Can you imagine our Founding Fathers performing a 3-hour-long musical? That’s obviously not how history went down. It would’ve been a lot more fun if it did though!
Finding out that the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Hamilton” was coming to The Fabulous Fox for the third time was so exciting that I immediately told my mom to go online and buy tickets. It wasn’t easy, nor was it cheap. In total the tickets were $450 including tax and service fees. But keep in mind that my seats were two rows away from the stage and on the aisle. Nosebleed seats were more affordable, costing around $60-$70. But no matter where you sit during this masterpiece of a show, you’ll enjoy every second of it.
As a high school student who loves a good history class, seeing “Hamilton” live was amazing. When I got to the Fox it was insanely packed and the doors were flooded with people waiting to go inside. When it was just about showtime I found my seat and waited for it to begin. And the second the lights dimmed and the massive theater got quiet—it was showtime.
The first act was great. It’s 90 minutes long with songs about Hamilton’s experience with love, war, friendship, and building his own legacy. When Aaron Burr opens the show (played by Jimmie J.J. Jeter) you could tell the entire crowd was sucked in from the start. Then, when Alexander Hamilton makes his engaging entrance (played by Tyler Fauntleroy), the crowd cheered in astonishment. Talk about similar casting, this was the closest I had seen any cast be to the original 2015 Broadway stars—Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., and many others. This cast did an outstanding job throughout the entire show even when things didn’t go correctly. Overall the cast and ensemble were very similar to the original Broadway cast and did an amazing job of portraying the characters in the same way, but they still made it their own performance.
Going into the second act was when things got interesting. Now you see Hamilton struggle with infidelity, work, loss, friendship, and eventually death. My personal favorite song “Say No to This” features Hamilton and Maria Reynolds’ (played by Lily Soto) affair, and eventually into “The Reynolds Pamphlet.” The entire second act is filled with emotion, and this cast poured their hearts into this performance. The very beginning of this act, the audience is introduced to Thomas Jefferson (played by Jared Howelton) with “What’d I Miss,” A very jazzy, Broadway, loud song, which Howelton did great with his performance. But later, the air shifts, and the audience is captivated by Eliza Hamilton’s (played by Lauren Mariasoosay) sorrowful song, “Burn.” The audience goes through an emotional rollercoaster trying to understand everything within this half. The show-stopping musical comes to an end with “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” which personally makes me sob every time I hear it; it’s a perfect summary of what happened after Alexander Hamilton’s death and how his wife, Eliza, tells his story.
I think what makes this musical so enduring is that it combines the perfect amount of music, dance, and history into a creative storytelling show. A score that blends Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B, and jazz with a mostly diverse cast (except for King George III, played by Justin Sargent.). Lin-Manuel Miranda purposefully wanted this musical to be produced and displayed by people of color. In reality, all of the Founding Fathers were white men, and having people of color playing them brings voices to different communities.
Lin-Manuel Miranda will forever be in my good graces. For making a masterpiece of a musical, and a really long American history lesson. If you haven’t seen it yet, invest in some tickets and do your research. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to miss it when it comes to town next.
