#HAMILTONCHI thoughts

ok so i saw hamilton almost a month ago (9/29/16) and it’s taken me this long to formulate my thoughts because i just have so much to say and frankly i couldn’t emotionally process it



this isn’t a review but i did talk a lot about the changes from the OBC (i’ve never seen it in NYC so i’m going off of what i know from the OBCR and released clips), also i saw literally the 3rd time the chicago cast performed for an audience, technically before opening night (previews), so keep that it mind

it’s. Really long so i organized everything by song and bolded the really important stuff / what i think you’ll find most interesting. i may try and cull it down a bit more to do a more coherent review but for now you can just browse through my ramblings

(under the cut because, guys, it’s long.)

Alexander Hamilton



king george’s lil bit at the beginning was cute, he voiced the whole “turn off your cell phones” bit that plays when the lights go down and he was all “welcome to my play”

people GASPED at the opening chords

burr sounded like he was giving a history lecture during the first verse? it had a very different tone than leslie’s hype man delivery

hamilton opened from stage left instead of center which was interesting, he wasn’t immediately singled out, he blended in among the ensemble for most of the number

hamilton seemed very unassuming

the “moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide” staging was genius (a chorus member stood on a chair and mimed hanging himself) but lagging a tiny bit

i loved how they mocked a table for hamilton to write on, ensemble carried a plank of wood and acted as the legs of the table themselves



Aaron Burr, Sir

burr and hamilton’s interactions here were so cute… hamilton was so eager



laurens had the BEST stage presence, like everyone knows that kid, the one who gets way too into being the emcee at the middle school talent show



lafayette’s accent left something to be desired tbh



“time to take a shot!” visual pun (where they all take shots of alcohol at that line) didn’t land well, it looked like they were rushing through the staging

My Shot

the disparity between hamilton’s verse and the ones before it (laurens, lafayette, mulligan) is so clear live, you really get the sense of “wow this kid is something special” from the internal rhyme scheme



laf/laurens/mulligan were like fawning over everything hamilton said, like he was a prophet or something



hamilton sang “eventually you’ll see my descendancy” instead of ascendency, which was a bit of dramatic irony



lafayette’s “how you say: anarchy?” was the highlight of his performance, for the rest of the act it seemed like he was struggling to stay in that place



laurens had his arm around hamilton when he was talking about his all black battalion



at “show me where the ammunition is!” the lights blacked out and spotlighted hamilton, you could see him reverting back to the awkward, unsure energy with “i never had a group of friends before”



the line “i never thought i’d live past 20, where i come from some get half as many” immediately resonated w/ me as a trans kid, and then i started thinking about it in other contexts (like police brutality against black youth in the US) and i fucking lost it, that’s the first time i cried during the show



The Story Of Tonight

again, hamilton sounded like he was a prophet giving a sermon or something, and the crew was totally enraptured– a total transformation from his awkward “sometimes i get over-excited” in the last scene



not really a show-stopping number, it had to be set up to make the reprise work but it did feel a little stilted, like a break in the natural flow of the story



The Schuyler Sisters

the awkwardness in the air during the line “there’s nothing rich folks love more than going downtown and slumming it with the poor” was PALPABLE in the gentrified as hell audience



peggy was so cute and pouty… she’s way more of a bigger part of the scene than the recording lets on



someone hands angelica a pamphlet during the line “new ideas in the air…” and she’s reading it and only really joining in the singing distractedly until “i been reading common sense by thomas paine”



angelica basically reverse-mansplained the declaration of independence to burr and it was beautiful



Farmer Refuted

honestly this was the weakest number by far, it was much more impressive on the recording



samuel seabury didn’t sing his verses the whole way through the 2nd time so the genius of the overlapping rhymes was pretty much lost



the bit with the soapbox was funny, but the best lines (“is he in jersey?”) fell flat, didn’t get big laughs from the crowd



You’ll Be Back

y’all i usually skip over the king george songs in the recording but it was SO GOOD



king george’s choreography was hilarious- he was mostly still until the “da da da” bits when he shimmied his shoulders like really robotically



the scene feels weird in the recording but it makes perfect sense live, you need a little break after 20 straight minutes of establishing hamilton’s character



