As our celebration of HamilTEN, the tenth anniversary of the musical Hamilton, my wife and I went to the Spectrum Theater in Albany in late September to see the movie. Well, more correctly, we saw the stage version of Hamilton, which was filmed in 2016, and the original cast was featured before they dispersed.
It was made available on Disney+ in 2020, but I had no streaming service. Moreover, I’m not all that fond of seeing movies on the small screen anyway. So when it came to the cinema in honor of the 10th anniversary of Hamilton (HamilTEN), it was a required visit.
As I’m sure I’ve described, we first learned about Hamilton when our daughter was really hot on this musical. We bought and played the CD in our car whenever we traveled with our daughter. There were rules, including that my wife could not turn off the vehicle until the playing song ended. So, and I’m not exaggerating, we’ve probably listened to Hamilton north of 200 times in three years. Although not 100% historically accurate, our daughter learned who ran in the elections of 1796 and 1800.
A guy named Howard Ho is a scholar of the musical who explains over several videos why the listening and relistening of Hamilton isn’t as repetitive as it might be. Part of it concerns the fact that so many words are packed into a single line. One video suggests the first measure encapsulates the entire musical motif.
In 2019, we saw both the touring company and a parody of Spamilton. We’ve watched the Weird Al Hamilton Polka.
Finally
Still, finally seeing the movie and seeing the staging was magical. Angelica (Renée Elise Goldsberry) performed Satisfied, which was electric. King George (Jonathan Goff) never blinks in his three songs, and after his final song, he remains rollicking on the stage. Thomas Jefferson’s moves (Daveed Diggs) are extraordinary. It is remarkably moving when Eliza (Phillipa Soo) sings Burn. This is fascinating, given our history with the work.
I probably know Hamilton better than any other musical, except possibly West Side Story, which I saw more than 60 years ago, plus subsequent movie and stage presentations.
I can’t review Hamilton. We got more emotional about it than we would have thought. Oh, we were the only people in the theater – it WAS the third week – but it would have been interesting to register audience reaction.
Vaguely related: Did an Enslaved Chocolatier Help Hercules Mulligan Foil a Plot to Assassinate George Washington?