Happy Saturday everyone!!!
Well, today I’m going to write a rather unorthodox post. It has nothing to do with health and fitness, but I just really feel the need to write about something that I love and that I’ve been thinking about and loving an extra lot lately….
Oh how I love this play, story and music! I’m sure those of you who love it too, totally understand. To those of you who haven’t seen it, haven’t heard the music or who couldn’t care less about musicals, Broadway and this musical in particular….I’m sorry.
I just love this stuff!
Kev’s not a huge musical, play, Broadway lover, but I think over the years, I’ve slowly…slowly…converted him.
K, so we were able to see Hamilton in Salt Lake City last week and OH MY WORD, it was incredible! I just loved every second and never wanted it to end.
I also have to mention that I saw Hamilton two years ago with the original cast in New York City and I loved it so much then, BUT I think I might have loved it even more this time with the touring cast!!
Say whaaaaa???? I know, crazy, right? I’ll talk about that in more detail in a sec.
It probably goes without saying, but Hamilton is the hottest ticket in town right now. I was actually so surprised, yet grateful I was able to get tickets. I hopped online about an hour before tickets went on sale back in February and was put into an “online waiting room” until ticket sales officially opened. Then everyone in the “waiting room” was put into an “official line” in random order for the chance to buy tickets.
When my opportunity arrived, I quickly bought whatever tickets I could get my hands on, which happened to be on the very back row, thankfully in the center, of the theater. I was just stoked to be able to purchase them!!! I was only able to buy 4 tickets and I bought them for $75, + a $12.50 “preservation fee,” each.
Later that day, people were selling tickets all over the internet for hundreds of dollars a piece. It was crazy. I really did kind of feel like I won the lottery!
So when we were finally able to go see the play, I was so excited! I brought Kev, my mom and my sister-in-law with me. We tried so hard to take some decent selfies, but the lighting was horrible. These were the best we could get…
Yes, we truly were sitting in nosebleed seats, but I was just so happy to “be in the room where it happens.” Har, har, har. 😉
My poor sister-in-law tried so hard to get tickets herself, but didn’t have any luck. I was glad she could come with us. My mom was a 4th grade teacher for many, many years and is a huge history buff. She knows more about the Revolutionary War, our Founding Fathers and our country than any of us and she even knew all the details about Hamilton before “Hamilton” was even a thing. Ha ha. It seems like everyone is a Revolutionary War era expert now thanks to Hamilton!
My mom was very excited to see Hamilton, although I wasn’t quite sure what she’d think about all the hip hop and stuff.
She loved it.
My Thoughts About the Hamilton “Philip” Touring Cast
Ya know, before I saw the play in SLC, I looked on the internet for information and opinions about this “Philip” touring cast and I really couldn’t find much out there! I was so disappointed, so that’s another reason why I thought I’d write a post….to add my two cents out there on the internet for others who are curious.
So, I was completely blown away by this cast! I absolutely LOVED Nik Walker as Aaron Burr!!!
Holy crap, he was phenomenal. Like really, I thought he was perfection. I just loved everything about him and the way he played the roll. I think he played Aaron Burr as the perfect mix of arrogant, yet vulnerable. He was far and away my favorite member of this cast. LOVED HIM!!!!
I’m an official fangirl now. 😉
Now, the funny thing is when I saw the Original Broadway Cast in New York City, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr was my favorite member of the cast! I loved how he played the role and I LOOOOOOVED his voice! He was incredible. However, I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but I think I liked Nik Walker’s Burr a little bit more. Gasp!!!
I love Leslie so so so much too, but Nik just brought it home for me. I really don’t know how that role could’ve been played any better.
I also absolutely loved Shoba Narayan as Eliza as well.
She was sweet, yet strong and I loved her voice! I liked her equally as much as Phillipa Soo, in the original Broadway cast. However, I loved the way Shoba Narayan performed the song, Burn. Holy COW. It was just so emotional and moving. I felt like I could really understand how Eliza Hamilton must have felt. She added a few long pauses in the song that I don’t remember being there before. It made the song so powerful. It was incredible.
In fact, those small details are what made me love this performance of Hamilton just a little bit more than the original! It just seemed like certain parts were emphasized a bit more and made it easier to follow. I felt like the words of the songs were easier to understand, but that might be because I’m more familiar with the songs now. The lighting, special effects, rotating stage and choreography really seemed to stand out more to me this time too. That could also be because I’m more familiar with the play as a whole too. I dunno.
