SALT LAKE CITY — It’s always exciting when a Broadway touring company comes through Salt Lake, and this year Utahns have a special treat with the landmark musical Hamilton coming to Eccles for an entire month. So if one hasn’t had a chance to see this incredible show, this is the opportunity.
Most theatre fans know the basics of Hamilton by this point. It first premiered on Broadway in 2015 and has music, book and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and went on to win 11 Tony Awards and the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and the important figures in his life.
Hamilton is not a show one might normally think of as a Broadway comfort watch—something like Come From Away or Bright Star might be an easier fit for that description. However, I can’t overstate how devastated I was when the theaters were closed down during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how much it meant to me to watch the pro-shot of Hamilton (released in July of 2020 on Disney+). The show stood for the hope that the lights of Broadway would be bright again, and everything would work out in the end. Today, the musical is a personal reminder to me that human beings can make it through hard times just like Hamilton—the show and man—did.
Eccles’ production does everything you want Hamilton to do, which is especially impressive since two understudies were in the lead roles. Alex Nicholson as Alexander Hamilton brought a warmth to the character that isn’t always brought to light, and captured the weight that his character was carrying as he made a new flawed, yet ambitious, republic work. Josh Marin as Aaron Burr was a little less successful, and didn’t seem to fully capture the emotion of a resentful and bitter man as well as he could have. “The Room Where it Happens” was his best moment, but softer songs like “Dear Theodosia” could be more expressive and emotionally true.
King George III always steals the show, and that was no exception here. Paul Louis Lessard is hilarious in the role and interacted with other cast members in ways I haven’t seen before (waiving at Burr and things like that). Simon Longnight, however, was a miss for me as Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson. While I generally love the role, his singing was slurred together and difficult to understand, which made it harder to enjoy.
The set by David Korins‘ is iconic-looking, like the backstage of a theater under construction. The stair set pieces are moved for various scenes. Part of the stage rotates, which keeps things moving as Miranda covers so much material in the three-hour show. Everything from the American Revolution to the Alexander’s death in 1804 is included, so the set needs to be flexible and easy to manipulate.
Costumes by Paul Tazewell also need to have this flexibility. The ensemble usually wears cream-colored undergarments (corsets, bloomers, chemise etc.), and the main cast has simple Revolution-era appropriate clothes (red and blue military uniforms, suits, solid-colored dresses etc.). Like the simple sets, these costumes give the storytellers the flexibility to go from a war scene to a cabinet scene with ease.
I did wonder if we will ever get to a point where people will do new, inventive stagings of Hamilton. Right now Off-Broadway, there is a reimagining of Cats getting a lot of buzz called Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Hamilton is almost 10 years old now; maybe in 10 more years enough people will have seen it for it to be reimagined. But for now, patrons continue to want to see Hamilton as it was first released on Broadway—and that’s what they get here.
The orchestra led by James Davis Jr was impressive overall, but there was something off with the synthesizer that made it too loud. This resulted in it overpowering a number of scenes. I joked with my seatmate “Did we join an American Revolutionary rave?” I know the Eccles can be a hard space to get the sound dynamics right, but hopefully this production can work on the sound mix over the next month of performances.
The production is directed by Thomas Kail who succeeds in doing what is most important about Hamilton: inspiring the audience with stunning songs and dances, and reminding the us all that greatness can come from anyone and anywhere, and that maybe all of us should work like we are “running out of time”.
