For the first time in nearly two years, I got to sit in the room where it happens—in Hollywood. On August 17, Hamilton made its highly-anticipated return to Los Angeles as a mounted production at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through January 2022.
Hamilton came into my life around December of 2015, about six months after its premiere on Broadway. Since then, I have waited for the right opportunity to see the show. There were so many roadblocks, like being far from NYC, or not being in the city when the tour was in town, or the cost of tickets, so I always said ‘I’ll see Hamilton eventually.’
I think the pandemic has made me realize how quickly this can all go away. In a matter of days, theaters that were bright every night were now dark and almost abandoned for over a year. That’s the blessing and the curse of live art: it’s temporary, but we hope it has an impact that will stay with us forever. I hadn’t originally planned on seeing Hamilton while it was in Los Angeles but decided to just pick a day and see it. It was so close, it felt like the stars had finally aligned.
Now that we’re about five years out from the original Broadway cast, I appreciated being able to see the show with an entirely new cast. With theaters being dark for about a year and a half, I think it has allowed performers to breathe new life into some of these shows and characters. It felt like almost an entirely different show from the OBC.
I was fortunate to see a couple covers share their talent that night including Jen Sese, who was on for Angelica Schulyer, and Tommar Wilson, who was on for George Washington. There is something so wonderful about grabbing tickets to a show where the only name I recognized was Rory O’Malley (King George III), which was that I could really go into the show blind and appreciate each performer in front of me.
I absolutely loved Sese as Angelica and would go as far as saying she was one of the standouts of the principal characters. After previously only seeing and hearing Renee Elise Goldberry from the OBC, Sese’s Angelica was really fresh. She definitely was leaning into the protective older sister characterization of Angelica, and played so well with every cast member on stage. She rode the emotional waves of Angelica’s character arch so beautifully, playing gently with Eliza and Peggy, and flashing through anger and regret with Alexander. I thought the choices she made were wonderful enhancements to the character. Sese’s option up during “Satisfied” was effortless, and definitely a standout moment.
Nicholas Christopher as Aaron Burr was another favorite part of the performance. I haven’t typically loved Burr as a character as the antagonist of the show, but Christopher changed my perspective on the character. Burr typically reads as haughty to me, based on Leslie Odom Jr.’s performance with the OBC, but Christopher approached Burr in a way that was a bit friendlier to begin with, which allowed Burr to experience a greater range of emotion in his character arc. As an audience member, you see his humble introduction to Alexander, and how each time Alexander sweeps the rug out from under him he grows jaded. It allowed a more climactic ending when Burr does eventually snap during the duel because it was more visually justifiable. The initial gentle approach to Burr offered a fresh perspective on the character, which I enjoyed.
Something about the production that surprised me the most was how seeing a fresh cast almost made it feel like a different musical. I think the ability of the cast to take on the characters in new ways is really what keeps the show moving. Because of Hamilton‘s phenomenal success, we’ve come to have expectations as audience members, and for the company, they’re challenged with keeping it interesting and motivating people to return to the theatre.
Overall, it was a great performance. My expectations were a little bit different from the typical show I would go to see because I had already watched the proshot. I think this is a great example of why you can argue for both proshots and live theatre. I surprisingly did not feel like I had already seen the show going into it. There’s so much to watch in Hamilton, part of the downside of the proshot was that you couldn’t possibly capture it all. On top of that, I was lucky enough to see some fresh talent that I didn’t know before, and immediately went home and looked them up to see if I knew any of their other work.
It was a fantastic production to return to live theatre on, and I’m so glad I took the opportunity to see this show!
The Broadway Edit 