things about hamilton you should know
before the show, king george comes over the speaker in character and tells everyone to silence their cell phones and to “enjoy my show”
the ensemble in incredible, like one point they literally throw a stool across the stage and catch it. they do all of the shifts and move everything. they are always standing or sitting on the side or on the top of the set watching/participating in every scene. it’s incredible.
the flow in alexander hamilton is insane. and the whole show. everyone moves at the perfect timing and its so interesting to watch at all times
the turntable is the coolest thing.
the lighting for the whole show in probably one of the best parts. every cue is perfectly timed and it changes at the best times. it adds to the storyline tremendously.
the choreography in my shot is incredible. there’s one part when hamilton is standing in the middle of the turntable on “for the first time i’m thinking past tomorrow” and the ensemble all lunges towards him and then on “and i am” the lights change and then all jump back and it looks absolutely incredible.
at the beginning of schuyler sisters, peggy is literally being dragged on by her sisters. it really seems like she’s the annoying little sister.
at the end of schuyler sisters, the movement on the turntable is so cool because the different layers of the circle are all going in different directions and the cast is walking on it and the lighting and ugh it just looked unreal.
whenever the king walks, he walks so slowly and he like waddles. it’s the funniest thing ever. he also always carries his cane and uses it during his songs and i’m crying he’s the funniest part of the show.
during the boom’s during right hand man, the lights flash really bright like an explosion onstage
when burr says “martha washington named her feral tomcat after him”, hamilton jumps forwards and says “that’s true” and it’s a really cute funny moment
during helpless these candles on tables roll out and it’s really pretty and then at the beginning of satisfied they roll back during the rewind and it looks like they’re being sucked back and it’s really cool
as you probably know when they rewind in satisfied they literally walk in reverse and dance in reverse and hamilton and eliza kiss in reverse and ugh it’s the coolest thing ever and they keep going until they reach the beginning of helpless
SATISFIED IS INCREDIBLE that’s it.
in story of tonight reprise they’re all so drunk and it’s the funniest thing ever
washington is literally hamilton’s dad even moreso in person
in wait for it the ensemble sits in chairs and it’s just so powerful
after “immigrants, we get the job done” everyone applauds!!!
yorktown is HYPE. like the lights, the CHOREOGRAPHY, woowow. i could watch that number all day everyday and not get sick of it.
in yorktown the ensemble moves all of these chairs and boxes onstage and it looks literally like the world is being turned upside down and then at the end they all stand on them
when king george goes “i’m so blue” he stomps his foot and the lights all turn blue
there’s one scene in between dear theodosia and non-stop when laurens dies and he comes onstage off to the side and is singing parts of story of tonight like “i may not live to see our glory” and eliza is reading a letter from laurens’ dad, and then laurens sings “tomorrow there’ll be more of us” really slowly and it’s beautiful and then eliza says “alexander are you alright?” and he says “I have so much work to do” and BOOM hamilton jumps away and AFTER the war i went BACK to new york
in non-stop when they’re talking about the federalist papers they bring 3 empty chairs onstage that are facing upstage, and hamilton sits in the furthest upstage one. as they say “john jay got sick after writing 5″ etc, ensemble members turn the chairs around as if to show they’re empty
at the beginning of the non-stop all-skate washington is on rolling stairs and when he goes “history has its eyes on youuuu” they roll him center stage with a spot on him
I AM NOT THROWING AWAY MY SHOT BLACKOUT!!!
when jefferson said “uh… france” he added a “duh” in there
at the end of what’d i miss, washington goes “mr. jefferson welcome home” and then hamilton pretty much pushes him out of the way to say “mr. jefferson, alexander hamilton” and it’s v funny and classic
when washington says “you could’ve been anywhere in the world tonight” he like involves the audience and jefferson does a thing where he’s like “let’s hear it” and it kind of breaks the fourth wall
“doin whatever the hell it is you do in monticello” hamilton bounces around in a circle like a dork
at the beginning of take a break philip and eliza are sitting at a piano on the turntable and philip is squirming like a little kid would that didn’t want to play piano.
