When I was a junior in high school, one of my good friends encouraged me to listen to a musical. It was called Hamilton, and he was, to say the least, obsessed with it. I was pretty skeptical that I would enjoy something about history, but I still took the CDs and begrudgingly stuck them in the CD player of my old Chevy on the way home that day. From that moment, I too was obsessed.
Hamilton: An American Musical tells the story of the man it’s named after: Alexander Hamilton. The founding father who most notably achieved success by kick-starting America’s banking system, has his story told through a series of 46 songs.
They include the details of his childhood, love life, family drama, political missteps and successes, and the enemies and allies he makes throughout his life.
The musical, which has been around since 2015, finally came to Boston this fall. My boyfriend surprised me with tickets to what ended up being all I had imagined and more.
I had heard a lot of people worrying about seeing the show since the original cast is no longer there, but the talent exhibited from the new cast was unbelievable. The audience felt every note as much as they did, and every character conveyed a story with their words and movements.
The simple props — especially the use of things like desks and chairs — helped picture the political environment of the musical, but kept your eyes on every part of the stage. Every second of it was captivating.
Knowing every word to the soundtrack and getting to see those words sung in person and watch them develop with the characters in unforgettable. Seeing it makes it all clearer because you’re really able to tell who is signing every little part
The transitions between songs was so fluid, and when there was a shift in the tone of the song, the stage was perfectly set for it. For example, Hamilton’s wife Eliza sings a heart wrenching ballad “Burn” about her husband’s betrayal while she sits alone with a gas-lamp. When Hamilton dies in “The World Was Wide Enough”, his life literally “flashes before his eyes” in the way the rest of the characters surround him.
Hamilton lives up to the buzz it’s created over the past years. It’s achieved an outstanding goal of making a typically boring history subject into a jaw dropping rap masterpiece!
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