Right Hand Man

the scene change music here is military drums played by an ensemble member, cut off when two soldiers come up behind him and snap his neck. really jarring choreography, sets the tone for a much more serious scene after the comedic relief of king george



this is the first scene where they really take advantage of the multiple stage levels, with the ground floor being the soldiers and the risers full of civilians



washington’s hype man gets me every time honestly “THE PRIDE OF MOUNT VERNON”



i was really skeptical going into this because i couldn’t imagine anyone else but christopher jackson as washington, jonathan kirkland brought a different energy that took a bit to get used to, but he was great. less of the older, dignified general and more kicking ass and taking names



so when the chorus responds “ooh ooh ooh” to washington’s lines, i always imagined them all like jumping up and raising their hands like “ooh pick me!” after washington says “i’m gonna need a right hand man”, but actually they were surrounding him shooting off guns



there were no prop guns, it was all mimed. i believe they took the prop guns out of the NYC production after the pulse shooting? looks like they decided to keep that



burr doesn’t react at ALL to washington’s “close the door on your way out” burn, IDK if i was reading into it but i felt like i could see him like take a beat to breathe and put on a poker face, a la “wait for it”



the moment where washington is offering hamilton a quill and the entire chorus is singing “i am not throwing away my shot…” is the second time i cried



A Winter’s Ball

hamilton is so proud when he turns to the audience like “that’s true!” it’s so dorky



i heard that hamilton and burr were going around greeting different women during the “hey! hey! hey!” bit but they actually were just being super cheeky

Helpless

i’m gonna be honest ari afsar is no phillipa soo and her voice definitely isn’t as strong, but she brought the same adorable energy that just makes you root for her



i thought the line was “wind to the rhythm as we wine and dine” but it’s VERY clear she’s saying grind to the rhythm lmao the ensemble is all up on each other



when eliza and hamilton first meet they’re talking face-to-face which seems deliberate because in all the other interactions hamilton has he’s standing next to someone but singing his line out into the audience, with eliza there’s this immediate sense of intimacy



miguel cervantes (hamilton) has such an endearing voice like he could be singing about how he hates puppies and i’d still be like he is the cutest boy i have ever seen….



mulligan as the flower boy is adorable



eliza and hamilton’s first kiss is super overeager and a bit awkward on purpose i think



Satisfied

karen olivo brings an r&b quality to angelica’s voice that really grew on me



watching eliza and hamilton’s introduction again with the context of angelica’s inner monologue is legit heartbreaking



i LOVE how this song basically turns hamilton’s snarky comment of “haha i’ll choose which schuyler sister to marry” right on its head and gives angelica all the agency



angelica is almost tripping over herself in the verses where she’s explaining her thought process, it’s chaotic but methodical at the same time



there were chandeliers lighting the scene and at the line “it’s like ben franklin with a key and a kite” they all flickered on and off it was really beautiful



“he was right, you will never be satisfied” is like a knife in the gut



i imagined the toast being delivered with a lot of venom- especially “may you always be satisfied”, like she’s using hamilton’s words to warn him not to try any shit, but it didn’t have any bitterness, it was her genuine wish for their marriage to succeed and somehow that hurts even more



The Story of Tonight (Reprise)

this was super cute and i really needed it after getting my heart torn out by angelica



the “raise a glass to freedom, something you will never see again” line still bothers me, why is straight culture like this



miguel delivered the “oh shit.” line perfectly! it always felt a bit off too me in the recording but it was hilarious live



you can feel the burr/hamilton divide deepening with “i will never understand you” and it’s like watching a car crash in slow motion



Wait For It

burr is completely still for most of the song, not even moving his hands or anything. just standing still, and the ensemble is sitting in chairs watching him, not moving either



the energy builds over the song and the chorus even joins in with the echoes, you think it’s going to explode with the last note but burr stops it right before it bursts and all the orchestration cuts out



Stay Alive

eliza and the other women are on the risers again and singing “stay alive…” while watching the action unfold downstage



laurens has his arm around hamilton when he sings “every day’s a test of our camaraderie and bravery”… they’re gay harold



the scene is unfolding across the whole stage and then all the lights go out except for a spotlight on charles lee when he delivers his rant



laurens and hamilton have their faces so close during “laurens, do not throw away your shot” they’re like .2cm away from kissing



