It wasn’t an easy, or even straightforward journey. When the groundbreaking musical’s creator (credited with book, music, lyrics, and first actor to perform the lead role) young Lin-Manuel Miranda, on a break from his 2008 multi-Tony Award-winning In The Heights, first announced he was working on a musical about HAMILTON, it was at a presidential concert in the Obama White House whose theme was “The American Experience.” At the time, he’d written just one, four-minute rap song about Alexander Hamilton’s first 20 years. Miranda’s performance of the song left the Obamas utterly entranced.
The idea for creating a completely new, contemporary, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, pop, and soul-laden musical (with some Broadway-style showtunes and ballads thrown in), came from reading Ron Chernow’s 2004 best-seller Alexander Hamilton while vacationing in Mexico with his future wife. Miranda was extremely moved by – to the point of identifying with – Hamilton’s origin tale of a lowly orphan boy who wrote his way off the island of St. Croix, where he grew up, to arrive with big dreams in New York City. “That’s the hip-hop narrative,” Miranda said, reflecting on how his own father, a native of Puerto Rico, had moved to New York, worked hard and eventually rose to become an advisor to Mayor Ed Koch.
(As a native New Yorker – and I believe no matter how long you’re away, the “city that never sleeps” also never leaves you – I remember the long reign of that popular, populist NYC mayor. Ironically, I’m also intimately acquainted with Sedgwick Avenue, site of the West Bronx rec room party where hip hop was born in 1973. I missed that movement by about a decade but can’t help smiling at how my best-friend’s little house – tucked among inexpensive rental apartment buildings on a quiet Sedgwick Avenue street where I’d spent most of my childhood free time – has suddenly become a famous address.)
Miranda’s revolutionary musical take on the Hamilton story also gained instant approbation from author Ron Chernow after he sang to him in his living room. Chernow’s reaction was: “I think this is the most astonishing thing I’ve ever heard.” The distinguished author went on to become historical consultant for the show.
But the world can also thank Miranda’s friend and In the Heights director Thomas Kail (who would go on to become Hamilton’s director extraordinaire) for giving Lin a much-needed push to dedicate his energy into what he, and many others, rightly predicted would be his next musical sensation. When two years only produced two Hamilton songs, Kail asked Lin to “crank it up a little, so maybe we could see what we’ve got.” Six months later, Miranda performed 10 new songs at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. When Kail noticed legendary music composer John Kander’s face light up at the rap battles between Jefferson and Hamilton, he was ready to fully commit to the project.
But Miranda and Kail are perfectionists in their craft – ruthlessly jettisoning entire groups of songs if they felt they weren’t just right throughout the years of readings and workshops that followed. One aspect, however, never changed. Miranda insisted on featuring Latino and Black actors in the roles of America’s forefathers, saying, “Our goal was: This is a story of America then, told by America now, and we want to eliminate any distance – our story should look the way America looks.”
It appears the world couldn’t agree more. Over 28 million people in record-breaking numbers have seen Hamilton since its debut Off-Broadway and then Broadway in 2015. Multiple American National Tours and International tours followed in 2017, ranging as far as the UK, Ireland, and Australia. The roamng professional tours show no signs of slowing down while, at this point, also attracting multitudes of diehard repeat fans, with ever growing enthusiasm. The powerful emotions, incredible scenery, music and story-telling excitement laced with drama, humor, and even doses of camp, are as riveting as ever with a message that freshly appeals at every age, time and generation. As evidenced by the unanimous excitement and applause at our own HAMILTON National Tour presented by Broadway in Fort Lauderdale at Broward Center, onstage now through November 22.
I found the celebration of hard work, education, and passion for a cause that has always been the hallmark of the immigrant values to be especially poignant at a time when both “dreamers” and long-time asylum seekers are suddenly and mercilessly targeted for expulsion – in effect removing the very people who most honor and have contributed to the American experience since its inception and whose message, engraved the Statue of Liberty, has become a beacon for humanity.
