Helpless and Satisfied Staging
**Get ready for a super long post, like uber long oh my goodness. Satisfied was my most requested staging but I figured I’d do Helpless too cause it makes Satisfied cooler. **
END OF WINTERS BALL INTO HELPLESS: So during ‘A Winters Ball’, Ham and the gang are being fuck boys and when Burr starts talking about Martha Washington’s feral tom cat Angelica enters upstage and sees Hamilton for the first time and on “1780” she crosses diagonally to meet him, she has Lafayette by her side but Hamilton pushes him away and kisses her hand and then counters around her and goes back down to Burr on “which one” and Angelica is watching him with wide eyes and as the guys do the “Hey hey hey” part, they walk off stage left, the turn table begins to rotate and Angelica watches them as they go and she looks totally love sick.
As 'Helpless’ starts Eliza and the ensemble girls and their partners kind of spiral around the turn table ending with Eliza in the center where Angelica and Hamilton met and there are couples of ensemble members dancing beautifully around her. (In this song the ensemble girls have put on these white skirts that twirl and look really pretty when they move, especially on lifts, and the men have put on soldier coats similar to the ones the squad wears except with red instead of cream accents) So while Eliza is singing her first verse, Angelica grabs Peggy’s hands and they have a cute little moment and it almost looks like Angelica’s like “Lets go mess with Eliza” because they turn and charge down towards Eliza and form a triangle in the center of the stage and start dancing together. On the “down for the count and I’m drowning in em” Angelica is in the center and Eliza and Peggy grab her hands and they do kind of a double twirl thing, I don’t know how to explain it but they kind of intertwine with each other and then spin out. When Eliza starts in about the “Revel with rebels” she crosses downstage and Angelica starts dancing with Washington and Hercules sweeps Peggy away. (Also at some point, I don’t remember when, but Laurens steals Peggy away so over the course of this song she is partnered up with all three of the revolutionary guys!)
When Ham walks in, Washington goes to shake his hand and Angelica turns to look at him and everything else freezes and there is a strip of white light starting at the upper stage left hand corner going down to downstage right where Eliza’s standing, and on boom it pulses. Also on boom Angelica snaps her head from Alexander to Eliza and Eliza grabs Angelica and pulls her downstage as Ham walks past them. the whole time Eliza keeps checking on Ham and its super cute. Then Angelica crosses to Hamilton who’s perched on the steps and Angelica points out Eliza and she’s like “Look at my cute little sister” and they talk a little and whisper to each other while Eliza sings. Then Angelica links arms with Ham and they cross over to Eliza. Ham kisses Eliza’s hand when he talks about “fighting a war”.
When she starts talking about him writing her letters the ensemble leaves the stage and Peggy comes on and gives Eliza a letter and they go to show Angelica who promptly snatches the letters away on “If you really loved me you would share him” but Eliza snatches them right back on “ha”. Peggy looks at the audience with a shocked expression at that part.
TWO WEEKS LATER, Papa Schuyler is sitting in a chair on the turntable talking to Hamilton and the sisters are all sitting on a bench expectantly on the other side of the stage and they’re all rotating together and Angelica is leaning on her knees with her arms crossed staring down Ham. Peggy is sitting straight back very proper while Eliza sings to the audience. And when Alexander “turns back to her and smiles” Eliza runs to him and they do a little swirl together in the center and Peggy and Angelica have a little excited moment on the bench before getting up and dancing too. And Angelica grabs Hamilton and hugs him and it makes me happy and then he hugs Peggy and Eliza is sweeping around the room and Angelica and Eliza embrace all excited like and Hamilton is doing this like pelvic thrust dance thing and shaking his knees and its kind of sexual and its his little celebration dance but then Papa Schuyler comes on and sees it and is shocked and the sisters are giggling uncontrollably cause Hamilton feels awkward. And then Ham and Papa have a drink and the sisters come downstage and theyre jamming AND THEN MY FAVORITE PART EVER, on :“down for the count”, Eliza’s in the center, they HIGH FIVE AND IT IS THE CUTEST THING YOU WILL EVER SEE OH MY GOD IT’S ACTUALLY AMAZING.
Then Ham starts talking about how he has nothing but a top notch brain and they’re doing this in the center of the stage and the whole time Eliza is just looking at him with the goofiest grin cause she’s so in love. When Alex reveals Angelica “Tried to take a bite of him” Eliza whips her head around like “dis bitch where you at” but Hammy grabs her and is like “nah chill fam.” and spins her around the stage. Okay and then this part is also adorable, the ensemble girls come on and they’re all holding paper and Alex goes up to each one and signs it and then the girl hands it to Eliza like they’re his letters and I love that. Then Laurens grabs Ham and pulls him downstage cause they’re getting ready for the wedding and they meet Washington who kind of gives him a lil pep talk I guess and Eliza meets Peggy and Angelica on the opposite side of the turn table and puts her letters in a box that Peggy has and puts on the wedding veil and the table starts spinning and the ensemble comes back in with their pretty dresses all twirly like and its so pretty and then the ensemble forms the audience of the wedding and the processional comes down center stage. Angelica and Laurens are first, then Lafayette and Peggy, then Hercules comes down and tosses some flower petals and we all laugh, and finally Eliza and Papa Schuyler come down arm in arm and he kisses her cheek and gives her off to Hamilton who gives her the ring and then they kiss on the button of the song and we all die cause its so happy and wonderful.
