I got to be in the room where it happens

The second in a (very) occasional series of musical reviews...

In my previous post in this series, I mentioned that I was generally more of a fan of classic musicals, with three notable modern exceptions - Les Mis, Matilda and Hamilton.  For the last of these I was initially aware of the general fuss coming across the Atlantic, but had generally dismissed it because a) Americans are like that and b) why would I want to watch "a hip-hop musical"?  However, my daughters got into it in a big way so I dipped into it and saw it possibly shouldn't be quite so swiftly dismissed, but didn't particularly get into it until we sat down and watched the original Broadway cast version on Disney+ last year.  Watching that, the intricate staging elevated the impressive content for me and so I was (finally) a proper Hamilton fanboyI

And so, in a moment of mid-pandemic financial disregard (and you REALLY have to disregard them finances) we booked a "post-pandemic" (oh, the irony!) celebration for the four of us to go and see it in London. And so last night, finally, after what felt like an age of telling Isobel "you know you can't sing along to all of it, don't you?", we all headed in to the Victoria Palace theatre for an evening out!  Half the restaurants in the area experiencing technical issues or being short-staffed made for a slightly fraught start to the evening, but Browns stepped up to the mark to further lighten our wallets, followed by the theatre's bar and merch stand - which meant we reached our seats with excitement heightened whilst financially lightened (it's a good job the next couple of months are bound to be cheap ones, eh?).  And down went the lights...

And in the words of Mr Clydesdale (who flew his whole family over from NI to see it - so will be scoffing at my frankly pathetic complaints of financial stress) "yeah, it was OK, I guess".  Well, actually I'm possibly more of the opinion it was an amazing show from start to finish with some truly outstanding moments in it.  I'm not going to provide a deep-dive into the whole show (because we'd be here for hours), but my high level comments are that it's obvious a fiendishly difficult musical to stage with approximately a billion words, often delivered at a breathtaking pace whilst performing some reasonably complicated movement/dance and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

For any show where the original cast is so well known, any alternative cast is inevitably going to invite comparisons and, whilst I will attempt to keep this to a minimum, it's almost impossible not to for the title role but I think Karl Queensborough did a pretty good job at making the role his own, although as the show went on his make-up made him look more like Lin-Manuel Miranda which was somewhat uncanny.  However, he didn't put a foot, word or note wrong in an impressive performance.

And so, having said I will attempt to keep comparisons with the original cast to a minimum, let's move on to Simon-Anthony Rhoden in the role of Aaron Burr.  Although he's obviously not the show's protagonist (is he the antagonist or the deuteragonist though?), I personally think it's a more interesting role, offering more light and dark in the character and, quite possibly, the best songs as well.  And well, your man absolutely knocked it out of the park with a sensational performance - a beautiful voice married with a nuanced delivery, bringing out your sympathy for what could be a very unsympathetic character.  Lesley Odom Who?!?

The rest of the cast were all great as well - I'll mention Emile Ruddock as Mulligan/Madison and Waylon Jacobs as Lafayette/Jefferson as stand-outs for me but everyone will have their favourites.  Ava Brennan as Angelica and Sharon Rose as Eliza also deserve credit for playing the main female roles well in such a maelstrom of testosterone.  Personally, I wasn't such a fan of Harry Hepple's slightly different take on King George, but there's no denying he brought the humour in the role out and the audience engaged well with it.  In fact, throughout the show, the audience were obviously out to have a good time and I really felt it helped raise the performances.  And finally, the ensemble cast also deserve a mention - a lot of those people are on stage an awful lot in nondescript costumes so they never get to stand out, but they're always contributing.

The show's set is impressive - but what West End show these days doesn't have an impressive set?  The audience simply wouldn't stand for it, I tell you.  It doesn't have a lot to do though - a few moving staircases and a load of tables and chairs that come on and off at will and that's your lot really.  However, the thing that really elevates the setting is the rotating floor - the way this is used throughout is really impressive and if you haven't seen it in action, then check it out on Disney+.  As far as I'm aware from a single viewing of last night's show, it worked in pretty much the same way in London and was more impressive seen live (and yes, I know the show is "live" as well, but it's just not the same!).  The highlight of the floor's performance for me was "Hurricane" - it really did some heavy lifting in that scene!

It's hard to pick out specific highlights of the show, but I feel the need to try so let's start with "Helpless"/"Satisfied" which tells the story of the same scene from Eliza and Angelica's viewpoint - their performances were great at conveying their different emotions to the same moments, but the incredibly clever choreography involved to rewind the scene through the second song really elevates the whole thing.  "It's Quiet Uptown" also deserve a mention for resulting in many tears amongst the Reed women in the audience - I'm made of sterner stuff obviously but it was definitely an emotional moment.  And finally, I'd call out "The Room Where It Happens" - in a catalogue of impressive performances from Simon-Anthony Rhoden, Aaron Burr's FOMO really came through in spades here during an extremely physical routine.

Any gripes?  I'd say some of the songs in the second half could be a bit shorter - I realise they're there for historical story-telling reasons, but I'm not sure they all needed quite so many verses.  I think my major gripe would be the surprising low-key ending to the show which doesn't really give the performers an opportunity to grab individual plaudits - they all line up, bow a few times to their standing ovation and then they're gone.  Yes, I can see that it could easily increase the length of the show by ten minutes but by that point you really feel like they've earned it.

However, these are obviously very minor gripes in the context of an absolutely breath-taking evening out - it's an incredible show which deserves all the awards it received (and more) and the London cast definitely gave it the performance it deserved, leaving this family and the rest of the audience exhilarated.  If you get a chance to see it, then I thoroughly recommend you do so.

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