Don’t expect this to be your usual theater review. Theater isn’t my first language. More importantly, I broke my live performances fast with a production of the smash hit Hamilton. There aren’t enough superlatives in the newest edition of Merriam-Webster’s dictionary to adequately describe the veritable feast my eyes and ears enjoyed at last night’s performance.
Were the songs well-written? Well, yeah — Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote them, for crying out loud! Were the costumes pleasing to behold? Yes, it’s freaking Hamilton. Was there an electricity in the packed venue? Yes, the audience was at a Grizzlies-playoff-game level of excitement.
The set design is versatile, and with a little rearranging of furniture and adjusting of lights, a new scene can be conjured. It could have been a black box, though, and I would have been just as entertained. If the cast didn’t bring their “A” game to a chilly Wednesday-night performance in Memphis, I certainly couldn’t tell. The technical skill it takes to pull off some of these songs is impressive, to say the least, but to deliver at that level while also infusing the performance with emotion and hitting all the choreography is another thing entirely.
Paul Oakley Stovall, playing the part of George Washington, was the standout performance for me. Stovall delivered his lines effortlessly, as if he were tossing them to the audience as an afterthought. It takes a lot of work to make something look that easy.
In short, believe the hype. Six years after its world premiere, Hamilton can still capture and hold an audience’s attention. But beware — viewing this production may cause side effects, like humming the refrain from “The Reynolds Pamphlet” long after the final curtain.
Hamilton is at the Orpheum Theatre through Sunday, January 2nd.
