As you can see, “Hamilton” portrays lots of amazing concepts and ideas, but you might be wondering what it looks like on stage. The first thing I noticed what the intense black mass of stage lights hanging from the fly system. As a former Lighting Crew member in Players, I couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of design work and manual labor it took to get those up there. Each lighting cue was precise and they did what they had to do—set the mood. While sticking to a similar color palette, the lights take the audience to a pub, city square, inside houses, offices and more. It was so crucial to have a strong lighting design, since the set was a blank slate with tables, desks, seats, blocks and other moving set pieces to create rooms. Nevertheless, it was breathtaking. There’s nothing like a two-story wooden set with movable stairs and two turntables. Really, there’s nothing like it.
The immense amount of talent on stage completely knocked me out. With an all-star cast including Jonathan Groff, Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Leslie Odom Jr., and Christopher Jackson, there’s no going wrong. Not to mention the guy who wrote the book, music, and lyrics, is playing Hamilton. That’s just something you do not see very often on Broadway! And because he runs the whole thing, Miranda holds shows known as “Ham4Ham” where cast members perform parodies, tributes, swap roles with each other, and bring in casts of other Broadway shows. They have recently made these shows strictly online to widen the types of content that can be found in the videos.
In conclusion, “Hamilton” is an amazing example of how all these forms of art come together to create something truly incredibly onstage. It is revolutionizing the way we interact with a show and shattering the stereotypes that come along with the words “Broadway musical.”