Let freedom ring: ‘Hamilton’ brings history to life

MEMPHIS — The only thing missing Wednesday night was someone handing out stickers, like voters receive at the polls on election day, saying, “I saw ‘Hamilton.”’

After two and a half hours at the historic Orpheum Theater, what looked to be a capacity crowd — at least in the orchestra level, where I sat — rose to its feet. Not immediately to walk into the summer night, but first to cheer, and loudly, for the roadshow presentation of what, three years after its release on Broadway, is an American classic endowed with 11 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize.

My knowledge of Alexander Hamilton was admittedly lacking when I became aware of the sensational response to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, inspired by historian Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography about the Founding Father. If pressed, I might have told you that Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury, his picture appears on the $10 bill (lending credence to the mistaken belief that he was president of the United States) and died tragically. Miranda’s work became such a touchstone in American society that one halfway expected Time magazine, more than 200 years after his death, to name Alexander Hamilton Man of the Year in 2016.

Between acts Wednesday night, I told the person to my left that “someone said he gets shot in the end.” Fortunately, this person had a sense of history and was in on the joke and did not feel offended by the plot spoiler. It takes brilliant performances to stay riveted in a production that one knows the ending. I left the Orpheum with the same exhilaration that I departed a movie theater after James Cameron’s Oscar-winning “Titanic,” where advance knowledge of a major plot element did not deter from my entertainment.

Think of how you would face life if you were known mostly for killing someone. Such is the story of Aaron Burr, who rose to be the third vice president of the United States, serving during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term. Burr, whose life is depicted in a 1973 novel of the same name by Gore Vidal, lived until age 80 but spent his last 30-odd years enshrouded in controversy, if not in disgrace, after shooting his political rival in a famous 1804 duel. Although never tried for the duel and having all charges dropped, Burr saw his political career diminish with the shot that killed Hamilton; later arrested on charges of treason, for which he was tried and acquitted, he felt compelled to leave the United States for Europe before returning to practice law, dying in 1836 in relative obscurity.

The Manhattan-born Miranda tells this old story in an exciting new way. That he might challenge sensibilities by casting nonwhite actors as the Founding Fathers and other historical figures has not kept audiences from singing the praises of “Hamilton.” Characters such as Hamilton, played on the Memphis stage this night by Pierre Jean Gonzalez, and Burr, by Nik Walker, come to life. If you find an Oriental actor (Marcus Choi) playing George Washington offensive, perhaps you should stay away. But if not, expect to find yourself laughing when King George III (Jon Patrick Walker) takes the stage and think back on an American history class long ago that the British monarch, as depicted here, was considered daft.

Besides to Gonzalez as Hamilton and Erin Clemons portraying wife Eliza, acting honors went to Kyle Scatliffe as Thomas Jefferson. Cast not as a towering statesman and principal author of the Declaration of Independence, one whose memorial by the Potomac River is a must-see attraction for visitors to the nation’s capital, Jefferson is played here as a kind of silly fool. One may be reminded of Tom Hulce’s movie depiction of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for which F. Murray Abraham received an Academy Award as rival Salieri in the Best Picture of 1984; Hamilton is the star of his own play, make no mistake, but Jefferson, with an unexpectedly creative performance, is given life beyond one’s expectations. Jefferson is usually in company with the sickly James Madison, who succeeded John Adams as our nation’s second vice president.

At the risk of burying the lead, let it be stated emphatically that Miranda incorporates hip hop, R&B, pop soul and traditional-style show tunes to tell his story. Where one finds the genius to produce such an audacious work defies one’s imagination, but a proud nation offers its thanks to Miranda — also to Memphis for bringing “Hamilton” to the Mid-South. A friend who saw the play last month in Louisville called the experience “life-affirming,” which if even one cannot understand all the words as they are spoken in rapid-fire order is accurate.

With “Hamilton,” Miranda, who is not yet 40, enters a pantheon in American culture along with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for “Oklahoma!”, “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music” and other productions, and Leonard Bernstein for his score to “West Side Story.” In an enlightened but bitterly divisive point in our nation’s history, with civil liberties under increasing peril, “Hamilton” comes along at the right time. If it does nothing more than make us see from whence we came, Miranda’s work succeeds mightily.

“Hamilton” plays in Memphis through July 28 at the Orpheum, one block off historic Beale Street on North Main. Although not priced at Broadway levels, the tickets are not cheap. This may be your best chance to see “Hamilton,” for I would not expect a Little Rock production in the near future. And I would not wait for a movie version, because what to leave in and what to leave out of Miranda’s work may prove too much for many directors. Getting a handle on “Hamilton” will require more of a lead performer than Gordon MacRae, in “Oklahoma!”, sitting on a hay bale and singing, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!”

I am proud to live in the time of “Hamilton,” more so to have seen a great American story told in a rich, new way. Let freedom ring!