– By Cate Marquis –
‘Hamilton’ is everything you could wish for – except Lin-Manuel Miranda
Sometimes the hype exceeds the real thing but that is not the case for “Hamilton.” The highly anticipated Broadway tour delivers on all expectations. The only thing that could have made it better would be having creator Lin Manuel Miranda in the lead role.
We have missed that chance but this is such an excellent production that it hardly matters. This is just a winning show in all aspects – the staging, the history, the performances but most of all the very concept of modernizing Alexander Hamilton’s story by diverse casting and a hip hop to pop music score.
“Hamilton” is a musical that scores on all levels. The historic story of a once lesser-known Founding Father has transformed Alexander Hamilton’s standing in the public imagination and probably as a historic figure. It has been billed as a hip-hop musical, but in fact hip-hop is one of the musical styles, which includes blues, a touch of jazz, pop music and even more traditionally Broadway tunes. The musical is almost entirely sung, putting it the realm of opera. The dance numbers are as good as the singing and production is snappy and irresistibly energetic. If it has a minor draw back, it is that the score is not very hum-able, but that minor quibble does not matter because all the music, and dancing, are so thoroughly integrated into the story. “Hamilton” is an experience as much as a musical.
Creator Lin Manual Miranda, who has Puerto Rican roots, was taken with the story of Alexander Hamilton, a poor immigrant from a Caribbean island who rose to become the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, immediately upon read his biography. Yet, as has been said several times, when Miranda first pitched the idea of a hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton, the overwhelming response was “good luck with that.” But Miranda’s inspired idea paid off, transforming Hamilton from one of the lesser known Founding Fathers into perhaps the most popular one with younger people, as well as garnering Miranda a Broadway smash hit, acclaim and a pile of awards.
The musical recaps Alexander Hamilton’s rise from impoverished immigrant to one of the leaders of the new United States. The genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical is how it takes this historic figure and ties him to the present, by diverse casting, energetic staging and a score built with hip hop, pop, blues and rock influences.
The musical styles vary with the characters, telling us something about their nature and in some cases, the kind of person Hamilton appears to that person. The musical not only follows Hamilton’s career and the founding of the country, but explores aspects of his character as individual. The play follows Hamilton from his arrival as an ambitious immigrant to the pre-Revolutionary American colonies to his death in a duel.
Alexander Hamilton is played by Austin Scott. Several major historical figures appear in this story. A major one Aaron Burr, played well by Nicholas Christopher, whom Hamilton first met as a new immigrant, along with other figures of the American Revolution that was dawning. Burr and Hamilton go from friends to competitors to enemies as the story progresses. The young revolutionaries’ social circle also included the wealthy, pretty Schuyler sisters, Eliza (Julia K. Harriman), Angelica (Sabrina Sloan), and Peggy (Isa Briones). The sisters bring a feminist perspective to the story as well a bit of romance, as Eliza became Hamilton’s wife. Among other famous figures are Gen. George Washington (Carvens Lissaint) and the Marquis de Lafayette (Chris De’sean Lee).
In the second act, which takes place after the Revolutionary War as the new nation struggles to get started, Chris De’sean Lee plays Thomas Jefferson, one of several actors play who more than one role. Lee’s Jefferson is smart-mouthed and slightly comic, as is his first song, the catchy “What Did I Miss.” Chaundre Broomfield-Hall, who played Hercules Mulligan in the first act, takes the role of James Madison in the second.
The injection of a occasional jolts of humor sharpens the drama of the history unfolding. On the best humorous characters is England’s King George, played with comic splashiness by Peter Mathew Smith. The king’s first song “You’ll Be Back,” a bouncy pop-music gem, is a laugh-inducing highlight that Smith uses to transform the English king into an object of fun, like a somewhat silly spurned lover.
The cast is good overall, with both soaring voices and dramatic, or as required comic chops. If there is one small shortcoming in this show it is Austin Scott in the lead role. Scott is certainly handsome and tall, and does well in both the acting and the singing. However, he is never the most charismatic performer on stage nor the strongest singer. Without the show’s charismatic creator in the role, one would expect the touring cast to have tried to replace him with a stronger stage presence.
“Hamilton” is sold out for its entire run at the Fox, which is through April 22. But even for sold-out shows, sometimes tickets become available. Plus, there is a daily lottery for $10 tickets, as required by the show’s creator. For information on that, call 314-534-111 or visit fabulousfox.com. If you already have tickets, boy oh boy, are you for a treat, as “Hamilton” gem of the theater season, and of many other seasons as well. And if you suddenly get tickets, run to see this marvelous production.
