Original Broadway everything, in fact. And you can wear sweats — or a towel — and eat nachos or doughnuts while you watch.
IT’S QUIET UPTOWN Phillipa Soo and Lin-Manuel Miranda as a late-18th-century New York socialite and her politico husband (Eliza and Alexander Hamilton) in the Broadway production of “Hamilton.” The filmed version begins streaming on Disney Plus on July 3.
IF YOU HAVE SEEN and loved “Hamilton,” if you have been dying to see “Hamilton” but couldn’t get tickets until Yom Kippur of 2023, if you’ve just heard that “Hamilton” is the greatest thing to hit Broadway since sliced pastrami, you probably already know that it is coming to television. Specifically, to Disney Plus. Starting on Friday, July 3, 2020. So here are a few notes and reminders.
IN NEW YORK, YOU CAN BE A NEW MAN From left, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onadowan, Anthony Ramos and Lin-Manuel Miranda in “Hamilton” at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York.
IT REALLY IS THAT GOOD…….
I remember sitting in my post-press-night orchestra seat at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2015. I was alone, because the one night I could go (remember when we all had lives and dates and appointments?) was the one night that Sam Rudy (public relations master emeritus) could get me only one ticket, rather than two.
Before the curtain went up, I was sitting there, flipping through Playbill and reading stuff on my phone, thinking, “Come on, how good can this thing be? All the fuss has to be exaggerated.” But it was that good. (It is recommended, however, that you maintain your skepticism. There’s nothing as thrilling in theater as being pleasantly surprised.)
LOOK AROUND, LOOK AROUND. The Schüyler sisters were Dutch-American aristocrats. (Their mother was a Van Rensselaer.) From left, Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
WATCHING STAGE MUSICALS ON FILM CAN BE TRICKY……
Sometime it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But frankly, after seeing the video of “Hamilton” cast members doing musical numbers on a computer screen for that little girl who had had tickets to the show and couldn’t go now, I’m in. Maybe the essence of “Hamilton,” the energy and talent of that particular cast, and the music and lyrics (of course) are more than fierce enough to make the leap. Maybe we’re finally learning more about how to put stage productions on film.
WHAT’D I MISS? THE LATE ‘80s. Daveed Diggs, center, as a very self-possessed Thomas Jefferson. He’s been away, in Paris, serving as the United States ambassador to France. And he’s afraid he’s missed out on a whole New York era
AND THIS IS THE REAL THING …….
When I first read that a movie version of “Hamilton” was being made, I inferred Hollywood soundstages, location shoots, complex editing, state-of-the-art cinematography and hundreds of extras.
I was wrong. No, this is the production, performed onstage at the Richard Rodgers, filmed on three different nights of performance and edited together.
With the original cast, including Lin-Manuel Miranda (a.k.a. the creator) as Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Daveed Diggs as Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson (who wonders what he missed by having been in Paris for a few years), Jonathan Groff as King George III (even London audiences laughed at his anthem of cluelessness, “You’ll Be Back”) and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, who could have married anyone.
THE SADNESS OF KING GEORGE III. Jonathan Groff as England’s 18th-century monarch, whose ego is a bit bruised after the American colonists make it clear they want to be on their own. But his royal upbringing instilled considerable entitlement in him, so he’s sure they’ll change their minds.
THE ORIGINAL PLAN WAS SCRAPPED ….
The plan was for the film version to open in movie theaters everywhere on Oct. 15, 2021. Right now, no one knows the future of movie theaters — any more than we know the future of live theater. Don’t feel sorry for Miranda, though. God knows how rich this show has made him. He reportedly got $75 million for the film rights alone.
WHO LIVES, WHO DIES, WHO TELLS YOUR STORY Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Vice President and dueling aficionado.
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YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A HISTORY EXPERT …
Believe me, if you’d never even heard of Alexander Hamilton before, the dialogue and the plotting are so skillful and so crystal-clear that you’ll get everything. But here’s a quick summary:
Hamilton was born in the Caribbean, on the island of Nevis, either in 1755 or 1757 (records differ). His parents weren’t married to each other. (Thus, that “bastard, orphan. son of a whore and a Scotsman” lyric in the title number.) He sailed to the United States as a teenager, settled in New York City and attended what is now Columbia University (then Kings College).
The war interrupted his studies, but he eventually finished up and passed the bar exam (1782). Meanwhile, he was a Revolutionary War major general, fighting in the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, White Plains and Harlem Heights, among others.
He married Elizabeth (Eliza) Schuyler in 1780 (although he may have loved her sister Angelica more), had an affair with a married woman — which cost him a lot in blackmail payoffs — in 1791 and after accomplishing a lot of history-book stuff, like being Secretary of the Treasury (1789-95), he died in an 1804 duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.
Hamilton is buried in Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan (apparently, it’s quiet downtown too).
DISNEY PLUS IS PROBABLY MORE THAN WORTH IT …..
Strangely, although there are no children in my household, I have Disney Plus. (Long story.) Granted, I will watch almost any film with cute talking animals. But, you know, the channel has also got all those Disney movie classics plus Pixar and Marvel and “Star Wars” (including “The Mandalorian” — the Baby Yoda series). And a lot more.
If you were seeing “Hamilton” on Broadway the old-fashioned way, you couldn’t get a box of chocolates at the theater bar for less than $7. And living room theatergoing is a lot safer than wandering around a theme park in Anaheim or Orlando, surrounded by people who think they’re wearing masks, even though the things are just hanging around their necks.
Stay safe. And don’t complain so much. In Alexander Hamilton’s day, people were dropping like flies from smallpox. And dysentery.
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COMING NEXT MONTH
BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL, major Broadway star, when he was singing “The Impossible Dream” from his fifth-floor apartment window on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
WILLIAM WOLF, the former New York Magazine and Cue journalist and president of Drama Desk, died of coronavirus in March 2020.