Monday, October 2, 2017

to see Hamilton!!!



On Saturday I saw Hamilton, An American Musical written by Lin Manuel Miranda, directed by Thomas Kail at the CIBC Theatre in downtown Chicago.  I went with mommy because daddy got us tickets for mommy's birthday.  The musical was about Alexander Hamilton who was the first treasury secretary of the United States. Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant from the Caribbean who is on the 10 dollar bill and was a founding father of the USA. The musical is about Alexander Hamilton but its told by Aaron Burr who is Alexander Hamilton's foe who shot and killed Hamilton in a duel.

I was really excited to see Hamilton because I have been listening to the broadway cast recording for over a year and I have watched videos of the Hamilton cast at the Tony Awards and the documentary on PBS and I have read the Hamilton the Revolution book we have at home.

Aaron Burr was played by my friend Gregory Treco, mommy was in plays with Greg in High School. He is the first person on the stage and sings my favorite song "Alexander Hamilton". I loved the way he sang the songs, he made the songs sound even better and I didn't know that was possible. My favorite song he sang was "Your Obedient Servant" and "The Room Where it Happens" because he can really dance AND sing. He was my favorite character.

All of the actors were so talented but I will tell you some of my favorites. Alexander Hamilton was played by Miguel Cervantes, he was a really good jumper and fast rapper and he was funny too when he dropped the book on the floor.  Charles Lee was played by Yossi Chaikin I thought he was so funny when he said "I'm a General Wheee!" Samuel Seabury was played by Aaron Gordon and he was also funny because he fell off the stool. I loved Hercules Mulligan/James Madison played by Wallace Smith he was just so cool. Eliza Hamilton played by Ari Afsar had a really pretty voice. And Alexander Gemignani who played King George was the funniest because he ran around in a circle like an excited kid when John Adams became President, this was my favorite part of the whole play. The Ensemble (Sam Aberman, Amber Ardolino, Remmie Bourgeois, Chloe Campbell, Tossi Chaikin, Aaron Gordon, Malik Shabazz Kitchen, Sheridan Mouawad, Samantha Pollino, Jose Rasario Jr and Willie Smith III) sounded like more than a thousand people and are the leaders of the show by helping us see the story, they're also really amazing dancers.

I really liked the costumes designed by Paul Tazewell because they looked like a long long time ago. I also really liked how the choreography by Andy Blakenbuehler and the set and props designed by David Korins worked together to show us the story. Like in "The World Turned Upside Down" how the ensemble was picking up chairs and props and turning them upside down or in "Hurricane" when the people made it look like a hurricane with the swirling lights designed by Howell Binkley.

One of my favorite moments was how they rewound the scene in "Satisfied" because it was fast and somehow they did it without crashing and it made me think WOW! I was so sad when Phillip died because George Eacker cheated the duel.  I was really scared during the duel between Aaron Burr and Hamilton but I liked how one of the ensemble girls came out and held the bullet like everything was frozen.

This show is really important because it taught me that even if you want to kill someone you shouldn't because you will wish you hadn't. When Burr tells us Hamilton's story he is telling us that when you kill someone you hurt more than just one person, you destroy families and ideas and you also hurt yourself.

I would tell everyone in the whole world, Go see Hamilton. I hope everyone will see it so that no one will decide to kill anyone anymore.

I give this play 800,000,000,099 points because it is SUPER AWESOME!!!

Love, Gunnar