The very fact that anyone – including a young man of Puerto Rican descent – has the freedom to interpret that message of history through the young people’s language of rap and hip hop, and then see it universally embraced by all ages, remains a remarkable testament to what makes our country great. And here the former educator in me must praise him for how his show has managed to teach lessons in civics and American history to so many of our youth as never before. Bravo Lin-Manuel Miranda simply for that inspired contribution!
Yes, I’m finally coming to the show review whose stellar reputation proceeds it for full-blast musical production values that both update and utilize many classic musical theater elements (with a twist). Just over a decade later, David Korins’ massive wood-and-brick, evolving stage design appears as fresh and imposing as ever. We first see heavy timbers held by ropes and a nautical motif reflecting ships arriving to the port of New York City. Then, as the city progresses, the back wall grows taller with added brick, and scaffolding filled with tools which Korins says are meant to symbolize the ongoing construction of both the country and its people. While not an overt connection, you might feel it viscerally throughout the show. And see the progress through attention-grabbing spotlights and more by lighting designer Howell Binkley and perfectly pitched sound design by Nevin Steinberg.
As you also experience those now famous, and frequently utilized, double-revolving stage floors that I consider an “in-the-know” tribute to hip-hop founding DJ Kool Herc who used two turntables for what he called the “Merry-Go-Round” technique to extend instrumental “breaks” in funk and soul records, allowing dancers to breakdance longer. And for a musical grounded in lightning-fast rap and an almost sung-through score, we can also delight in many creative, exciting dance numbers to accompany most of the words – thanks to choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, supervising choreographer Michael Mindlin, and co-dance captains Lexi Garcia-Toye and Kevin Murakami. All beautifully backed by an exuberant live orchestra in the pit led by conductor/keyboard 1 Emmanuel Schvartzman and associate music director/keyboard 2 Austin Deadman.
And while most of the key actors are dressed in 18th century appropriate uniforms for their station, I couldn’t help noticing that dancers appeared wearing what looked like tight-fitting period undergarments. But then I realized this allowed for complete free movement and reflected the times a whole lot more than any contemporary ballet leotard. Credit for costume design ranging from the most ostentatious, medal-packed military uniforms and attire fit for a king! … to ladies party gowns … to the bare minimum goes to costume designer Paul Tazewell, fancily topped off by hair and wig designer Charles G. LaPointe.
Young people accustomed to the quick beats of rap will have no problems understanding and relating to the, at times profane but always dead honest, lyrics that open the show with testaments by major actors in Hamilton’s life quick rapping his early history of incredible tragedy but refusal to accept defeat, determination to learn, make something of his life, and find a purpose in founding a new country from his chosen home base in New York City. It’s such a remarkable, far too fast (for me) review of how he got there, that for those whose ears aren’t accustomed to rap-speed, I’d recommend looking up the lyrics to the aggressively powerful opening number, “Alexander Hamilton.”
I admit, I wanted to keep my first experience with the musical untainted, so didn’t follow this advice, then almost wished for subtitles as I wasn’t able to catch every word. But I did catch enough (I was familiar with the story) and found that as the show progressed, my ear’s facility for rap progressed as well, and I was soon able to keep up. And we do get many breaks featuring more lyrical, easily comprehensible songs, along with humorous put-downs of royalty and other full-of-themselves buffoons.
The musical is packed with romance, deception, raw ambition, court or congress intrigue, tragedy, and reconciliation … all in heightened operatic proportions. The more I think about this production, the more I realize why it needed to take as long as it did to come up with such a seamless, comprehensive, and sophisticated historical musical that’s enormously entertaining while fully engaging your mind, heart, and soul. And all those alternating hip-hop beat segments? The raps may be spoken super-fast but don’t feel rushed but rather assume their natural place in the story’s perfect progression.
Here’s a sample from the “Alexander Hamilton” opening number that begins with his rise from horrid birth conditions to how, even at 14, he managed through sheer pluck and natural smarts, to arrive at a more promising future.