But, WOW, this play is just phenomenal. It’s an absolute masterpiece and I cannot WAIT to see it again.
Okay, and as far as the guy who played Hamilton, Joseph Morales, I loved him!
He actually reminded me a lot of Lin Manuel Miranda (for those of you who don’t know, or for those of you who’ve been living under a rock, he’s the guy who wrote Hamilton and played Hamilton in the original Broadway cast.)
He looked a lot like him (at least from afar) and I think he played the part similarly to how Lin Manuel played it. I also read up about him a little bit and he seems like such a sweet, good guy, so that made me love him even more. He was great!
I gotta say though, seeing Lin Manuel Miranda play Hamilton was just amazing. I enjoyed every single second watching him play that role. It was surreal and I really don’t think anyone could top it for me!
Oh, and side-note, check out Nik Walker in the background of that pic above…he is just awesome. Love him.
**fangirling**
Also, I thought Ta’Rea Campbell did a great job as Angelica and she reminded me a lot of Renee Elise Goldsberry, who played Angelica in the Original cast.
As far as the rest of the cast goes, they were all great, but I think I liked the original Broadway cast a little more. I must say that I wasn’t a huge fan of Marcus Choi as George Washington. He was just kind of “meh” for me. I really loved Christopher Jackson as George Washington in the original cast though. He is such a big man and was just a giant presence, which I feel George Washington should be.
I’m sorry to say, but Marcus Choi is not a very big man and I just don’t feel like he played the role as powerfully. It was just a’ight.
Here’s a pic of Marcus Choi playing George Washington (on the left) and you can see that he’s about the same size as Hamilton (who was short too!) The pic on the right is of Christopher Jackson, who was incredible. He was huge and just owned that role! Loved him!
I also thought the three guys who played John Laurens/Phillip Schuyler (Elijah Malcomb), Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson (Kyle Scatliffe) and Hercules Mulligan/James Madison (Fergie L. Philippe) were just okay. They did a great job, but sadly they didn’t seem very masculine to me. I really think all of the male roles in Hamilton need to be played very strong and masculinely (Is that a word? I don’t know, but I’m going with it.)
Also the guys who played those roles in the original cast, Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs and Okieriete Onaodowan, were just insane and hard to beat!
Oh and King George? He was played by Jon Patrick Walker and he was so good!
He totally made it his own and played the role completely differently than Jonathan Groff (the original), and I liked that. He gave it a different spin and was hilarious.
I also just have to mention that the Ensemble was incredible!!! I found this picture of the cast performing at the Tony Awards which I think helps to show how amazing they are!
They really do a phenomenal job and make the entire show. I noticed them more than I did the first time I saw the show and I just really appreciated all that they brought to the play.
All in all, Hamilton really is an incredible show. I am just blown away by how it combines hip hop, traditional style Broadway songs, rap, humor, history, incredible choreography, lighting and effects and a such a moving storyline. Loooooove it!!
It really is genius.
I also thought I’d share some of my pictures from two years ago when I saw Hamilton in New York City with the original cast. FYI, I went to NYC with a group of my friends because we were all turning 40 that year. It was such a fun trip!!!
Here we are on the very back row of the Richard Rodgers theater! Ha ha! I was on THEE back row BOTH times I saw the play!
I also just have to say that we bought our tickets at just the right time. I’m thankful one of my friends had heard how good Hamilton was and recommended we buy tickets because it wasn’t totally popular yet when we bought them. We bought our BACK ROW tickets for $325 each. A few of my friends paid $600 for better seats.
However, we bought our tickets in January 2016 and by the time we saw the show in April, our tickets were going for $800 each and then a month later they were selling for thousands of dollars and people were camping out for days to try to get tickets.
Insane.
I’m so grateful we bought our tickets when we did and that we were able to go! So grateful!
Here we are after the show in front of the Richard Rodgers theater.
And here’s a picture my friend took of the cast after the performance….
**Heart Eyes**
Oh, and I’ll also mention that Bernie Sanders was at Hamilton when we saw it! Before the play started, we heard a lot of commotion and when we looked down in the orchestra section, we saw him. Ha ha.
Darryl from The Office (Craig Robinson) was also there too and one of my friends got her picture taken with him. It was awesome and such a fun night!
Well, I will be quiet now. That’s all I have to say about Hamilton. Oh, how I love that play. I’m planning to go to NYC with my mom soon to visit my sister who lives in Connecticut. We’re hoping to see Hamilton again when we’re there! Yay.
Did I mention how much I love that play?
Well, I do.
G’night. 😉
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