After all the hype, time for Hamilton to face the music
As a rap musical about one of America’s founding fathers, Hamilton might not appear to be an obvious West End hit, but it opened for its first preview last night as the most hyped musical this century. The Broadway show sold out as soon as tickets, costing up to £200, went on sale last January, though dozens have suddenly become available for its first nights at the Victoria Palace.
Hamilton Victoria Palace, London
SO, DOES Hamilton live up the hype? Last night’s audience certainly thought so – they rose instantly to give a standing ovation to the cast of the musical that took Broadway by storm, and has now opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London.
The first preview last night went without a hitch, despite the theatre undergoing a multimillion-pound refurbishment. The opening was delayed by building problems for two weeks, and the smell of fresh paint is everywhere.
The sung-through musical tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers. It originated in a small public theatre in New York and became a huge Broadway hit when it opened in August 2015. It is still playing to capacity houses there.
The show, which has a largely non-white cast to reflect, not America’s 18th century establishment, but the multi-ethnic nation it has become, has political echoes for our age, dealing as it does with nationhood and race. It gained notoriety when Mike Pence, the US vice-president was booed by the audience when he saw the show shortly after the US election last November.
George Osborne, the former chancellor, who was in the audience for the first preview last night, escaped such treatment, but the show’s creator Lin-manuel Miranda was greeted by screams of delight from young women in the stalls as he took his seat.
Miranda wrote the book, music and lyrics, and starred in the title role in the original Broadway run. It has a diverse and eclectic original score that draws on hip-hop, R’N’B, rap, indie rock, operetta and musical theatre. In London, the title role is taken by Jamael Westman, who has only recently graduated from Rada and is in his first starring role, playing the orphan immigrant of Caribbean-scottish parentage who rose to become George Washington’s right-hand man.
Westman displays all the charm, youthful swagger and lasciviousness of Hamilton; we can easily see why the hero of the War of Independence was
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later involved in America’s first political sex scandal. But it’s an ensemble piece, as Westman leads and all-singing, all-dancing cast of 21, greeted with loud applause at the end of each song. Hamilton was nominated for 16 Tonys and won 11, including best musical, on Broadway. The producers should buy a new display cabinet for their UK stage awards now.
The audience were abuzz as they left the theatre. Bruce Gardner, from Surrey, called it “an amazing piece of theatre”, while Lynette Dorfman, from Boston, said it had surpassed the original US production, which she saw in 2015. “Jamael conveys so much emotion,” she said. The audience had paid up to £200 for their seats and gone through strict security and had to show photographic ID – not because of the terrorist threat, but because Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the producer, is determined that there will be no profiteering on resale of tickets, which sold out within minutes of going on sale in January. “It was worth the extra hassle,” said Mr Gardner. “I would have queued up for hours to see this.”