Hamilton, the fastest-selling show ever at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, is set to begin its Dublin run.
“The room where it happens…”
This is one of the quotes from Hamilton – An American Musical that has made it off the stage and crossed over into popular culture.
On Friday Irish audiences will be in “the room where it happens” for the very first time.
The visit of this unique show, which has been creating waves internationally for nearly a decade now, has been long awaited by Irish fans.
News that it would play a ten-week run in Ireland at the 2,111-seat Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, led to it being the fastest-selling show ever at the venue.
It shifted more than 90,000 tickets on its first day at the box office, breaking all previous records.
The show officially opens tomorrow and runs until 16 November, when close to 145,000 people are expected to have seen the production.
With audience members spending at least €50 per ticket, (and for many that figure is closer to €100), the pressure is on for the show both and off stage to deliver.
How did it begin?
It was created by American writer, composer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is the son of Puerto Rican immigrants and was raised in New York.
He read historian Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton (c. 1755-1804) during his 20s and was inspired to bring the story to life.
In short, it is a hip-hop musical about the first US Secretary of the Treasury.
The longer version is that Hamilton is a show telling the remarkable story of one man’s personal and professional journey from life as a young orphan in the Caribbean, who emigrates to America to follow his dream.
He served in the army during the American Civil War, practised as a lawyer, became a congressman and ultimately one of America’s founding fathers “without a father” and then the first US Secretary of the Treasury.
Along the way, audiences meet his friends and foes, including fellow lawyer and politician Aaron Burr. Hamilton’s wife Eliza, one of the notable Schuyler sisters, becomes a leading figure in the show too, as Hamilton battles personal and professional demons.
What marked Lin Manuel Miranda’s production out though were two significant creative decisions he took from the start.
His choice to use hip-hop, R&B and traditional show tunes to tell the story challenged audiences’ perceptions of traditional musicals.
His other choice, to subvert the conventional depiction of the Founding Fathers as elderly white men, by predominantly casting non-white actors in the roles gave the storyline a clear identity.
This choice allowed him to explore themes such as race, immigration and the political structures the founding fathers created.
There is a now-famous YouTube clip of Miranda performing a raw, unfinished version of the opening track from Hamilton in Barack Obama’s White House in 2009.
At that event, he tells the audience he is working on a hip-hop concept album about the first US Secretary of the Treasury. Then he broke into his opening tune from the show, and the audience cheered and clapped enthusiastically.
The dye was cast.
Hamilton first opened in New York, off-Broadway in February 2015.
It was an immediate hit with audiences, and within weeks, plans were made to transfer the musical to Broadway.
Just six months after it opened in that smaller theatre, in August 2015, Hamilton had its second opening night on Broadway. It quickly grew into a cultural phenomenon, winning 11 Tony Awards and it became the hottest ticket in town.
The critical and commercial accolades piled up for the show, as it went on to win seven prestigious Olivier theatre awards in London and then Hamilton was awarded a Pulitzer prize for drama in 2016, a rare feat for a Broadway musical.
By then the show had become an unstoppable cultural force.
Word of mouth ensured that international audiences were clamouring for productions closer to home and by 2017, the show crossed the Atlantic and transferred to London’s West End where it has been running to packed houses ever since.
As there is barely a word spoken in Hamilton, the show is all about the soundtrack.
With this production, Miranda has packed the lyrics with razor-sharp wordplay, while also keeping his eye firmly on the humanity of the characters involved.
On paper, Alexander Hamilton is the embodiment of the ‘American Dream’. He is an outsider, a penniless orphan whose intellect and talent allow him to climb his way to the top of the American political establishment but as with every fable, there is a day of reckoning.
Dublin shows
For this run, the lead role of Alexander Hamilton will be played by Shaq Taylor and he will be facing off against his worthy rival, Aaron Burr played by Sam Oladeinde.
Taylor has played the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre before, when he was Beast in the touring production of Beauty and the Beast and he told RTÉ that he is particularly enthusiastic about the show as
“it covers so many themes, love, tragedy, and loss and the audiences can all see their own stories in it,” he said.
One of the significant aspects of casting in Hamilton is that Lin Manuel Miranda ensured that diverse casting would be central to productions – something that Taylor also pointed out.
“I’ve wanted to be part of the show since I saw it first years ago, because when I looked up at the stage, I could see myself represented there,” he said.
“It was one of the first musicals I’d seen where I could see myself on the stage. There aren’t that many opportunities like that, so Hamilton offers me that too, which is so important.”
For Oladeinde, he says that both he and the rest of the cast have been waiting impatiently to come to Dublin, as they knew the show would get a great reaction.
He said that even after the first few previews earlier this week, the energy from the audience and the reception has been really exciting,
“We could just feel the audience’s enthusiasm and it just really lifts the cast. We know that people have been waiting for over a year with their tickets to come see this so that makes this experience even more special,” he said.
