Hamilton continues to dazzle in new #AndPeggy tour

Hamilton
The cast of the #AndPeggy tour of Hamilton, at the SHN Orpheum Theatre through Sept. 8, includes, from left, Rubén J. Carbajal as John Laurens, Julius Thomson III as Alexander Hamilton, Simon Longnight as Marquis de Lafayette and Brandon Louis Armstrong as Hercules Mulligan. Photo by Joan Marcus

If anything, the current company – known as the #AndPeggy company – of Hamilton now at the SHN Orpheum Theatre through Sept. 8, is even better than the one we saw at the same theater in 2017. Maybe it’s because this company got to perform for three weeks in Puerto Rico with the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, reprising the lead role. Or maybe the Hamilton machine, with productions in New York, Chicago and London and with two other tours (currently in Tampa and Cincinnati), has just become so incredibly efficient that it has collected all the best performers in all the land(s).

You might expect that a property that burns as hot and bright as Hamilton does in our pop culture would crest and fade at some point. That may happen, but not yet. The custodians of this extraordinary musical are taking awfully good care of it and are not only preserving but also expanding on the work of Miranda, director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and orchestrator/arranger Alex Lacamoire. What that team created and what continues to unfold on stage is absolutely remarkable.

This is the third time I’ve seen Hamilton (original cast on Broadway, the first national tour launch in San Francisco in 2017 and now #AndPeggy company), and I feel like I could see 50 more times and still not absorb everything happening on that stage. It’s so easy to get caught up in the story of Hamilton and Burr weaving their narratives through the birth of a nation and tangling in their final dual that you don’t always notice what’s happening on the periphery in Blankenbuehler’s incredibly rich work for the ensemble or how Kail’s staging makes such effective use of the two turntables that you fall into the seamless flow of scene after compelling scene. [Just how intricate is the staging? Read this fascinating piece on the dancer who is known as #TheBullet.]

Miranda and company revolutionized musical theater by a) making the racial diversity of the cast so important that it seems there’s no other possible way to make good theater, b) merging history with the present in such a way as to make both more alive and more intricately connected that many of us realized and c) fusing hip-hop, rap, pop, R&B and musical theater in ways that are so vibrant and rich that other contemporary scores seem bland by comparison. All of that becomes even clearer on repeated viewings (and listenings, though the cast album only tells half the story because the visuals are so powerful).

Happily, Hamilton seems far from becoming a museum piece or something that can only be in the mold of the original production. In the performances especially, actors are given enough space to put their own spin on the characters. That’s where the #AndPeggy company really shines. Starting with Julius Thompson III as Hamilton, the performances are fresh and focused, and the chemistry among all the major players is electric.

Thompson brings all kinds of youthful enthusiasm to young Alexander, newly arrived in New York from the West Indies, one more immigrant who will get the job done (that lyric still gets a round of applause). He’s brash and confident and terrified and insecure – a sure recipe for success. As Hamilton makes friends and moves up through the ranks in the Revolutionary War, Thompson expands in the role, and by the time Hamilton is a battered politician, philandering husband and grieving father, there is a depth and ache that comes from maturity and harsh experience. Through it all, Thompson’s voice is glorious (all love to Miranda, but his distinctive voice is not his strongest suit).

Donald Webber Jr. as Aaron Burr is sly and quiet at first. He embodies Burr’s “talk less, smile more” philosophy, but when it comes to Burr’s ambition, which seems constantly thwarted by Hamilton, the actor releases a powerful fury. His “Wait for It” is the best I’ve heard, and his “The Room Where It Happens” dazzles in its show-stopping desperation.

We saw Isaiah Johnson as George Washington last time around, and he’s even better now. When Washington decides to step down from the presidency and enlists Hamilton’s help in writing his farewell address, it’s a moving moment. But Johnson lifts the number – “One Last Time” – higher and digs deeper, making it a show highlight.

This is basically a whole show of highlights, so there are too many to mention here. Just know that “The Schuyler Sisters” (played by Julia K. Harriman as Eliza, Sabrina Sloan as Angelica and Darilyn Castillo as Peggy) is as snazzy as it needs to be; King George III (Rick Negron) is as diabolically funny as he needs to be; and the boys – Brandon Louis Armstrong as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Rubén J. Carbajal as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton and Simon Longnight as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson – are a boisterous, funny, obstreperous and loyal.

