Hamilton Things

[owlectomy]

(1) We saw Daveed Diggs's last show!



I did not even realize it until the day of the performance - he is definitely one of my faves (which I can't say without saying "No, they're all my faves, everybody is my fave") and, like, that bit in "Washington On Your Side" that goes:

I’m in the cabinet. I am complicit in
Watching him grabbin’ at power and kiss it
If Washington isn’t gon’ listen
To disciplined dissidents, this is the difference:
This kid is out!

It was... astonishing and delightful.

(2) There was a drunk guy sitting next to me. He took two drinks into him from the bar, one on top of the other. At the intermission I was telling my sister various Fun Stories From History which I mostly learned either from Tumblr or the Chernow biography and he leaned over and said to me, "You know so much about history. You know more than anybody else in this theater."

I spent way too much of the second act hissing at him "PLEASE STOP TALKING." Which actually didn't diminish my enjoyment of the show overall that much because I more or less know all the words by heart -- but SERIOUSLY, people, it's not a movie, it's live theater that SOME of us have spend seven months waiting for, it's something that I'll never get a chance to see again. (I'm sure I'll see other productions of Hamilton, but with any of the original cast?) You can save your hot take for after the show.

(3) I liked that you can't see "Helpless" as just a happy love song. I mean, that's right there in the song -- the title is "Helpless"! -- but it has such resonance for me as a happy love song that's also kind of foolish and kind of doomed and... not in a way where you can laugh at Eliza or look down on her.

(4) Sydney James Harcourt, one of Burr's understudies, played Burr. I thought he wasn't as strong a singer as Leslie Odom Jr -- but really, who is? -- but I liked him very much as an actor; he played up Burr's funny side really well, right until "The Room Where It Happens," which was all the more amazing because you really got a sense of that transformation; you really got a sense of what it felt like inside his head. Seriously one of the best things I've ever seen in my whole life.

(5) People can make things that are really beautiful. This is important when everything else feels petty and full of the thousand things that don't really matter but can't help but drag you down.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Ahh, other than rude dude, what a wonderful experience. his are some of my favorite lines too and I can't imagine anyone doing them as well as Daveed Diggs. He just owns thm. And a last performance always has a special magic.

Glad the Burr alternate was good. He also has to make a complete mental snap plausible in something like three lines, which it took an entire song "Epiphany" for Sweeney Todd. I mean, there's a few lines of song, but really the whole thing happened in "I want to be in the room where it happens. He's kept me from the room where it happens… for the last time." Marvelous moment, Odom does it great too, but I bet more contrast earlier is also a great way to chill the audience if you can pull it off.

[sasha_feather]

The special hell for people who talk in the theater....

[owlectomy]

For me it just reflects the unreal levels of income inequality in NYC. Because if you're any kind of an ordinary person, you can't drop that kind of money on theater tickets unless you actually are GOING TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE DAMN PLAY but for some people it's practically pocket change.

[jesse_the_k]

precisely! Thanks so much for these details. I snoozed so no Chicago tix (they went in less than an hour) but they only sold halfway through the run (smart).

How was the sound? The only musicals I've seen involved altogether too many teenagers, without amplification. Does it compare to a rock concert?

[owlectomy]

Oh, yes - I absolutely read him as that guy who is SO suave and so funny and so charming right up until that moment when he realizes you're not going to give him what he wants, and then it's just cold anger, and that's really scary when done effectively! (And also a great foil to Hamilton who was played as so very RIGHT UP FRONT with his emotions and absolutely unable to calculate when to keep them under wraps.)

I had resigned myself to probably not getting to see much of the original cast when I bought tickets (and indeed the three leads left only about a week ago) so it did feel very special to see Daveed being approximately the most charismatic human being on the planet. (And Chris Jackson who I did not properly appreciate on the cast recording because it's not a very flashy role, but man, that guy can SING.)

[owlectomy]

Definitely not rock concert levels of amplification! I've been to musicals that were closer to that level of sound - Rent, maybe - but in Hamilton I think they needed to balance it in such a way that the instruments wouldn't overwhelm the high-speed patter of words. I was actually kind of surprised by how quiet it was, but I think it worked to give the full range of contrast between the very quiet and intimate moments (like in "Best of Wives and Best of Women") and the cannonballs-and-yelling moments.