *not* as loyal the original NY cast as I thought I’d be. Hearing and witnessing other actors in the roles turned out to be fascinating. I would compare the feeling to ordering a limeade after months of drinking only my favorite lemonade, and finding that I liked the limeade just as well. In this cast, I especially loved Daniel Breaker as Burr, Alexander Gemignani as King George, and really especially Karen Olivo as Angelica (she just SLAYED everything). Also, Chris De’Sean Lee was an awesome Lafayette/Jefferson. This is a hell of a role to fulfill per se, but then again, trying to live up to Daveed Diggs is probably a little bit impossible. 

The one actress who for me might always be untouchable is Phillipa Soo, the original Eliza. Eliza was played by Aubin Wise for this performance, and there were moments when she was slightly over or slightly under her notes—not the big long belting ones, but the notes in between the big belters. I was crushingly aware that she was Not Phillipa Soo during the whole show, and held my breath every time that Wise sang. Fortunately, she nailed Who Lives Who Dies and left me in my usual tears at “the orphanage…” (If you can get through that without misting up at least a little, I’m not sure you have a heart.)

Moral of the story: Phillipa Soo is the shit and probably I’ll never love any Eliza as much. I can accept that and still love other incantations of the show, though.

Okay, next point: The choreography, blocking, chorus/ensemble, and interaction between the characters brings the show to life in a way that the soundtrack alone cannot—and that’s saying something, because the soundtrack IS the musical. As opposed to other Broadway shows, many of which have more non-singing dialogue, Hamilton is almost entirely sung or rapped. There is only one scene—where Hamilton learns that John Laurens has been killed—that doesn’t make the soundtrack. Yet, even though you can listen to the soundtrack and get the complete storyline of the show, the live show is still SO MUCH COOLER. It’s incredibly dynamic. There are things happening on every corner of the stage for many of the songs, flirting and sidelong glances and eye rolling and all kinds of things that make the show vibrant and robust.

I noticed that I liked some of the songs better when I could see them live. My favorite listening songs: My Shot, Schuyler Sisters, Satisfied, Right Hand Man, Yorktown, Non-Stop, One Last Time. Here’s the breakdown of my favorite live songs:

• Schuyler Sisters— I will never again be able to listen to it without wishing I could watch it— it’s such a great ensemble piece. I love watching the sisters interact, I love Angelica’s dressing down of Burr (I love it vocally—it’s one of my favorite parts to sing in the car-- but I REALLY loved watching her lay the smack in person).
•  Every single King George song. Dude, talk about an actor who could bring down the house by doing almost NOTHING. On his first song, he walked out and stood almost stock still (like the stately King of England would), but his vocal inflections and slight facial expressions made the song hilarious. So. Good. Most of this shtick is missed when you can only hear the songs and not see the acting.
• Right Hand Man— The lights for “BOOM” (cannons) was just cool. Plus, you could see the actors spit on all of that crazy rapping, which I weirdly loved.
• Satisfied- Angelica’s face and inflections change everything. It’s obviously a sad, wistful song, but when you see Angelica foregoing the probable love of her life so her sister can be happy…it’s a gut wrencher, folks.
• Yorktown- (duh). Seeing the world literally get turned upside down on stage brings it all to life.

Also spotted in Chicago.

• The Reynolds Pamphlet – There’s this bit where a bunch of characters are throwing tons of pamphlets up into the air as a means of taunting Alexander, who is standing at the center of it, papers raining down on him, looking chagrined. It’s so visually chaotic and awesome. It’s funny to watch King George get in on the taunting. It’s also a really good visual set up for the next song, Hurricane.
•  Blow Us All Away – Watching Eliza and Alexander hold their son as he dies takes the heartbreak factor up to a new level. The interplay between Eliza and Alexander during this scene is something you just can’t see or infer from the soundtrack—i.e., when Alexander tries to take Eliza’s hand, she rips it away from him. Super well-blocked and acted.
• The Election of 1800—There are about a million things in this scene that can’t be seen from listening to the song. Burr and Jefferson are at stage left and right, while Hamilton is up above them, as the election’s outcome has now fallen to Hamilton’s opinion. When Hamilton makes his surprising endorsement of Jefferson, you get to see Burr’s face shift from smug to shock, and Jefferson’s hang-dog embarrassment transform to unabashed glee. Jefferson literally gallops around the stage—there’s so much stuff going on with his physical person throughout the musical (most of it is really funny) that you could only see through watching the show.
•  The World was Wide Enough—So many reasons this was way better in person. First of all, watching Alexander go through his whole scenario of “is this where I die?” and thinking through the reasons to stay, and reasons to go—with all of the characters popping up on stage as he thinks about who he’ll join if he goes—helped the song ring truer and hit home harder for me. Then, watching Burr’s reaction, seeing the regret on his face, realizing how truly devastating it was for him when he became a pariah—you can hear that in the song, but when you see the glaring faces, and the slump of his shoulders, the song becomes an even stronger empathy-builder.
• Who Lives Who Dies— Eliza’s finish takes out your heart and squeezes it until only pulp remains. So many feels.

So now that I’m seeing it all laid out like this, I’m realizing that I liked Act II much, MUCH better live than I do when I just listen.

Captain Obvious is going to make an appearance and and sum some shit up right here: If you can, see Hamilton live. Get yourself into the Room Where It Happens. The soundtrack is and will always be superb as a standalone, but the show is indescribably good. I mean, I’m really doing my best to tell how good it was, but in a way this task feels like trying to verbally describe the color “purple” to someone who has never seen color. Sometimes words are inadequate.

The most stressful part of the show? Trying to go to the bathroom at intermission. The venue had ONE bathroom, and ushers were herding people in and out of it like air traffic controllers. I’m not kidding, there were probably five or six ushers JUST handling the ladies’ room. So you’re standing there in line with hundreds of other women who have to pee, and then the lights start blinking, signaling five minutes to the show resumes, three minutes, etc., which stressed me the eff out, because I was also aware the lobby ushers would not let me into the theatre until after the first song if I missed the start of it, and it was “What Did I Miss?” and I DID NOT WANT TO MISS IT. Once I finally arrived at the threshold of the bathroom, one of those bathroom ushers pointed me to an open stall—I’m surprised they didn’t have these folks wearing neon orange vests, like gameday parking lot attendants—and I ran to it, peed without actually fully emptying my bladder because I was too nervous and also, cutting my pee off three seconds early was three more seconds to get to my seat. I summarily whisked my hands under a faucet mostly for the sake of appearances (that’s what hand sanitizer is for), and bolted out of there like the place was on fire. I made it back to my seat in time for Act II and jumped headfirst into a political abyss.

As a point of comparison: I almost missed my homebound flight on Sunday night. This experience involved Home Alone-ing it through O’Hare and obsessively checking my watch to ascertain that my flight door was still open. I arrived at my gate just in time for the final boarding call. But I’m not kidding you guys: I was more stressed out in line for the bathroom at Hamilton than I was at the airport. #values

Stressful urination experience notwithstanding, attending Hamilton in Chicago was easily one of the best experiences of my whole life. I know that’s a big statement, but it’s not hyperbole. It was incredibly meaningful to me. I loved every minute of that show.

I am now grieving the fact that Hamilton Day has now come and gone. It’s a hard thing, grounding my feet back into solid earth after a dizzying peak experience like that.

But, I’ve already decided…I’ll be back.

Just you wait.