TheatreVibe will not be reviewing streamed theatre as a substitute for live theatre.  We prefer to be in “the room where it happens”.  Many of the shows filmed had a few cameras recording a performance played to an audience and lost most of the atmosphere carefully set up by a lighting director and the other creatives.  Some shows had a recording made for archive purposes which wasn’t ever intended to be shared with a wider audience and the viewing of which was a terrible disappointment compared to being in the theatre.  When Zoe Wanamaker was being filmed for NT Live she said she didn’t know who to play to, the camera or the audience.   The exception to these apologies for the live show is the excellent NT Live film of the Old Vic’s Present Laughter.

So why should Theatrevibe make an exception for the filmed version of Hamilton?  Because it is brilliant and deserves to be seen by all the people who might not think of subscribing to the Disney Channel as well as all those who do.   Hamilton is now available for a tiny amount of money on Disney +,  a weekly subscription of £5.99 a month with a trial option.

The footage by Radical Media was originally filmed in June 2016 to be spliced into the documentary Hamilton’s America.  To learn how Hamilton was filmed see this excerpt from the LA Times.

“Nine cameras were placed throughout the Richard Rodgers Theatre (including overhead and from the rear of the stage) to ensure coverage of the show’s 10 principal actors and 11 ensemble members, who freely roam (in deliberately choreographed fashion) the two-story set.  Two full performances were recorded with ticket-holders in tow; 13 audience-less numbers were captured via Steadicam, crane and dolly between ticketed dates. Each recording includes individual audio tracks from the microphones of each actor and orchestra instrumentalist. (The drum kit alone had seven separate mics.)

Thomas Kail who directed Hamilton the musical was also in charge of this filmed production.  He says, “filming is easy, editing is harder.”   The resulting film is an outstanding work in its own right.  We have camera close ups which we cannot have in the theatre and the show is as exciting as the original, the choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler has the dancers sometimes showing a singer’s inner feelings or interpreting a hurricane or a battle on the revolve and always giving you something to look at.

I loved the opening number “Alexander Hamilton” as much on film as on the two occasions when I saw it at the Victoria Palace in London.  Review The rhythm is infectious and the clarity of the words makes them memorable,

“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot
In the Caribbean by providence impoverished
In squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

The first victory for Hamilton is to convert everyone to hip hop, even the Disney trademark signature introduction has its fireworks conforming to the prevalent beat of the show.   Apart from his tuneful music, hip hop, rap, soul and pop, Lin Manuel Miranda’s genius is in his intelligent words progressing the narrative of this man from humble beginnings working his way to the top by reading books and hard work. Leslie Odom Jr as Aaron Burr leads this opening number but the other principals join in each explaining their interaction with Hamilton.  “We fought with him, I died for him, I trusted him.” Aaron Burr is Alexander Hamilton’s nemesis and by the close of this song we know how Hamilton will die and at whose hand.

Lin Manuel Miranda gives Hamilton’s name and instantly we warm to his personality as he shows a vulnerable, soulful, unassuming side to his character which we get in closeup.  As Burr and Hamilton meet and Hamilton pours out his hopes, Burr advises “Talk Less, Smile More.”

The definitive song “My Shot” encompasses Hamilton’s ambition as he maintains “I’m not throwing away my shot” as Hamilton with the Marquis of Lafayette (Daveed Diggs), Hercules Mulligan (Okieriete Onaodowan) and John Laurens (Anthony Ramos) commit to the American Revolutionary cause in 1776 in “The Story of Tonight”.   Aaron Burr distances himself.