I see something new and hear something new every time I see the show, and one thing that must be said about this company (and perhaps the sound system at the Orpheum) is that their diction is superb. Approximately 10 bazillion words fly by in this 2 1/2-hour show, and I heard more of them than I ever had before, which was thrilling. Miranda has become so famous for so many things at this point it’s nice to be reminded just what an inventive, intelligent and emotional composer he is.

Hamilton succeeds in abundant ways, but the thing that really got me this time was how our smart, squabbling founding fathers were really just winging it. Doing the best they could, relying on their educations, brandishing their egos, but never possessing absolute answers. The nation was a work in progress then and remains so today. That’s comforting…and terrifying. In Hamilton it would seem there is room enough for us all to figure it out. If only reality reflected one of our great works of art.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Hamilton: An American Musical continues through Sept. 8 at the SHN Orphem Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $111-$686, subject to change. Call 888-746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com.

Daily #HAM4HAM ticket lottery
At each performance of Hamilton 44 tickets are made available at $10 each. Use the Hamilton app or visit hamiltonmusical.com/lottery to enter and to read all the details.

Hamilton in SF: Re-creating America

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They are not throwing away their shot: (from left) Ruben J. Carbajal is John Laurens, Michael Luwoye is Alexander Hamilton, Jordan Donica is the Marquis de Lafayette and Mathenee Treco is Hercules Mulligan in the San Francisco production of Hamilton at the Orpheum Theatre, part of the SHN season. Below center: The company of Hamilton. Below bottom: Luwoye’s Hamilton is in the eye of a hurricane. Photos by Joan Marcus

When a Broadway musical becomes a phenomenon, like Hamilton, it’s sometimes hard to see the show amid all the fireworks of fan adulation, critical hosannas, glittering awards, staggering dollar signs and the inevitable whines of “Overrated!” The Hamilton fireworks show has been especially colorful with a beloved creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has conquered social media (try to keep up with @Lin_Manuel on Twitter), a PBS documentary, a best-selling book about the musical (not to mention the inspiration for the musical, Ron Chernow’s Hamilton, which has also been further buoyed by the success of the musical), a Grammy-award-winning original cast album that has (as of last month) gone triple platinum and a thematically linked pop album called The Hamilton Mixtape.

Whew. That’s a lot.

If you love Hamilton, and let me say for the record that I love Hamilton, there’s a whole lot to love, including, now, a new company in my hometown. After the Chicago company, which began performances last fall, this new one is what would be considered the national touring company. It’s here until August as part of the SHN season before heading to Los Angeles. The full Broadway creative team is represented here, and at Thursday’s opening-night production, the show shone through the hype with clarity, excitement and emotional heft.

Musicals have turned into landmark events before (Hair, A Chorus Line, Rent), but Hamilton invented a new level of wattage. There are so many reasons for that, but it starts with Miranda, the whirling dervish of an impresario who conceived the show, wrote the words and the music and the libretto and starred in the first production at New York’s Public Theater in 2015 and again when the show moved to Broadway in 2016. Like Jonathan Larsen before him, he cracked open the Broadway musical and reminded us that shows can sound like now and then and succeed on their own terms. With director Thomas Kail he assembled a creative team of artists working at their peak to craft something that, in the end, feels inevitable – of course this exists in this form, how could it not have existed previously?

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From the colonial solidity of the wood and brick walls and fluidity of the two turntables on David Korins’ unit set to the sharp and defining shapes of Howell Binkley’s lighting design; from the period detail and high-fashion elegance of Paul Tazewell’s costumes to the nearly nonstop emotional physicality of Andy Blankenbuehler’s expressive choreography – everything comes together here to tell a powerful story about an incredible man – an immigrant, it should be noted – during an incredible time. The beautiful duality of Hamilton is not just in its score with its contemporary sound to tell the story of American revolution and its aftermath. It’s also a story of then that informs who we are now. That comes from the historical details themselves involving the messy birth of our nation, the squabbling, the political maneuvering, the fundamental disagreements and the dream of creating a truly independent nation from the ground up. It also comes from the casting: people of color playing white colonials. This is not an empty effort to make good on promises of diversity. It’s a profound statement about the history of this nation belonging to and serving all its citizens, and it’s a staggering thing to watch these actors working with such verve and integrity playing people who, in the Colonial era, would likely have repressed people of color.