Ten Duel Commandments

burr and hamilton really shined in this song even though it was supposed to focus on laurens



the staging for duels is perfect across the show, really impressive choreography and synchronization with the spinning pieces



they do this in a lot of other places too but i LOVE the concept of passing letters down the ensemble like a game of visual telephone? it happens in this song during “leave a note for your next of kin” and the letter travels from laurens across the stage and winding around again through the ensemble



“okay, so we’re doing this” had a different tone than in the recording, burr was. less hesitant? like he wasn’t trying to talk hamilton down from the ledge, he was more trying to psych himself up to it



Meet Me Inside

“you shot him in the side- yes he yields!” is sung with almost this panic in burr’s face? like he’s realizing how horrible duels really are, which just makes it more powerful in the end when he decided a duel is the only way to settle things between him and hamilton



hamilton and laurens embrace each other and hug after the duel, shouting “we won!” and it’s kind of jarring, like dude, you just shot a guy who was on YOUR SIDE of the war anyways



washington takes off his hat and lowers his head to lee when he says “thank you for your service”, it’s such a contrast from hamilton and laurens who are off high fiving each other



washington never looks directly at hamilton when lecturing him, they’re standing right next to each other and delivering lines out into the audience. it feels almost reminiscent of a west wing hallway walk-and-talk, except they’re stationary



when lin manuel miranda says “i’m not your son” it’s a snarky side comment, miguel delivers it much more dramatically, visibly upset instead of a smartass



in the pause after “call me son one more time!” the beat continues and it sounds like when the room is so silent you can hear the blood pumping in your ear



That Would Be Enough

eliza’s baby bump is kinda cheesy ngl, i don’t know that there is a way to show that she’s pregnant that doesn’t look silly tho. she’s out of her signature blue dress and in this flowy maternity gown



i felt like ari afsar’s portrayal of eliza was missing the dimension pippa gave to her character, but i can’t pin down exactly what it was? pippa’s portrayal was a reclamation of the narrative of a Great Man’s Wife who’s only job is to make the protagonist happy, whereas ari kind of played into that archetype



“let this moment be the first chapter where you decide to stay” kicked me in the gut, the delivery of this line made it clear she was talking about hamilton’s suicidal martyr complex, and if he had actually learned the lesson then instead of after the reynold’s pamphlet, he could have avoided a lot of heartbreak.



just typing that out now makes me think of how much angelica and eliza play the cassandra role in this story, warning hamilton to “take a break” and “stay alive” because they know how the story ends, and they’re trying to change it but they can’t because no one will listen



Guns and Ships

the significance of lafayette’s rap representing his adoption of an american identity over a french one was lost because laf kept his accent throughout the whole thing



eliza giving hamilton his jacket when he gets called back up to fight mirrors the opening number where all the schuyler sisters dressed him before he got on the ship to america



History Has Its Eyes On You

washington doesn’t look visibly older than hamilton so this song loses the “wise old man imparts wisdom to up-and-coming protag” element, but it gains a new sense of intimacy? like hamilton and washington are on equal footing now and washington’s advice is coming from a friendly intimacy rather than the mentor/mentee dynamic



Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)

the “if this is the end of me at least i have a friend with me” line hurts because you think he’s talking about his fellow soldiers but nope. his friend his his weapon in his hand. hamilton sucks at intimacy and human relations and it’s literally his fatal flaw



when hamilton sings “laurens is in south carolina redefining bravery” laurens is literally stabbing some red-coat in the throat, i found that amusing



mulligan entered by crashing through the pseudo-curtain the ensemble created with their coats, definitely the best entrance of the show



no one cheered for mulligan’s verse which i thought was strange? idk i think wallace smith doesn’t have oak’s stage presence, that’s something he has to work up to i think. it’s hard because he’s playing completely opposite characters in the two acts and i think he nails madison but he needs to figure out how to tap into the hercules mulligan hype more



washington is standing on the second level watching the battle unfold below him and when he says “not yet.” he almost sounds like the word of god?



