By George they’ve got it, says U.S. theatre supremo
Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of New York’s Public theater, settled into a newly refurbished stalls seat at the Victoria Palace to watch the first preview of Hamilton, the revolutionary blockbuster musical.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s show about alexander Hamilton, one of america’s founding fathers, originated at the Public early in 2015 and has helped put the american musical back in the ascendant.
Eustis didn’t know how the show — or the British cast — would work in London. ‘at the back of my parochial american mind, i was thinking: “We may have to compromise a little bit.” ’
But within seconds he was biting his tongue. ‘the performances are spectacular,’ he declared when we met later in a hotel lounge in Covent Garden. ‘they feel as if they own it,’ he said of Jamael Westman as Hamilton, Giles terera as aaron Burr, and Michael Jibson as king George iii (above), whose performance particularly tickled him (‘snide, dark and ironic . . . he’s so great!’).
as if being invaded by one hit american musical is not enough, there’s soon going to be a second salvo from the old colony...in the form of Fun Home, another tony-award winning musical which, like Hamilton, first wowed at the Public.
Hamilton’s official first night is thursday; while Fun Home — based on alison Bechdel’s graphic novel about how she became aware of her sexuality while growing up with her parents and siblings — arrives at the Young Vic on June 18.
‘two of the best shows i’ve ever worked on in my life,’ Eustis told me, adding that both are deeply progressive (socially and politically), but also immensely popular (critically and commercially).
For a while, it was all one-way traffic: with andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh launching British shows across the atlantic and onto Broadway. Not any more.
Eustis smiled. ‘Of course, we all spend most of our time in the american theatre struggling with our combination of anglophobia and anglophilia. We feel a little chip on our shoulder with the Brits. and to come over with two shows this wonderful is something.’
Hamilton is an undoubted phenomenon and even the Public’s small percentage of profits amounts to millions of dollars. that money flows back into the theatre’s cash reserve — apart from $250,000, which goes into its operating budget.
the Public is aptly named. it attracts backing from individuals and corporations for ‘public works’ (of the theatrical kind) ranging from shakespeare in the Park, which stages free performances at the open air Delacorte theater in Central Park, to its Mobile unit, which brings the Bard to homeless shelters, community centres and prisons.
Eustis has developed close ties with rufus Norris at the National theatre, and helped the Nt establish a unit called Public acts.
its first production will be Pericles, which will run at the Olivier from next august, with Emily Lim directing a company comprising a community ensemble and a few professional actors. the Public’s collaborating on several other projects with the Nt, which will be announced over the next year or so.