The Roar of the Crowd

Thursday, April 6, 2023

We went to see Hamilton tonight and the crowd was roaring! It was really fun when the show started and the audience just exploded when Alexander came out. There is something great about being in an audience, but being in a big, appreciative crowd is even better.

The first time we saw the show the actors were very much copies of the original Broadway cast. Tonight, things were changed up a bit – the cast were putting their own spin on some of the songs and dances. Some of the new bits of choreography were hilarious and very welcome. All the voices were strong – they filled the theater. The problem Keith and I both had was that we struggled to understand a lot of the words, which was very disappointing. I know a lot of the words – and certainly know the show, so there was no worry about losing the thread of the narrative – but the word play was lost throughout most of the songs (King George was clear as a bell, thank goodness – certainly the funniest parts of the show).

A Woodbury high school student and her family were seated in front of us. I was watching them take a group selfie and was thinking about offering to take a real picture, but decided sometimes you just want that awkward selfie look, when one of the daughters said “Hi!” I thought she was going to ask me to take a picture (single track mind) when her mom jumped in and said she thought she recognized me from Woodbury High School. Confirmed. The parents were asking us questions after they learned that we have season tickets – they were so interested that that was a thing. We encouraged them to give it a try and they sounded like they were going to (just parents, not give daughters). More people learning about going to the theater – that’s nothing but good.