What Comes Next

the “i’m so blue” cue came like half a second too late, i think those little gags will flow a lot smoother after a few weeks of performance



instead of drawing out the “your own your owwwwwwwn” and hitting the final sound, king george cuts it off early and does a little condescending laugh, which was perfect



Dear Theodosia

burr and hamilton each have chairs that they sit in and sing directly out into the audience, it’s a very sweet and tender moment but i couldn’t stop thinking about how lin said he wrote this song after he got his puppy



“when you came into the world you cried and it broke my heart” vs “when you smile i am undone, my son” are two very different approaches to parenting and totally match burr’s “life is chaos, you have to make sense of it” and hamilton’s “life is overwhelming, i’m just along for the ride” ethos



“my father wasn’t around, i swear that i’ll be around for you” remember how hamilton and burr both grew up with absent fathers and then both outlived their children :-) theodosia and philip never had to live a day without their father



Laurens Interlude

laurens is right next to hamilton during this scene, like close enough to reach out and touch him and hamilton doesn’t even see him there and it is painful



i’m annoyed that laurens’ dad is the one who gets to talk about laurens’ legacy and unfulfilled dreams? like his father was a slaver and the primary reason why john grew up to be an abolitionist, so to have his father talk about how his dream of an all-black regiment died with him just seems very unfair



the “i have so much work to do” line didn’t get a chance to land, there wasn’t even a beat it just moved right into non-stop



Non-Stop

the courtroom scene was so cute, like hamilton is darting around the whole room preaching to the jury and burr is over with his feet on the desk like “this guy is so extra wtf”



i love the way miguel delivers “i was chosen for the constitutional convention!”, instead of geeking out about it through the whole line he holds it in until he’s screeching the last two words barely audibly he sounds like a total fangirl



burr was not wearing a nightgown when he answered the door for hamilton in the middle of the night, which is what i always imagined lmao. it was a great bit though, especially how hamilton uses flattery to get burr to listen and burr is like “i acknowledge that you don’t mean that but please continue to say nice things about me”



burr really enjoys the bit where he gets to explain his own reasons for waiting to see which way the wind will blow, it’s the self-indulgence he was holding back during wait for it and that he’s gonna totally succumb to in room where it happens



when burr is explaining the federalist papers there’s three chairs onstage representing hamilton, john jay, and madison and burr turns around the first two chairs and they’re empty and then he turns around the third and hamilton is sitting there writing furiously and it honestly reminded me of that scene from the little mermaid where all of triton’s daughters emerge from the clam shells



when all the different motifs converge on hamilton they’re coming from all sides of the stage, like washington is in one corner singing history has it’s eyes on you and angelica and eliza are in another asking what will be enough to make him satisfied and burr is asking hamilton how he writes like he’s running out of time and the chorus is surrounding hamilton singing “i am not throwing away my shot” and hamilton is being pulled every which way



at the end hamilton is holding angelica and eliza’s hands and he pulls away from them one at a time like “i am not throwing away my shot… [drops eliza’s hand] i am not throwing away my shot… [drops angelica’s hand] i am alexander hamilton [runs up the ladder to join washington on the risers] and i am not throwing away my shot [grabs quill from washington]” and then everything blacks out



What’d I Miss

lowkey missed the first verse of this song b/c they started the show like 30 seconds after the lights flashed and people were still moving around and talking when it started



burr seemed more into the narration here, like he was beginning to enjoy himself



chris lee (jefferson) is pretty short so he definitely has a different type of swagger than daveed diggs, he came off more immature than intended (he’s supposed to be a good deal older than the rest of the main cast), like this is a weird comparison but he reminded me of rico from hannah montana



it looked like they only had the white ensemble members in this number (representing jefferson’s slaves)? the ensemble is majority POC but i definitely remember mostly white dancers in the BG here. the ensemble member who was supposed to represent sally hemings was definitely white



jefferson had a noticeable southern drawl, which i enjoyed (it’s not as present in the OBC). it wasn’t super consistent though, like definitely more noticeable on certain lines



