Hamilton!

I saw Hamilton last week with my sister!! I am probably the only person who has ever flown to the Midwest to see Hamilton, but there you have it. (Okay, we went to see D's parents and do Holy Week with them, which we have never done with them before -- and we went to see my new nephew (who is super cute) -- but really we went so I could go see Hamilton with her.)

...It was AWESOME. I had seen clips, but it hadn't really prepared me for how -- perfect and perfectly integrated the whole thing was. The singing, the dancing, the use of the chorus, the choreography, the lighting (and I don't usually even notice lighting, though lately with all the opera I've been mainlining I've been paying more attention)... all of it was just really amazing.

C. and I represented two extremes of Hamilton consumption. I have listened to the cast recording I don't know how many times, actively searched out all kinds of information about the production, etc. C. had purposely (on the recommendation of friends) not listened to the recording as much as possible. Mixed results on both sides. C. was overwhelmed by amazingness but suffered particularly in the first act not being able to understand all the words. I found in general that knowing the words and the story let me concentrate on details of the production, which I really like, but was probably not quite as immersive, and in particular I think I wish I hadn't known quite so many little details of how the production worked, because I was watching for them instead of being surprised by them ( Production detail )

Various random comments: ( Cut for length )

( Production spoiler. )