How does a Bastard, orphan, son of a whore
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten
Spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father
Got a lot farther by working a lot harder
By being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter
By 14, they placed him in charge of a trading charter
We are introduced to Hamlton’s life story by historical characters who address various stages in his life, and whom we’ll meet in episodes later on. Major key figures throughout include his relationship with Aaron Burr (Deon’te Goodman), who begins with the confrontational question in the opening stanza, and his future wife Eliza Hamilton (Lily Soto). Parts of his story are also related by John Laurens (Leon Tak, who also plays Philip Hamilton), Thomas Jefferson (Christian Magby, also a flashy Marquis de Lafayette), James Madison (Eddie Ortega who also plays Hercules Mulligan), Philip Schuyler (Oscar Whitney, Jr., also James Reynolds/Doctor), George Washington (Auston Henderson).
But when Aaron Burr challenges Hamilton mid-rap-song with:
Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came.
And the world is gonna know your name.
What’s your name, man?
And suddenly the spotlight is on Tyler Fauntleroy in his recurring, highly acclaimed role of Alexander Hamilton – it’s major showtime. Fauntleroy forcefully emotes:
Alexander Hamilton
My name is Alexander Hamilton
And there’s a million things I haven’t done
But just you wait, just you wait
From that moment on, Hamilton is almost constantly onstage, and at the center of the action – singing, dancing, courting, and fighting. In addition to his public service contributions, he’s led an active soap opera of a personal life which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself. As George Washington’s aide-de-camp (personal assistant) during the revolutionary war, he finally convinces Washington, who admires his writing talent and doesn’t want to lose him, to grant him an unlikely field command which he wins. Later, at the request of Lafayette who’d been fighting the British with the Americans, he’s summoned to lead the Battle of “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” that crucially wins American independence and is most strikingly displayed onstage.
It’s also an opportunity for Auston Henderson as George Washinton to perform a powerful solo of caution and prescience of Hamilton’s future notoriety in “History Has Its Eyes on You,” when he’s first summoned. Hamilton would go on to a successful legal career, be appointed first Secretary of the Treasury and still prove to be just as skilled and determined in correspondence. After the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Hamilton wrote non-stop advocating for its ratification. Tasked with writing 85 essays, John Jay got sick after writing 5, James Madison quit after 29, and Alexander Hamilton completed what became known as the “Federalist Papers” by working day and night on the remaining 51.
The “My Shot” is a constant refrain about Hamilton’s pluck and resilience, as in:
Ayo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwin’ away my shot
Often used to contrast with Aaron Burr whom he feels lacks commitment and direction.
There are a couple of hilarious and campy appearances by a clueless, unbelieving King George III, an audience favorite played in Randy Rainbow-parody style (at least to me) by Noah Kieserman who always adds a welcome note of levity when the drama gets too intense. He insists his colonies will come groveling back in “You’ll Be Back” in Act 1, followed by a disbelieving, “What Comes Next,” then can’t believe “I Know Him” when John Adams in elected president in Act 2. He even sets a humorous tone before the show with his royal announcement of “This is your King George the Third. Welcome to Hamilton. Silence all your devices … and welcome to my show.”
We also get to enjoy two outstanding female vocalists in Schuyler sisters Eliza, portrayed by Lily Soto (who sings of being totally smitten by Hamilton in “Helpless,” before they become engaged) while her sister Angelica, powerfully portrayed by Marja Harmon, decides to forsake her own feelings and be “Satisfied” in the role of sister-in-law and Hamilton’s intellectual friend. Nadina Hassan, who plays third sister Peggy, often joins her siblings in song and does a fine turn as Maria Reynolds.
But it’s Soto-as-Eliza’s high clear voice in the plaintive ballad Finale as she challenges the audience with “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” that leaves us stunned at play’s closing. We learn how Eliza kept the flame of Hamilton’s contributions to establishing our country alive, as she went on to live a life of service for the next 50 years, while founding New York’s first private orphanage.
Broadway in Fort Lauderdale presents HAMILTON, the National Tour, now through November 22 at the grand Au-Rene Theater of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave, Fort Lauderdale 33312. Tickets at www.browardcenter.org, at Ticketmaster.com, by calling 954-468-0222 or in person at the Broward Center’s AutoNation Box Office.
Don’t throw away your shot to get acquainted or reacquainted with the blockbuster musical that took the world by storm – winning 11 Tony Awards, Grammy and Olivier Awards, and even A Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