From a theatrical point of view, it’s thrilling to see incredibly talented performers get a chance to prove what stars they are. That’s what happened on Broadway, and it’s sure to happen with every subsequent production. Thanks to Miranda and his team, this exceptionally well-crafted material allows actors, borrowing a song lyric here, to rise up and meet the challenges it presents, both historic and artistic. Actors have to summon the personae of Alexander Hamilton and King George III and Eliza Hamilton and do right by show-stopping songs like “The Schuyler Sisters,” “You’ll Be Back” and “What Did I Miss?”

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The San Francisco company bursts with stars, starting with Michael Luwoye in the title role. He has the distinction of being, so far, the only actor to have played Burr and Hamilton in the same day (last fall on Broadway). His Hamilton here is more serious and less vulnerable than Miranda’s was on Broadway. With Miranda it was tricky: with his Hamilton, you were also seeing him. When Hamilton talks about writing like he’s running out of time, he’s also describing the incredibly busy and prolific Miranda. These two big-brained achievers have a lot in common. With Luwoye, it’s easier to see the orphan Hamilton who forcefully and through the combined power of his brain and ambition, made his way from hardship in the West Indies to the peak of American politics, creating our financial system as our first Secretary of the Treasury. Luwoye has a powerful voice and the kind of charisma he can ratchet up as the show progresses and Hamilton’s power and stature grows.

As Hamilton’s friend turned arch-rival Aaron Burr, Joshua Henry pretty much owns the stage. Whether he’s being tender on “Dear Theodosia” (a duet he and Hamilton sing to their infant children) or stopping the show with the dazzling “The Room Where It Happens,” Henry is a first-rate actor and singer, and his realization after that fateful duel with Hamilton, that the world was wide enough for both of them, lands with absolutely heartbreaking resonance.

The leading women in this company are remarkable – every bit as good as their Broadway counterparts. Emmy Raver-Lampman as Angelica, the eldest of the Schuyler Sisters and the one who meets Hamilton first, is ferocious. She’s a powerful woman in a time that did not appreciate powerful women, so she simmers and she channels her intelligence and wisdom as best she can. Solea Pfeiffer as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton has two wonderful musical moments: “Satisfied,” in which she positions herself as Hamilton’s partner in life and “Burn,” where, after his scandalous affair, she attempts to remove herself from his narrative. She has a gorgeous voice, but even better than that, the emotional acuity of her delivery is staggering. As Peggy, the youngest Schuyler Sister, Amber Iman gets the laugh line in the feel-good number “The Schuyler Sisters,” but she comes on strong as Maria Reynolds, the woman who nearly undoes the Hamilton marriage. She and Luwoye sizzle through “Say No to This.”

The entire ensemble dazzles in its beauty and power with stand-out work coming from Rory O’Malley as a very funny King George III, Mathenee Treco as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison and Ruben J. Carbajal as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton.

The abundance of musical riches here is almost too good to be true. In Act II, to have “What’d I Miss” followed a few songs later by “The Room Where It Happens” followed by Washington’s farewell in “One Last Time” followed by the extraordinary “It’s Quiet Uptown” (one of the saddest, most exquisitely constructed cascades of music about grief and forgiveness ever written for musical theater) – it’s more than most musicals can even dare to hope for.

Miranda and his crew have re-set the bar with Hamilton. A new generation will consider this their defining musical, and still more will have to look twice at a portrait of the actual Alexander Hamilton or George Washington or Thomas Jefferson and feel a twinge of disappointment that he’s actually just another dead white guy. There’s a recurring line in Hamilton that is true for a lot of reasons, one of which is the opportunity to appreciate this show in this moment: “Look around, look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton continues through Aug. 5 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $100-$868. Call 888-746-1799 or visit www.hamilton.shnsf.com

Ticket Lottery!
Hamilton tickets are hard to come by and, when they are, tend to be expensive. Happily, the San Francisco production, like Chicago and New York, offers an online lottery for 44 tickets at $10 each (#Ham4Ham) for every performance. To enter the lottery visit www.luckyseat.com/hamilton.html. Good luck!

