Last spring, I experienced a Hunger Games-esque Ticketmaster order and locked in tickets to see Hamilton in December. After surviving the semester, this winter break my family and I packed up and headed to NYC to see the show about founding father Alexander Hamilton that has been shaking up the entertainment world. The award-winning (Grammy, Tony, Pulitzer, etc.) musical has thrown America for a loop. With a diverse cast of uber-talented performers, Hamilton is one of the most sought-after tickets in history! The pre-show madness was to be expected, but definitely more than I had anticipated. There was a huge line forming an hour and a half before the show of people with tickets. Yeah, yikes. When the lights dimmed for the start of the show, the audience went wild. Like, rock concert wild. That energy carried throughout the entire show, with bursts of applause after the line, “My name is Alexander Hamilton”, and the iconic lyric: “Immigrants, we get the job done”. Honestly, the cast had to cut off the audience a few times so that they could keep performing.
I went into the show with a solid amount of knowledge about the production, and I had started listening to the soundtrack shortly after it was released. It definitely helped to know the songs before sitting down to see the show because, if you haven’t taken a listen yet, most songs are fast. In an interview I watched prior to seeing the show, I learned that there are about 150 words per minute. And with a rap-based soundtrack, the high number of words makes sense. Still, the songs might be difficult to keep up with if you aren’t used to a hip-hop sound. My advice for any future Hamilton-goers is to listen to a couple of songs before the show to get used to the pace and detail of each moment.
The show is intricate, fast-paced, and clean. One of my favorite parts of the show was the super synchronized and energetic Tony-award-winning choreography. Every movement contained a kind of palpable electricity and the ensemble, who was responsible for subtle set changes, served a purpose. The show is almost three hours long, but the cast is so engaging that you don’t even notice how long you’ve been sitting.
Hamilton lived up to all of the hype, and I could see it another hundred times. Due to the high demand for Ham tickets, the soundtrack will have to do!