Wednesday, December 04, 2019

I Lost It at the Theatre

So I'm taking a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance to see Hamilton on Broadway today. As a birthday present.

We've seen the show before, on our trip to London last year, but we are reliably informed that the Broadway version is superior. We shall see.

A little backstory:

I was skeptical about the whole Hamilton hype, despite the fact that I had been impressed with the show's auteur Lin-Manuel Miranda (after seeing the documentary on the making of his In the Heights)...



...for the obvious reason that hip-hop isn't particularly my thing.

In any event, when we saw the show in London, I sat through the first act with an open mind, and at intermission said Shady Dame asked me what I thought. I allowed how it was undeniably impressive, if a little monochromatic musically, but that I hadn't decided what I thought.

And then act II started, and immediately the music was a lot more stylistically varied and I was digging it. And then this song happened...



...and I turned to the Shady Dame with tears streaming down my face and said "They got me."

Seriously, if you don't find that moving, you really need to have it looked at.

4 comments:

paulinca said...

As a U.S. History teacher, I'm thankful for this musical. As a theater fan, this lit a fire in me that I haven't felt in a long time. I'm waiting for a rock record to hit me like Hamilton has. It's just magnificent.

Paul in CA

Mark said...

The Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording - on Atlantic, of all labels - is great. Great as a recording, great as a story, and great as an attempt to make a Broadway musical contemporary. Yeah, there are times when the rap and hip hop within is forced and almost silly, but isn't that the nature of anachronism in theater? And especially so in musical theater?

I can listen to Hamilton while driving in my car alongside the most contemporary of albums on my iTunes playlist. I think back to the embarrassment of other then-contemporary Broadway musicals such as Hair and Jesus Christ, Superstar, both of which were largely dreadful, and I think to myself that no matter how forced the rap and hip hop is, Hamilton is the real thing, musically.

Gummo said...

The original off-Broadway version of Hair had a pared-down band and was much more authentically 'rock' than the Broadway version. It's now available after decades of being unissued and I heartily recommend it (some different songs, too).

Shriner said...

Hey, Jesus Christ Superstar is amazing! Ian Gillan? Murray Head? Phenomenal.

I'll fight to the death for that one! Metaphorically speaking, of course...