Cabinet Battle #1

washington was A+++ as the emcee, he managed to retain the stateliness of washington’s character w/out making it seem ridiculous that the president was hosting a rap battle



the ensemble whooped and hollered for hamilton and jefferson equally, like there weren’t designated ensemble members on either sides



jefferson occasionally slips into this weird baby talk voice? like in “oh, if the shoe fits wear it” he sounds like a kindergarten teacher lecturing his students, it’s very odd



hamilton mocked jefferson’s lil signature dance that he had been doing in the previous number during “whatever the hell it is you do in monticello”, it was a really good impression of him actually



madison was off to the side of the stage coughing and he looked genuinely upset when hamilton dissed him…



madison did sarcastic air quotes around “the thunder” and like gestured at jefferson who was doing his lil jig



hamilton and washington weren’t actually moving around the stage during their little conference at the end which took away from the west wing quality of it



“that’s an order from your commander” was delivered in the exact same way as in act I and i feel like washington meant it in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way but hamilton takes it 100% literally like as if his life (haha) depended on it



Take A Break

eliza and philip on the piano is just as cute as i imagined… eliza is sitting next to philip on the piano and has her hands on his like guiding him



he’s not actually playing the song, it’s either a recording or from the orchestra, couldn’t tell



the piano is on one end of the spinning piece and hamilton’s desk is on the other, so when eliza and philip are facing the audience hamilton has his back turned away, and vice versa



miguel hits the bass notes easier than lin does, his “ambition is my folly” line was smooth as hell



philip wasn’t on his knees like i imagined, it was a little odd to have him the same height as eliza and hamilton but i guess him kneeling down would be just as weird



when eliza sings about her father’s place upstate, she looks out into the audience in this really beautiful and wistful way like she can see it just in front of her and she motions for hamilton to look but he never notices it, his eyes are focused on his desk downstage



angelica is on the highest platform when she’s reading her letter, at “angelica’s arriving today”she rushes down the steps to greet eliza in the exact same position on stage as they were in at the end of the schuyler sisters



hamilton steps in and joins hands with eliza, into the spot where peggy was, and there’s an extra beat before the next line, just long enough for you to notice her absence



the john adams line KILLED, eliza even broke for like a split second



when hamilton is at his desk repeating “i have to get this plan through congress…” angelica and eliza are swirling around him almost like the devil and the angel on his shoulder, where to the audience they’re angels trying to save hamilton, but to him they’re devils of temptation



at “close your eyes and dream when the night gets dark…” eliza and angelica pull hamilton in between him and like lean on him and close their eyes and it’s pretty suggestive, reminded me of that text post where ham is like “HOLY SHIT I JUST REALIZED THEY WERE PROPOSING A THREESOME GTG”



Say No To This

burr looks so fucking smug when he says “we’ll, i’ll let him tell it” like he’s enjoying seeing hamilton fuck up so bad, and hamilton looks totally shameful when he’s narrating



at the beginning of the song when hamilton is narrating maria comes across as this sneaky seductress, but as the narration moves off of hamilton he becomes more and more willing and even aggressive towards maria, the shift in power is crystal clear through the choreography



when the Action goes down hamilton is sitting on a chair and maria is basically giving him a lap dance and i suddenly became very aware of all the old people in the theater around me



james reynolds was wearing this ridiculous fucking hat and i couldn’t take him seriously, idk how to even describe it, it was so bizarre… like something you’d see a duchess wear at a royal wedding



after hamilton pays off reynolds he moves offstage and before he exits he stomps his foot and maria winces and comes running up behind him, it’s a very conscious bit of staging that makes it clear maria was being abused and not blackmailing hamilton of her own volition



The Room Where It Happens

the reason hamilton gives such short answers to burr ¨no… yeah… sure…” is because he’s distracted, still staring at the exit maria left through



hamilton mocks the preacher-like stance burr had during wait for it when he repeats his mantra (“talk less, smile more”)



jefferson has a fucking seating chart and an ensemble member comes up to him with two tablecloths to ask which one he prefers when he’s singing “i arranged the menu, the venue, the seating”



when burr is singing his piece, hamilton/jefferson/madison are frozen in place at the table looking like a portrait, they only come to life when burr addressed hamilton directly (very reminiscent of the cut song “no john trumbull”)



burr is the total antithesis to his “wait for it” persona here, he’s like a disney villain, belting about his woes from tabletops with a host of backup dancers



burr seems almost unhinged when the chorus asks him “what do you want, burr?”, like it’s the first time anyone’s asked him that, the first time he’s consciously considered what he wants and what he’s willing to do to get it



