‘Hamilton’: Revolution in rap
Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall was the room where it happened Wednesday evening, official opening night for the touring production of “Hamilton.”
The operatic musical (music, book and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda) is a hip-hop history of the nation’s founding, through the eyes of founding father Alexander Hamilton, a rapping revolution that is well worth not just the years of hype but the price of any ticket you can get your hands on.
Hamilton (Edred Utomi), as the opening number explains, was the bastard son of a Scotsman and a whore, an immigrant who rose to power and self-destructed over an affair with another man’s wife before dying in a duel with friend-turned-adversary Aaron Burr (Josh Tower).
Though Hamilton is the title character and the center of all, it is Burr who is the show’s principal focus, and Tower who takes the spotlight — figuratively and, at the end of the production number “The Room Where It Happens,” literally.
The cast — consists mostly of young people who are making their first big theatrical splashes on the “Angelica” tour, one of three current road troupes (which, by the way, will also play Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, March 22-April 3) — is no less talented or less worthy than one you’d see on Broadway or in one of the big-city sit-down companies.
That includes Utomi, Tower, Paul Oakley Stovall as George Washington, David Park as the Marquis de Lafayette in Act I and Thomas Jefferson in Act II; Tyler Belo splitting the secondary roles of Hercules Mulligan and James Madison; the Schuyler sisters: Stephanie Umoh as Angelica, Yana Perrault as Peggy and particularly Zoe Jensenas Eliza; and Peter Matthew Smith, masterfully cast as King George III.
More so than in most musicals, the ensemble plays a pivotal part, and the show wouldn’t work without it. Having a live band in the pit makes a huge difference. The multilevel set looks just like the one on Broadway, with wooden walkways that turn into stairways and a darkbrick-wall backdrop.
The show runs at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 20 at Robinson, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. For ticket information, call (501) 244-8800 or visit ticketmaster.com or CelebrityAttractions.com.