SATISFIED: the lights change and a soldier ensemble member brings in a tray with glasses that get passed around and Lauren’s kind of sweeps around the room, as the ensemble gets into a semi circle, introducing Angelica as the ensemble makes a semi circle along the back of the stage. Peggy and Lauren’s stand beside Angelica. Alexander and Eliza have moved to down stage left when Angelica starts her speech. When she says “from your sister” she grabs Peggy on the top of her head and kind of pulls her into a side hug. Then the frickin rewind part is probably the coolest fucking thing in the show and I’ll try to explain it but I don’t think anything I say will capture how amazing it is. Okay so the lights start doing this kind of flashy strobe thing, but it’s not strobe lights. The best way I can describe it is like when you rewind a VHS and it gets kind of staticky but you can still see the picture it’s just going backwards, that’s exactly what this is like. Everyone moves backwards and it looks like it’s going in reverse, one of the ensemble guys does this circular like slide across the floor thing around Angelica but he does it and it looks like when you put the backwards filter on a snapchat video. And Eliza and Hamilton walk backwards back into the center and do their kiss again and then they turn out of it, it’s literally the choreo of part of helpless in reverse. And the ensemble guys lift up the girls like the did in helpless but they lift them backwards and it’s just so so so cool and the lights are doing their thing and then it all freezes on the “I remember that night I just might rewind” thing. Renee is in the center of the stage and the ensemble is reenacting A Winters Ball and when she says the stuff about him saying hi and forgetting her name he’s frozen downstage right like he’s about to come greet her, as he does right before Helpless in A Winters Ball, and when things set aflame he unfreezes and comes up to her and pushes Lafayette away so that he can greet her. And then we’re back at that moment when they first meet except now we hear what they’re saying and he’s talking about never being satisfied. He kisses her hand when she introduces herself and then when he says his name he gets really close to her, close enough for them to kiss, it’s very intense, they’re literally nose to nose. And on “a million things I haven’t done” he counters around her and goes to talk to Burr. When she starts singing again the ensemble has entered as if it’s the start of Helpless again and Eliza and Peggy do the double twirl intertwine thing with Angelica as she sings. When she talks about posture, Washington comes in and begins dancing with her. And on “I wanna take him far away from this place” they hit that position when Eliza first sees Hamilton with Washington frozen going to shake hands with Hamilton and Angelica snaps her head to look at him and then at Eliza like on the “boom” part of Helpless. Eliza grabs Angelica and pulls her downstage to confide with her and keeps checking on Hamilton while Angelica sings. When she realizes three fundamental truths Angelica crosses over to the stairs where she meets Hamilton and starts bringing him down to meet Eliza. When she talks about her only job Hamilton and Eliza turn upstage as she sings and the ensembles doing their thing. Then they do the whole “my sister” thing and when Angelica starts in about number two, Hamilton stands still in a spotlight as she talks about him. Then the ensemble men form a line with Hamilton and when Angelica says “I introduce him to Eliza” the ensemble men pose around Ham and turn him towards Eliza. Then on the “I know my sister like I know my own mind” Ham exits and Eliza crosses the stage to Peggy and then they meet Angelica in the center and redo the part with the letters where Angelica snatches them away and the ensemble girls do the thing where they hold up the letters for him to sign, but he doesn’t sign them this time.
And when Angelica talks about her fantasies at night Ham is downstage in a spotlight (I think) and Eliza is in the opposite upstage corner in a spotlight, whole ensemble has left the stage. When she gets to “at least my dear Eliza’s his wife” Eliza has come downstage to meet Peggy and put the letters in the box. Then when they repeat the whole “to the bride to the groom” lyrics Washington and Ham are doing their pep talk on the turntable and that ensemble guy is doing his swirl on the floor in forward motion around Angelica and Eliza comes by and kisses her cheek and turns out of that and meets Hamilton in the center and they kiss on “union” and on “the hope that you provide” Eliza and Ham move to the spot they started Satisfied in and the ensemble moves around Angelica into their semi circle toast positions. And when the chorus repeats “always”, after her, they all raise their glasses like we’re back at the beginning of the song. Eliza comes to Angelica on “and I know she’ll be happy as his bride” and they have a sister moment. And on her “and I know” riff, Alexander walks past, following Eliza, but he pauses in front of Angelica and looks at her for a moment before continuing offstage with Eliza, leaving Angelica onstage by herself, glass still raised in the center of the stage, all of our hearts broken. Fade to black.