Schuyler Defeated

philip and eliza are on the top level reading the newspaper, when eliza sings “i’m sure he already knows” their lights black out and the main stage lights up, where hamilton is like 2 in away from knocking burr in the teeth



burr and hamilton’s confrontation here is so tense, a really sharp change from just 1 song ago when burr was still trying to buddy-up w/ hamilton– here, he’s actively making an enemy



Cabinet Battle #2

jefferson is holding a mic and when he says “who provided those funds?” he puts the mic over into madison’s face as if they had practiced it, and after madison clears his throat and murmers “france”

jefferson tries to do a mic drop and madison catches it and swaddles it like a baby before going to set it down gently offstage



hamilton mimes checkmating on an invisible chess board during his line about france being king and queenless



he also mimes like taking king louis’ head out of a basket and holding it up by his hair to ask him



hamilton is like puffing himself up after washington sides with him, and jefferson comes over and compliments him and he gets a little more cocky until jefferson DESTROYS him with “you’re nothing without Washington behind you”. it’s a truly devastating burn



Washington On Your Side

for some reason i always thought the beginning of this song was jefferson and madison, but it’s actually jefferson and burr, madison only jumps in after they mention the bill of rights



you get the sense that burr is purposefully stirring up jefferson to set him off against hamilton, like he doesn’t really believe all this shit about washington being in hamilton’s pocket, but he knows it’ll piss off jefferson enough to start shit



chris lee really shines in jefferson’s verse here, it’s almost more impressive than his guns and ships rap



jefferson and madison pose valiantly after “southern motherfucking democratic republicans” and burr trails behind them like half a second, enough to look out of sync with them



One Last Time

this scene is exactly how i imagined, washington is sitting at his desk totally calm and chuckling silently at hamilton pacing frantically around



i feel like washington saying “madison wrote the first draft, it’s a mess” is a sneaky way for washington to get hamilton to work on it, like he’s appealing to hamilton’s undying need to be better than everyone



the arguments hamilton gives (“mr president, they will say you’re weak” “your position is so unique” “why do you have to say goodbye?”) sound less like they’re coming from him and more like he’s prepping washington for the questions he expects he’ll get from the public, it’s a really nice blend of the personal and political relationship b/t the two



ngl i still miss the workshop version… it had some of the best lines of the show and i don’t think it was out of place or anything, idk why it was cut



I Know Him

“are they going to keep on replacing whoever’s in charge” got the biggest laughs of the act



this song REALLY plays off adam’s height which is a bit of a lost joke since we never see him… like if they cut the adams rap b/c it was giving too much time to an off-screen character idk why this one stayed



The Adams Administration

after king george sings “jesus christ this will be fun!” in the last song, he moves onto the rafters on the side of the stage and watches this number gleefully, he even joins in w/ the chorus sometimes



hamilton didn’t throw down as big of a stack of paper on “SIT DOWN, JOHN” as i thought he would? it makes sense cause that shit is hard to clear before the next scene but it took away from the Gravity of what hamilton did



We Know

when hamilton goes “mr vice president, mr madison, senator burr… what is this” i’m reminded of the john mulaney bit about the panic that sets in as you slowly realize a mariachi band is about to play on the subway “oh, a guitar player! oh, another guitar player! oh, an accordion playe- oHHHH NO”



jefferson is enjoying himself so much at the beginning like yas read his ass!



madison is reading reynolds’ letter and jefferson like pops up from behind him to go “whaaa?” like what kind of iconic disney duo.. they remind me of simon and pumba tbh



burr seems to almost pity hamilton at the end of this number.. like he’s like “wow dude i wanted to expose you but you’re making this too fucking easy”



Hurricane

the lighting in this scene was SO GOOD. like hamilton was literally standing in the eye of a hurricane, in the one dark spot on stage where the rest was lit up in a storm cloud pattern



i realized “i wrote love letters to eliza until she fell” is foreshadowing to burn and how his letters to eliza ended up hurting her and i wanted to fucking die



“i couldn’t seem to die” was when i started crying and i didn’t stop until the end of the show



maria is in the wings for the whole number and you can spot her by her bright red dress, and then at the end she comes out and gives hamilton the quill that he writes the reynolds pamphlet with… just fuck me up!!