at the beginning of say no to this, maria enters and is walking around the turntable and it’s almost like she’s taunting hamilton
hamilton and maria only kiss once during the scene, which makes the kiss so much more powerful
everything about the room where it happens was incredible. i cannot say enough positive things about it.
when hamilton goes “wait for it, wait for it, wait”, he mimics burr singing wait for it
at one point in room where it happens the lights form a colorful circle within a square over the table and UGH the lights in this number were UNREAL.
IT WAS JUST SOO GOOD and after the click boom people applauded for like an hour
in one last time, during the part when washington sings about the fig tree, they project a light on him and it’s textured and looks like a tree and his voice is so good and it’s such a beautiful moment
i know him is so funny because king george is so confused at the beginning and he has this evil laugh at the end omfg
when hamilton says “sit down john, you fat mother -” he is standing on the upper balcony thing and he drops this HUGE stack of papers on from it and there’s all of these flashing lights
when jefferson says “my god” in the reynolds pampHlet he makes this face of disbelief and it’s hysterical
THE LIGHTS DURING HURRICANE LOOK LIKE IT’S A HURRICANE AND I ALMOST SCREAMED FROM THE HOUSE BECAUSE IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL
the ensemble is moving all different objects during hurricane an it looks like a hurricane onstage and wowowoowowow this number was really cool
THE REYNOLDS PAMPHLET. king george is off to the side and he is reading it and he gets so excited and he comes onstage and is dancing and throwing papers and jefferson is literally throwing papers all over the stage and it’s hysterical in a sad way
at the end of the song there’s hundreds of papers all over the stage and the ensemble picks up all of the papers as fast as they can before eliza comes out for burn
eliza brings out a lantern with a candle and a stack of letters, and she lights them on fire and puts one into a bucket and then she puts more into it and you can see the fire come out of the bucket and then after she goes offstage you could smell the smoke from it, it was legit
philip literally interrupts a play within a play, there’s ensemble members performing a play onstage and when philip comes in and interrupts it in blow us all away the “actors” stop and look really confused and frustrated
stay alive reprise is the saddest thing EVER. when eliza comes onstage she is wearing a black coat and she cries out “nooooo!” and the lights go on her and she runs over to philip and hamilton “is he breathing is he going to survive this” and it brought tears to my eyes
when he dies, eliza SCREAMS this bloodcurdling scream and ugh
when eliza forgives hamilton in its quiet uptown, she takes his hand, and she speaks for the first time in the song when she says “it’s quiet uptown” and it’s a beautiful moment, and they say “forgiveness”
when burr says “i’m chasing what i want, and i learned that from you” a weird realization goes across the whole audience and its a weird sort of burn
burr and jefferson stand facing the house and look up when hamilton is saying “the people are asking to hear my voice” and burr looks hopeful and jefferson looks smug and when he says “jefferson has my vote” burr’s face subtly turns to shock and jefferson does this little victory dance
burr fires at hamilton and then an ensemble member comes onstage and pretends to hold the bullet as hamilton has his moment “i imagine death so much it feels more like a memory”
in who lives who dies who tells your story, eliza is the main character, she is focused on, and is forward the whole time
ELIZA IS A CINNAMON ROLL.
at the very end of wlwdwtys, eliza gasps, and i think it’s so powerful, because it’s almost like she sees the audience and she sees how she has told his story and how his legacy has continues
OVERALL. this show is insane. everything about it is above and beyond. note i saw this show with the original broadway cast (except jonathan groff) on may 26, 2016. the hamilton hype is real, i promise.
feel free to send me any questions you may have about anything from the show, i’d love to talk about it!
IF YOU CAN, GO SEE IT. IT’S WORTH IT.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
amandla
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
