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

to see Disney's Moana

On Saturday I saw a movie called Moana thanks to Auntie Kerry and Uncle Zach who bought my ticket for my 6th birthday (they also bought me the novel and the CD). I went with Auntie Kerry, Uncle Zach, Mommy, Daddy and Margot. Moana is the new Disney movie from the creators of Zootopia and Frozen with music by Lin Manuel Miranda (who wrote my favorite musical Hamilton), Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina.

The story is about a girl named Moana (Auli'i Cravahlho) who lives on her island taking care of her people, and she really loves the water, but her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), who is the king of the island, would not let her go out on the water because it is not safe and no one goes beyond the reef. And then her friend the water, wanted her to go because the water chose Moana to go out and find Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

Maui is the semi mini demi-god who pulled up the islands from the sea so the water wouldn't rush it away but he also stole the heart of Moana's island. It was Gramma Tala (Rachel House) who showed Moana the boats that were hidden that told Moana that her people were voyagers. And gramma Tala begged Moana to go find Maui and bring him to the island to restore the heart.  And then she journeys out on her own and when she finds Maui they go try to fight the monsters from stealing the heart and keeping it forever but they face the monsters and stop them from taking the heart of Moana's island. The first monster they have to defeat is Kakamora, the coconut monsters and then the second monster is Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), the giant crab monster who is a scorpion, and the third monster is Ta-kā, the queen of earth and fire.

I read the book all by myself before I saw the movie and listened to the music on the CD before I saw the movie.  When I read the book my imagination pictured the evil character Ta-kā as much smaller who could transform into a bigger human size but in the movie she was so so so much bigger than I could have imagined. I also didn't imagine a big mountain at the entrance to the realm of monsters, I was just picturing just a cave door with a hole in the bottom.

The background music was pretty scary. And the songs were amazing. My favorite songs were "Where You Are" (sung by Christopher Jackson who played George Washington in Hamilton), "How far I'll go",  "We know the Way", "How far I'll go (reprise)", "You're Welcome", "Shiny", "I am Moana",  "Know who you are" and "We know the way (Finale).

 I love the songs with drums in them because the drum is one of my favorite musical instruments. I think the most powerful song was called "Know who you are" because when she talks to Ta-Kā she wasn't afraid because she realized that Ta-kā was really her island hurting because she saw the spiral of her island on Ta-kā's heart.

The story teaches us to be brave and to not be afraid of bad things (evil) because there is no such thing as bad people only people who are hurting who need help. Moana sees through the evil of Ta-kā and she decides to bravely go through the water to show Ta-kā who she really is and to find her goodness. Instead of just finding Maui she chooses to face her fear and find goodness and get her island back on her own.

My favorite part was when Moana finds HeiHei (Moana's silly pet chicken) on her boat with a coconut on his head and she takes the coconut off and he looks around and all he sees is water and he screams every time. And my other favorite part was when HeiHei sticks one blow dart in Maui's butt cheeks and Maui says "Seriously? Blow dart in my butt cheek." That was sooo funny. I also loved the part where the Kakamora blew a blow dart in their chief's arm and he fell down.

Everybody in this whole wide world should see this movie because it would make them now know how to not be afraid of anything.

I give this movie 200 points because it shows powerfulness on people who are afraid of things.

Love,
Gunnar

THE END.