The Reynolds Pamphlet

jefferson threw a couple copies of the pamphlet into the first row at “have you read this??”



i liked that angelica had luggage with her when she came onstage, it definitely added to the “i came across the ocean because you need to stop” vibe



king george joins in on the party for “he’s never gonna be president now”, he and jefferson are swiping pamphlets out of their hands like theyre at a strip club



maria joins in with the chorus to sing “his poor wife”…



Burn

eliza is sitting on the same bench they used for that would be enough



as someone who obsessively reads over old chat logs after some shit happens, this was #relatable



she starts off so quiet and meek, but when she starts to sing about the reynolds pamphlet her voice fills with this raw anger and it all climaxes at “you, you, you, you…”, that phrase starts off vengeful and bitter and then she breaks into a sob, pauses and it looks like she’s just going to breakdown but then she collects herself and picks up the anger again



eliza actually burns the letters onstage, her lantern has live fire in it and she sets the letters on fire and holds them up to let them burn for a while before extinguishing them in a bucket of water



Blow Us All Away

philip is so dang charming and likeable and you can’t even enjoy it because you know whats coming



eacker isn’t played by the same actor as charles lee, which is how i believe it is in the broadway production?



when philip confronts eacker he’s on the risers with opera glasses watching a play-within-a-play (kind of looks like romeo and juliet? there’s a man seeing a dead woman and drinking poison) and philip is yelling up at him



this is the first scene where hamilton his wearing his reading glasses (to show that time has passed… #mulaney4ham)



when philip says “father…” after “your mother can’t take another heartbreak” you can tell he understands that it was hamilton fuckup and philip is this mix of angry at him and still wanting to defend him without hurting his mother



hamilton doesn’t seem like he even considered the possibility that philip might die, he says “make me proud son” like he’s off for his first day of school not like he’s about to risk his life



philip starts rising his gun much earlier than i expected, it’s very deliberate too– he’s looking right into eacker’s eyes, trying to get him to notice



one of the old ladies next to me gasped when philip got shot…. i honestly think she didn’t know what was going to happen… poor her



Stay Alive (Reprise)

philip’s hospital bed is on the middle spinning piece and hamilton and the doctor are on the opposite side, not moving but still swirling around the stage and it gives the effect that time is passing, almost like those long camera shots that sweep from one scene to another



as hamilton is comforting philip i think it’s the first time he really acknowledges how badly he fucked up, like during the reynolds pamphlet he thought the biggest mistake was him trusting burr with his secret, now he’s really like. holy fuck. i am the problem. i’m the reason my wife hates me and my political career is over and my son is fucking bleeding out



eliza runs in and barely even acknowledges hamilton, she’s talking the to doctor and just briefly addresses hamilton before philip interrupts and she forgets hes even there



after philip dies eliza is grabbing him by the shoulders trying to get him to repeat after her and she collapses sobbing onto him, hamilton tries to put his hand on her back but she shoves him off and hamilton just stands there. god.



It’s Quiet Uptown

angelica narrates from the ground level, not one of the risers, so she’s literally on the same level as them



everyone is in mourning clothes for the rest of the act (except for jefferson, burr, etc)



when hamilton is walking by himself, the chorus surrounds him but he doesn’t acknowledge them at all, he sings to an empty spot where philip should be



the bench from that would be enough and burn is back, this time they’re just standing next to it, not sitting on it



when hamilton says “if i could trade his life for mine” you can hear the desperation in his voice, he means is 100%. he wishes he could die so his wife would stop hurting (be careful what you wish for… ha.)



at “i know who i married” they both look at the bench, remembering when eliza said that to hamilton, and then they start walking and the chorus surrounds them in the same way but eliza has filled the empty space hamilton was singing towards



i have nothing to say about the end of this song except that the stage direction “[ELIZA takes HAMILTON’s hand.] [HAMILTON shatters.]” was executed perfectly and i want to cry for a million years



Election of 1800

when jefferson and madison walk onstage, jefferson gestures towards the area of the stage hamilton and eliza just left from for “can we get back to politics?” and the chorus goes to change the set pieces



jefferson doesn’t really land the “whaaaaa…?” line, it seemed a little. forced?



