Following the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, a West Indies immigrant who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War, the show follows his epic journey. Starting as a child born out of wedlock, his marriage to a wealthy heiress, Hamilton goes on to become America's first Treasury Secretary, ultimately leaving a vast legacy in forging the country's financial system (from Official London Theatre).
Rating:★★☆☆☆
It's a shame really. I think it's caused we'd hyped it up so much, or that we just knew the story and songs too well. There was just something about the performance, the staging, that just felt underwhelming. I expected more dancing, more use of the stage, more spectacle in certain songs that just weren't there.
My favourite character is Angelica, and I'm glad that her London actress, Allyson Ava-Brown, had the voice and the emotion to land her intelligence and conflict. It is a pity Eliza didn't have a voice to match her. I'd heard such great things about Rachel Ann Go's voice, so it may have just been an off night or a poor microphone. Jamael Westman, our Hamilton, was better than I'd expected though, having seen his slightly pitchy Royal Albert Hall performance.
Since the summer of 2017, when my sister first sat me down and played me the entire soundtrack, I have been in love with this musical. The songs were good, the story was something I didn't know about and it was different.
My sister and I had made peace with the idea we just wouldn't ever see it, as we weren't going to go to America purely to see it. But then it was announced it was coming to London, and we knew it was a sign. We waited nine months from buying our tickets to going to see it on stage, pumped to be blown away. And I wasn't.
Some of the performances too just weren't that good. Jason Pennycooke, as both Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, mumbled his words so even I struggled to understand him and I knew what his lines were. It was the same for Aaron Burr, portrayed by Sifiso Mazibuko. My boyfriend, who had never heard any of it, was unimpressed when he wasn't able to grasp a lot of the story due to the mumbling.
My favourite character is Angelica, and I'm glad that her London actress, Allyson Ava-Brown, had the voice and the emotion to land her intelligence and conflict. It is a pity Eliza didn't have a voice to match her. I'd heard such great things about Rachel Ann Go's voice, so it may have just been an off night or a poor microphone. Jamael Westman, our Hamilton, was better than I'd expected though, having seen his slightly pitchy Royal Albert Hall performance.
Overall, the performance was fine. I had just expected more. The hype the show has created for itself was its own downfall for me. I just wasn't swept away, and in a musical I do expect to be swept up in the story, in the music, whether I know all the songs or not.
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