Grave of Alexander Hamilton
Trinity Church, Manhattan NYC
Photo by Lisa Hirsch
Last week in Chicago I finally got to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, the most acclaimed musical of the last several years.
I liked the show; the songs are good and the words are very clever. There's more music than talk, giving Hamilton a somewhat operatic air, although it's not through composed in the fashion of modern operas (well. most operas since Wagner). The actors were excellent; I liked the staging and choreography and costumes a lot.
I had asked on Twitter whether I should get to know the score before I saw the show, and the responses I got were about evenly divided, so I winged it. This was a mistake: there are a lot of words in the show and they come at you very fast. I probably caught about 75-80%, not nearly enough for a show with complex characters and an intricate story to tell. My error, for sure.
Unlike nearly everyone I know who has seen Hamilton, I was not blown away by it. For one thing, the amplification of the singers and the orchestra of eleven was extremely wearing, even though it was done about as well as it can be (no distortion, volume under control).
Still, when singers are amplified, you lose directionality and dimensionality: there's a homogenizing, flattening effect and. you can't tell where the voices are coming from. This means that when singers' voices are similar, you can't tell who is singing, a real problem in a show like this. It also sucks when a full-orchestra crescendo is done by turning up the volume, not to mention, why amplify such a tiny ensemble? And...why is the harpsichord effect on the pit keyboard so terrible?
I also think the show has a couple of dramaturgical mistakes:
1. Act I really should end with the Battle of Yorktown number. It's a big number, it's an up number, it sounds like the end of an act....but the show goes on for two more numbers, inexplicably. (A friend tells me that Miranda has commented on why the Act ends when it does.)
2. Act II ends with a quiet number that is one of the weakest numbers in the show, musically and dramatically. It's possible to end a music-theatrical work quietly; I can think of an opera or two that ends like this, but....this only works with a really strong number. The last number isn't that.
So, it was fun to see; I'd see it again on TV or in a theater broadcast or on DVD....but I'd glad I didn't pay Bayreuth prices to see this, as excellent as the cast is and as original as a hip-hop musical about the US Founding Fathers with a multiracial cast is.
2 comments:
Thanks for the review. I wanted to go see it at the Pantages last year but the ticket prices were insane and they were almost impossible to get any way. Totally agree about the amplification issue and that's from someone who has been to Metallica and Iron Maiden concerts! :-)
BTW, I know one of your ongoing criticisms is how arts orgs lay out their upcoming schedules. I've been doing my usual "Excel sheet with everything I want to go to on the planet" thing, and I came across this today:
https://www.slso.org/globalassets/ticketing/series/20-season-grid.pdf
THAT is how you do it! Clean, easy to read, not bundled in to subscription packages that make it tough to see what is playing when etc. Bonus: a good representation of female composers and conductors. On the other hand, I went through the Concertgebouw's schedule (the concert hall, not the orchestra) last night, it was horrible to get through.
The Battle of Yorktown is a big, fun number, and I agree that it really feels like an act-closer, but not for a musical so focused on one character. Closing with the winning of the war gives it an outsized importance. I like bringing the focus back to Hamilton's personal life and I think it does a good job of setting the audience up for Act 2 (as does the second King George song).
My problem with the final number is that it made me want to hear a musical about Eliza's life, though def not one written by LMM. Removing her from the last quarter of the story was a cop out, as was having her last big song be her saying she won't say anything (rather than getting her actual perspective).
I liked the musical from the cast recording, but didn't connect emotionally with it until I saw it. I'm glad it's gotten such a great response, but I've also not really listened to the recording since I saw it and I'm skipping the current run in SF.
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