Returning to Houston for the first time since the sold-out 2018 run, Hamilton brought Houstonians racing back to the theater as part of Broadway At The Hobby Center’s 2021-2022 season. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony award-winning hip-hop retelling of Alexander Hamilton’s biography combines history, music, and dance into a show you won’t soon forget. Houston is home to the Angelica cast, one of three Hamilton national tours, through March 20th, with many performances nearly sold-out already. The producers are hosting a Ham-4-Ham lottery for 40 $10 tickets to each performance for those that might not be able to afford the show otherwise (more details below). Whether or not the audience is familiar with the production through the Disney+ filming of the original Broadway production, seeing Hamilton live brings a completely unique experience. From start to finish, Hamilton provides non-stop music and drama without a single dull moment.
Anyone familiar with the original cast recordings of Hamilton knows the rhythm and flow of the songs and the show as a whole. However, seeing the performance live puts much of what is heard into context and enhances it with Tony Award-winning choreography, lighting, and scenic design. Each of the actors in the current Angelica cast bring their own ebb and flow to their songs, remaining consistent with the composer’s desires without simply replicating the movie and soundtrack renditions. This had its pros and cons throughout the show as some songs were adapted to better fit the emotions and voices of the actors, while others, maybe due to lack of experience with rapping, felt a bit abrupt and rigid even in their more ballad-like songs. The energy brought by the entire cast helps drive the three-hour-long show through to the very last note, whether a fast-paced war rap, a jazzy character intro, or a heart-wrenching ballad.
The production elements of Hamilton are mostly minimal, while providing incredible thoughtfulness in their uses. The lighting is used extensively to draw the audiences attention, build environments, and isolate characters and places. From the sharp aisle-like lighting paths for characters to walk through to the bullseye lighting on the counter-rotating platforms on stage, its hard for even a non-lighting enthusiast to not notice the features. The set is minimal: an open centerstage surrounded by an elevated walkway around the edges topped off with ship-like rope features and under-construction brick walls. In interviews with set designer David Korins, he expressed that the inspiration for the design is the country that the founding fathers are building, hence the work-in-progress walls. All of the individual scenes are constructed with few set pieces such as chairs and desks being whisked in and out by leads and ensemble members alike.
Whether this is your first chance to experience Hamilton or you have every single lyric and dance move memorized from the Disney+ recording, Hamilton at the Hobby Center is a must-see performance while it is in town. To enter the Ham-4-Ham $10 ticket lottery, visit http://hamiltonmusical.com/lottery or use the Hamilton app to enter by noon Thursday for the following week’s performances. Hamilton is on-stage at the Hobby Center through March 20th from Tuesday-Sunday. For more information about Hamilton and upcoming Broadway at the Hobby Center shows, please visit Houston.Broadway.com. For more Theater updates, tune into my KTRU specialty show “Showstoppers” weekly on Sundays from 1:45 to 2:45 pm on air and online at ktru.org.
