Hamilton - Birmingham Hippodrome, 28 June 2024, until 31 August, then on tour, 4✩✩✩✩. Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.
Photo Credit: Danny-Kaan
Hamilton - Birmingham Hippodrome, 28 June 2024. Until 31 August, then on tour.
4✩✩✩✩ Review: David Gray & Paul Gray.
“An epic piece of story telling.”
This is an impressive piece of total theatre, where all the elements work together harmoniously and with complete synergy. The result was a compelling and spectacular whole, and where - were any elements to be removed - all would be diminished.
A deceptively simple stage set comprising of rugged brick walls, wooden gantries and stairways festooned with rope, facilitates the fluid flow of the drama. But also, perfectly evokes a rough and ready transitional period in history.
Dance flows like blood through the veins of the narrative. An almost constant pulse of movement and of frames, interacts and comments on the storytelling. It is a specific and very current choreographic style, full of isolations, syncopation and sudden, thrilling changes of direction and energy. The dancers are all quite superb and take the physical challenges and athleticism in their stride.
Virtuosity is also on show from the principals who have to deliver a rapid stream of verbiage. Rap operates here rather like recitative in opera. And like recitative, Rap has to be shaped and styled with wit and intelligence if it is going to work. Author, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has created a densely written web of words, rich in its own musicality, rhythmic complexity, and imagery. Led by the excellent Shaq Taylor as the titular hero, all of the cast deliver this with expressivity and clarity.
A particular mention must go to Sam Oladeine who plays Hamilton’s antagonist, Aaron Burr. This is a tough role to carry off. He is not a sympathetic character, but one we must understand if we are to understand the story. Oladeine conveys the contradictions with heart and authenticity.
Where rap gives way to song the cast are all impressive. But it is often here where the show occasionally falters. When the movement stops and one or two characters are left to deliver a melody, we should experience a precious moment of stillness; pregnant with emotional import. This is not always the case. Miranda’s songs lack the melodic flexibility and harmonic inventiveness of some other music theatre composers. The cast as a whole work hard to make the most of these songs, and generally succeed in making them feel more profound than they actually are.
One other niggle. This musical is, and feels, exceptionally long. Particularly during the protracted ending. After (look away now to avoid spoilers) Hamilton is shot, we get a lot of introspection and self-conscious mythologising. It is like the show is trying too hard to live up to its epic subject matter. This is not necessary. The show does not need to justify itself. It is an epic.
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