Spirit but no soul in loud Bring It On musical

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CHEER UP AND SING OUT! The company of Bring It On, a mediocre new musical based on the movie of the same name. Photo by Michael Lamont. Below: Adrienne Warren as Danielle is the best thing about Bring It On: The Musical. Photo by Craig Schwartz


Like a weak episode of “Glee” shot up with steriods and stuffed full of anti-depressants, Bring It On: The Musical sends up a rousing cheer for the robotic vapidity of the new Broadway. The real shame about this overblown movie-to-stage adaptation is that it’s chock full of appealing, talented and boundlessly energetic young performers, but their sparkling humanity is mostly lost in the non-stop machine of this depressingly mechanical, surprisingly shrill effort (a part of the SHN season).

Targeted to an age range of teens to twentysomethings who slavishly recite lines from the 2000 movie starring Kirsten Dunst as a beleaguered cheerleading squad captain, this musical has a startling pedigree: direction and choreography by Tony-winner Andy Blankenbuehler (In the Heights), book by Tony Award-winner Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q and the lamentable Tales of the City) and music by Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winner Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and Tony-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), who also co-wrote the lyrics with Amanda Green (High Fidelity). You’d think among this heavily lauded crowd of artists that someone could have located a little heart or a moment of actual human connection. But no. This is musical by committee, and a strenuous effort it seems to have been.

It’s all as highly programmed as the four giant video screens floating around the stage and pretending to be a set and only slightly more interesting.

Whitty’s book diverges almost completely from the movie, settling instead for a watered down All About Eve re-tread that sends cute, blond Campbell (Taylor Louderman) from the comfort of her cheer-happy suburban high school into an inner-city school where there are metal detectors, hip kids of color and – gasp – no cheerleaders. Everybody learns to respect and love everybody even amid the tension of a national cheer competition. It all ends, quite literally, in a multicultural group hug.

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Nothing rises above the cartoon level here, which would be fine if the cartoon were fun. But there’s a pall of sameness over the whole enterprise. The stage, loaded with lighting grids and those annoying floating screens, looks more pop concert than musical theater, and it is cold, cold, cold. There’s absolutely no texture to this show at all, and that’s part of the overriding problem. The machine spins with super efficiency but never gains any traction – there’s no feeling other than brash cheerfulness and occasional flashes of bitchiness.

The Kitt-Miranda score is blandly funky, if that’s even possible. It’s pleasant enough in the theater (and certainly LOUD enough) but immediately forgettable. Miranda previously took us to hip musical theater heights, but here it’s mostly lows. There aren’t any song titles in the program (other than for the pre-recorded songs played during the actual cheer routines), and that seems fitting because they all blur together anyway. The voices all blare effectively but with no discernible emotion.

Same is true for the choreography, all very proficiently performed but just empty movement. The cheer routines are spectacular, especially at first. This could easily be called Back Flip: The Musical because that’s the go-to make-’em-squeal move. The first few times women are thrown into the air, spinning madly, it’s thrilling. But soon, as the old song says, the thrill is gone. The moves are just performed over and over with no attempt to let us into the process, see the routines being built or getting a sense of the danger involved. Are the people being flipped ever scared? Are the people who catch them ever afraid of missing?

Whatever, the moves were executed flawlessly at Wednesday’s opening-night performance at the Orpheum Theatre, and it got old. Fast.

Say this for the actors: they’re in extraordinary shape and they work their butts off trying to make this material work. The best thing about the show is Adrienne Warren’s appealing, vocally assured performance as Danielle, the de facto queen of Jackson High and leader of a hip-hop crew. Louderman’s Campbell is appealing as well but overwhelmed by the mechanics of the show. Ryann Redmond has the unenviable job of playing Bridget, the fat girl relegated to school mascot until she changes schools and becomes the object of much affection. Redmond is sweet and funny, but her character’s empowerment lesson feels like an unsuccessful attempt to break out of stereotype. Gregory Haney shows real flash as teen drag queen La Cienega but has precious little do other than strike sassy poses and look fabulous.

Forget about back stories or context or remotely real-life high school issues like homework, parents, sex or actually cheering for athletic events. This is all slick surfaces where nothing sticks. It’s definitely a problem when you leave a new musical humming video screens and back flips.

[bonus video]
To give you a sense of what the show looks and sounds like. Loud and flashy.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Bring It On: The Musical continues through Jan. 7 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $31 to $100. Call 888-746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com.