‘Hamilton’ returns to Proctors for a two-week run
“Hamilton” is a theater miracle.
The musical, which is at Proctors for two weeks starting Tuesday, March 14, is a story that uses rap, hip-hop, pop, soul and traditional Broadway music to tell the story of our Founding Fathers. It’s a blend of potentially conflicting sounds. It shouldn’t work, but it does, to perfection.
Another aspect of potential audience dissonance is that the songs are sung by mostly actors of color who play leaders like Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr and Hercules Mulligan.
Hercules who? Though little known, the Irish immigrant Mulligan was a small but important figure in the American Revolution.
He was one of the first people to befriend Hamilton when he immigrated to the country in 1776 (using the play’s timelines) and influenced his thinking on American independence and abolishing slavery.
Mulligan was also a leader of The Sons of Liberty and a member of the Committee of Correspondence.
During the war he used his connections with the wealthy class of British as a tailor and haberdasher to spy for the rebels. He is credited with twice saving Washington’s life.
In the national tour, Mulligan is played by Desmond Sean Ellington who is a a black man. He also plays James Madison in the second act and covers the roles of Washington and Burr.
Ellington being in the musical is a mini-miracle itself. He has had no formal musical or theater training and his experience singing was with local church choirs.
He spent his early childhood in Oklahoma where his father served in the military. He lived in Atlanta for two years where he got some work as a background singer for recording sessions of major performing artists.
But he had no interest in theater. At least not until he moved to NYC where he attended his first professional Broadway show. He was 30 years old.
That was 10 years ago. He remembers during that performance of “Chicago,” he turned to a friend and whispered, “I can do that.” Three years later he was a member of Actors’ Equity, the union for professional actors. Two years after that, he was in the second national tour of “Hamilton.”
In the world of theater, being in the national tour of the biggest show on Broadway within 5 years of seeing your first Broadway show and having no significant training is as improbable, and yes — as miraculous — as the innovative, boundary-breaking “Hamilton” achieving national acceptance. Staying with a tour for five years is also rare.
Ellington says he played almost every major character except Hamilton. About the character Hercules, he says, “He’s not one of the founding fathers, but he’s a real and very cool person.”
Ellington sees him as representing the regular guy who was, like so many others, the backbone of the revolution and never sought glory. “He was smart, brave and intuitive,” he says. “Like Hamilton, he was an immigrant who felt like a misfit and was willing to risk his life for something in which he believed.”
As a black man playing the white revolutionary Hercules, he relates to those who risked imprisonment and even death to protest with Rev. Martin Luther King. “They were willing to face danger for a cause in which they believed. They are the people who faced Jail or worse to make America a better place.”
He believes that today’s movements for Black equality are equally as important for the future of our country.
When asked to compare the Sons of Liberty who tried to overthrow a government that they felt was unjust to the groups that stormed the Capital Building Jan. 6, he thought for a minute or two before answering. “When you have a cause that is so clear and righteous, it is your obligation to change it through peaceful means.
He points out that the English troops, which he called “hired assassins” fired on Americans before Americans fired on the English.”
Connecting that thought to January 6, he added, “No protester, who literally stormed the seat of power on that day, was shot. When the African-American community gathers together in peaceful protest, Black people are killed.”
The show’s embracing of different cultures is one reason he’s proud of “Hamilton.” “Our cast, which has become a family, consists of African-Americans, AsianAmericans, every type of American; people of all colors, genders and sexual identities. This show represents America.”
It echoes the statement made by creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the music, lyrics and book for the show. He said, “Hamilton is America then, as told by America now.”
“Hamilton” is at Proctors in Schenectady Tuesday, March 14 to Sunday, March 26. For tickets and schedule information call (518) 346-6204 or go to proctors.org