Musicals and Operas

[Frelga]

I may be forgetting my Hugo, but... was "put a smile on your face" in the video description a sinister pun?

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[Alatar]

Maybe more ironic? It's both funny and macabre.

[Eldy]

I went through a period a couple years ago where I was utterly obsessed with Hamilton and listened to the cast album on a weekly basis for about two months, but seeing it was never really a plausible option for me. However, it was recently announced that the touring version will play at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore in summer 2019 and my stepmom is interested in going, so I might finally get a chance to see it in person. The Hippodrome is a cool location though I've only been there a few times, most memorably to see Fiddler on the Roof during Topol's farewell tour in 2009, so it would be nice to go again in any event.

[Alatar]

Heading over to London to see Hamilton on March 1st Eldorion. Really looking forward to it.

[Eldy]

That's very cool! All the reviews of the West End version that I've read have been really positive.

[Primula Baggins]

I am seeing that when it comes through Eugene.

Speaking of that, we saw Book of Mormon last week! One of the touring companies. We tried for tickets and they were all gone (not gonna make that mistake with Hamilton), and then my son tipped me off that a few more had gone on sale and I jumped, and it was Tom's favorite Christmas present. At the very top of the upper balcony, but so worth it. It was hilarious.

[Alatar]

I loved "Book of Mormon", but for that M-Rated type of Musical I preferred "Avenue Q". It wasn't as outrageous, but I felt it was cleverer.

[Eldy]

I lucked into seeing The Book of Mormon at the last minute when a friend and I drove down to enter the daily lottery for some of the cheap seats. I knew next to nothing about it going in but it was a really good time.

[Alatar]

Keep everything crossed for me. Tickets for Hamilton tomorrow night, a Status Red weather warning and a flight at 11:15 am to Gatwick! :/

[Primula Baggins]

I hope you made it, Alatar!

[Frelga]

I hope you travel safe and have a great time.

[Inanna]

Good luck, Al!!

[Eldy]

I hope it's a good time and that the weather doesn't prove too much of an issue!

[Alatar]

It was stunning...

[Primula Baggins]

So glad you saw it!

[Dave_LF]

It was stunning...

What; that's it? You've got 3,348 words to go if you want to match the length of my reaction...

Not that those three don't sum it up awfully well.

[Alatar]

I have very little to say that wouldn't sound patronising or pretentious! I honestly believe that the vast majority of audiences, while they will love it, simply aren't equipped to appreciate just how far its moved the scale. Its a staggering achievement and one that you really need to be incredibly well versed in musical theatre forms to fully appreciate. Its an absolute game changer in the same way that Les Miserables was, or Oklahoma back in its day, or Porgy and Bess. There are seminal shows that change the face of the theatrical landscape, and this is one. And its not just in the form and structure of the show, the direction and choreography are on another level. I don't have the words for it. Apart from... it was stunning.

[Dave_LF]

I remember I kept getting the feeling that it was much better than I could grasp, and I grasped that it was awfully good.

[Alatar]

Sp how was In the Heights Dave?

[Dave_LF]

Well if you insist...

I'd never been to the South Bend Civic Theatre before and didn't know what to expect, but they did a great job with it. Exceptional talent for a mid-sized city in Indiana, with cast and crew bios that read like professionals'. Seeing a full-scale production somewhere like New York or Chicago is definitely an experience, but there's an awful lot to be said in favor of small venues where you can get a third-row seat for the price of a movie ticket and actually see the actors' faces. And talk to them in the lobby afterwards!

The music was live, which was nice; sometimes smaller productions will use recordings for everything but the vocals. At first I thought that's what we were getting since there were no instruments to be seen, but it turned out they'd hidden the musicians on the second stories of the set buildings. Once the show started, they hit them with backlight and you could see their shadows though the fabric walls and windows. Kind of a neat effect.

As far as the show itself; it would be a disservice to treat it as nothing more than Hamilton's (older) little brother--but at the same time, it's impossible not to make the comparison; especially since both works so clearly spring from the same mind. And not just for the superficial reason that both are rap/hip-hop musicals. Heights is perhaps not quite Hamilton's equal when it comes to lyrical density and complexity, but it is certainly in the same league, and that puts it leagues above most everything else I've heard. And it shares both its sibling's manic pace and its ability to keeping hitting you with the same phoneme over and over long past the point where you'd think the writer would have exhausted the language's store of rhyming words.

Of course, it helped that Miranda had two languages to draw from--there is a lot of Spanish in this show. Not so much that you need to be bilingual to appreciate it (between the pace and my hearing, I probably only picked up about 80% of the English lyrics), but it would definitely be an asset. Example: there was one point where a character made a joke in Spanish, and about half the audience broke into laughter and applause. I still don't know what was so funny.

But the most significant connection is Heights' focus on legacy. Hamilton tackles this subject from the perspective of what we'll leave to those who follow, but Heights, written by a younger Miranda, considers instead what we should do with what's been left for us; particularly when we're not sure we want it. The show is set in a poor, pre-gentrification, and largely Hispanic Washington Heights. There isn't precisely a main character (more on that later), but there are, in my estimation, four major ones, and each approaches the issue of legacy from a different angle. Usnavi's immigrant parents died when he was a child, before they could tell him why they left the Dominican Republic or what they hoped to find in New York. Left orphaned and adrift in the slums, he's confused about what he owes his past. Vanessa's father is gone and her mother is an alcoholic; she doesn't know what brought them to Washington Heights, but all she wants is to get out. Nina has just flunked out of college after her parents scrimped their whole lives to send her there. Her father is prepared to make further, extreme sacrifices to get her a second chance, but she's not sure she wants that on her conscience. Finally there's Benny, who doesn't seem to have a family at all. He's trying to make his way up in the world starting from nothing.

And then there's Washington Heights itself, which, as the director explains in the program, is the true star of the show. What will become of its legacy as its demographics change? And what should become of it, given the state it's in?

For all this, while the show's overall tone is thoughtful, it doesn't brood as much as Hamilton, and there are more moments of simple joy and pure fun. And a couple of big dance numbers that pushed the limits of the community threater stage (and made you feel it was a little unfair that you had to stay in your seat while they were all up there having a good time). B commented that the actors must be exhausted after each performance, and I can't imagine she's wrong.

The only weakness I'll bring up is a side-effect of the show's strength--the creative decision to forgo having a main character in order to tell the mosaic story of a entire neighborhood. This works as intended, but it does mean that no individual plotline is quite as fully-developed as you might wish. But maybe that's the point.

Overall, an impressive performance of a great show by a great cast and crew. The SBCT did a fantastic job with this, and I certainly hope I get a chance to visit again. The only thing I'll fault them for is their business acumen--I would have paid quite a bit more for a ticket than I did.