If you haven't heard about "Hamilton: An American Musical," I don't know where you've been the last year. Let me catch you up to speed. Hamilton is Broadway's "it" play at the moment. Fusing hip-hop with history, Hamilton stole America's heart. It use to star creator Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton one of America's founding fathers. Notice how I said use to? As of July 9, Miranda has left to do smaller projects (like helping to write music for Disney's latest princess Moana. No big deal. That means that on August 10 when I saw "Hamilton," Miranda was not there.
Let me throw this disclaimer out there before I continue any further. I understand how many people are dying to see this play. I wanted to see a Broadway play. I wanted to see "Hamilton". I could have sold my ticket three times more than what I paid, but I wanted this experience. To the cast and crew that made the show so memorable, thank you.
Now before I actually give my two cents on the performance I saw let me explain the events leading up to August 10. Sometime in late October or November my friend and I decided to take a trip to the Big Apple, not to see a play, but to watch Twenty One Pilots headline Madison Square Garden. She had fallen in love with Hamilton a couple months before we planned the trip. Since the concert was at night we wanted something else to do besides wandering around New York aimlessly. Seeing a play and concert seemed like it would be a fun day. With her "Hamilton" love she bought herself a ticket and since I didn't want to be alone I bought one too.
To prepare myself I listened to the sound track, watched interviews, and I might have watched a few musical numbers that were posted on YouTube (sorry Lin). I became hooked and as "Hamilton" became more popular winning Grammys and Tonys my excitement grew. I soon memorized the songs and pictured how they would be preformed live. Naturally my mind had the original cast.
Let's fast forward to early June when Miranda announced that he would be leaving "Hamilton" July 9. Next came Phillipa Soo (who portrayed Elizabeth Schulyer) announced that she too would leave July 9th. After my friend's and I's initial shock, we agreed that we would sell our tickets if Leslie Odom Jr. (who portrays Aaron Burr) left. Odom's last day was July 9. OK, then we said we'd go for Daveed Diggs. Nope, Diggs left the following week. We were left with a little dilemma. The show that we had pictured in our minds was not going to happen which left us disappointed. After some thought, we agreed that we still wanted to see the play.
Which finally brings us to August 10. With five out of the nine original cast members still signed on, we walked into the doors of Richard Rodgers Theatre, sat in our seats and saw our playbill. Only Okieriete "Oak" Onaodowan would be there for our performance. Great. That's not to say that the new actors and actresses didn't do a good job in their roles. It just wasn't the cast I was use to. The original cast seemed to be more comfortable with each other and had a good chemistry going. There were times with the new cast when the performance felt forced and unnatural. Each actor and actress on their own we're great, but compared to the original cast, those performances became just OK.
I am use to Jasmine Cephas Jones' sultry voice belting "Say No to This" and while Sasha Hutchings did a good job, it did not have the same passion as Jones. Leslie Odom Jr.'s "The Room Where it Happened" was sassy and fun, while Brandon Victor Dixon merely just sung the song. There were instances where I felt like something was off or wrong, and I couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling I was so close to watching perfection, but missed it. In all honesty, 95 percent of my disappointment was my own fault. I had built this perfect play in my head that wasn't going to happen.
If you're able to do what I couldn't and not compare the two cast, then the play was fantastic. I laughed, I cried, and I sung along in my head. Even though I was a little disappointed, I still enjoyed myself. There are parts with the choreography that you probably wouldn't imagine would work so well. The costumes, lights, and dancing captivates you. Little facial expressions and gestures only adds to the music. If you haven't seen clips of the original cast yet, don't. It really is a beautiful production, despite not being what I expected.
