A Modest Review of Hamilton

Normally the tickets are $316 to see this musical adaptation of Alexander Hamilton's life.  But Barb and a number of the folks we talked to down in rows one and two, got tickets for $10 each.  They have a lottery every day for 44 tickets at the $10 rate.

Barb almost deleted the email, but paused and read it, revealing the prize.  So off we went via Bart down to Powell street, had an early dinner in the food court below the Westfield Center, then back to Bart for a one station hop to the Civic Center station.  That last Bart hop is not as easy as it sounds as the trains were full and we had to wait for a second train to squeeze in.  It was about 5:30 at that point and apparently a lot of folks are moving around, in, and out of the city.

The Orpheum theater is at the entrance to the Bart station.  We popped out and there we were.  There were people all dressed up for this event.  But it's California and just about everything goes.  One of the posters for the show was at street level and we got in line to take selfies in front of it.

The doors opened 15 minutes later and the actual show room opened soon after that.  Our seats were in the second row, center.  It was a neck cracking position to view a play.  Oh, sure you could see sweat and spit arch into the lights and the wrinkles on the actors, but you needed to lower the head on occasion.

The play has generated some controversy, probably more back east than in San Francisco.  I was a bit put off by the actors' antics and I was more than willing to avoid that show.  The cast was mostly black and a lot of the songs were somewhat in "rap" style.  Those items were fine, but it was hard for me to understand a lot of the lyrics.  The music was good and we had a close view of the director/keyboard player.  She was quite animated and banged away for a solid two hours.

The play covered Hamilton's brief life as he came to New York, met most of the principals of the revolution, fought the war, was Treasury Secretary under Washington and then fell from grace due to an old affair brought to light by his political opponents.  He lost his son to an honor duel in New Jersey ("Everything is legal in New Jersey."), then he endorsed Jefferson over Burr and that led to his own demise, also in NJ.

I think it would have been very interesting if the "book" had dealt with some of the policy issues that survive to this day.  The second amendment issues, the role of strong central government versus states' rights, etc.  Slavery got a brief mention.  But mostly it was a lot of long songs and dancing dealing with Hamilton's complicated life.  It portrayed him as a bit flaky, though bright, hard working and somewhat doomed by those traits.

We got home about midnight, very late for a golfer!   It left with an interest in doing some reading about Hamilton, which I see as a positive outcome.