for the #burr1800 bit, burr is going down a line of people on the stage like he’s working the line after a campaign event, it was very familiar to modern politics



burr says “i learned that from you” as a compliment, but it is NOT well received. he thinks he’s saying “you were right!” but what hamilton hears is “i’m everything that’s wrong with government, and you made me that way”



with the “yo!” hamilton snaps right out of mourning and goes back to political dissing without missing a beat, it’s kind of jarring



hamilton is at his desk writing and burr and jefferson are standing on either side and when he says “jefferson has my vote” a spotlight fires up onto jefferson like he’s won the voice or something



burr seems to almost be holding it together until “thank him for the endorsement”, like jefferson is just rubbing salt in burr’s wounds and you can see his mental switch go from “wait for it, wait for it, wait for it… OK YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK HIM UP”



Your Obedient Servant

in this scene, hamilton and burr are both writing from their desks at either side of the stage and the chorus is passing the letters down the line its really well choreographed



when hamilton sends back his letter with the “itemized list of disagreements” he sends an envelope and a huge stack of papers that gets passed on and plopped on burr’s desk, makes the “…sweet jesus” land really well



i never understood the line “your grievance is legitimate, i stand by what i said– every bit of it”, it seemed contradictory, but seeing it live it clicked like oh. hamilton is saying: yeah, there is a problem burr, and it’s you.



hamilton sounds resigned and bloodthirsty all at once when he says “you’re on” it made my blood run cold



Best of Wives and Best of Women

hamilton doesn’t move from the last scene, he’s still writing at his desk and eliza comes out in her nightgown trying to get hamilton back and its such a small and intimate moment it breaks my heart



i always loved how eliza uses all their motifs to try and get hamilton back to bed (“why do you write like you’re running out of time?” “come back to bed, that would be enough”), it shows that she knows all the ways to get to him, like the idea that married couples just have the same fight over and over. it just reminds you of when you see an older couple on a plane and they’re bickering about the carry-on but then they hold each other’s hands during takeoff and one falls asleep on the other and you just know they love each other so deeply and they will literally never stop arguing about the goddamned carry-on



The World Was Wide Enough

hamilton and burr stay on their respective sides of the stage, burr entering from where he left after obedient servant, hamilton examining his gun in the same spot where they just took off his desk



burr is really making his case to the audience here, in other songs where he narrates he seems to be making an apology for what he did, but here he’s full-on lawyer mode, like the audience is a jury deciding whether or not to forgive him for what he’s about to do



burr’s voice doesn’t break at “this man will not make an orphan of my daughter” like in the OCR, he’s speaking as burr in that moment, not narrator burr, so he’s filled with this righteous anger, completely blocking out any doubts he might have



hamilton doesn’t lift his gun up before burr shoots (like philip did), the scene freezes when burr shoots and hamilton is still aiming at burr, the air bullet leaves burr’s gun and right before it strikes hamilton a chorus member grabs it and stops it, hamilton unfreezes and turns to address the audience



hamilton starts off addressing the audience, and then burr, and then he gets very act I into himself at “a place where even oprhan immigrants can leave their fingerprints”, the soapbox that he used in farmer refuted has returned and he stands on top of it like he’s accepting an olympic meda



at “eyes up” he turns to see the rafters where washington, philip/laurens, and his mother are spotlighted one by one



eliza doesn’t come onstage until he calls her name and then she runs out and she looks more like a ghost than hamilton does, she takes hamilton’s hand for just a moment before spinning back offstage



after watching eliza leave, hamilton gets back into the spot he was in before the time freeze, and then at “raise a glass to freedom” he raises his pistol to the sky and burr notices but it’s too late and hamilton crumples to the ground



the doctor mimes rowing hamilton back and he gets placed on the same deathbed as philip, with angelica and eliza on either side of him



the whole motif of “the world was wide enough” seems kind of out of place on the recording, but when you see it onstage and burr is the only one onstage, still on his side and there’s just this vast emptiness where hamilton used to be and you can SEE the space, the unnecessary loss, and burr just looks so small and alone and. fjkgfjlkehaw



Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story