By now you’ve probably sung along to the soundtrack for Hamilton: The Musical around a million times because your mom won’t play anything else. (Note from Mom: Yes, it’s sort of inappropriate, right from the first sentence, but I considered it to be somewhat of a historical education!) Well, I didn’t know that during all those months of non stop listening to songs like “The Schuyler Sisters,” “My Shot,” and of course, “Alexander Hamilton,” my mom secretly had bought us tickets for the night of my birthday. (Note from Mom: They weren’t cheap! J ) Whenever she played the songs, she would start talking about how impossible it was to get tickets, and how each one costs like a thousand dollars, blah blah blah. Then on my 8th birthday, I came back from camp to find a scavenger hunt that led to tickets for that night. I was really surprised and it took a while for me to believe we were actually going to Hamilton that night.
When we got to the theater there was a really long line and my mom’s friend Lisa was also there because she’s the one who got my mom into it and my mom wanted to treat her too. She came all the way from North Carolina and kept saying stuff like, “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this! This is real!” Everyone on the line seemed super excited and my mom was too. She kept telling me that one day I would know what a great birthday present she gave me and told me that I needed to understand that seeing the original cast was a huge deal.
From the minute the first song started, “Alexander Hamilton,” everyone started screaming so loud you could barely hear the play. It was amazing to be there and to hear in person what I had been listening to for months. Every single one of the actors was amazing and they sounded exactly like they do on the album. It’s hard to pick a favorite character…I loved Phillipa Soo as Eliza and her voice and dresses were so pretty! Daveed Diggs as the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson was amazing and I couldn’t believe how fast he can sing! Of course, Lin Manuel Miranda as Hamilton was incredible, he was funny and made it fun to learn about America’s history without having to be in school!
So, would I say the play was worth the hype? Definitely (Note from Mom: Yeah, especially if you aren’t the one paying for the tickets! LOL). The music, costumes and dancing are all amazing and all the actors are very good at what they do. It’s also a lot of fun because everyone in the audience is obviously so happy to be there and you can clap and cheer along with them. Hopefully tickets won’t be so expensive in the near future!
We decided to continue the Hamilton-themed summer so a few days ago we went to the Hamilton Grange, the only house that Alexander Hamilton ever owned, and it’s right here in New York City, on West 141 Street. It’s a really pretty, big yellow house that doesn’t look like it belongs where it is. The Hamiltons moved there in 1802. At that time a lot of rich people lived in Harlem Heights in the summertime because it was cooler (as in temperature) than downtown. They had a lot of parties there and we got to go into the actual rooms where they would eat and hang out together. Some of the furniture and silver dinner items were the original pieces that they actually used. It was really cool to be there. We weren’t allowed to go upstairs and when I asked why, the Ranger said there was nothing really interesting to see there and said that they have their offices up there. Here’s there website: https://www.nps.gov/hagr/index.htm Go check it out – It’s a great way to learn about Alexander Hamilton, without spending a penny! So if you can’t get to the show, you can do something even better…you can be in the actual “Room Where it Happened!”
