Mika's Media Review: Hamilton

by Stacy Watkins | Graphic Designer

Title: Hamilton
On December 7th 2022, Broadway in Hawaii presented the musical, Hamilton, in the Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu. Composed and written by Lin Manuel Miranda, the musical follows the story of the historical figure Alexander Hamilton and his life as he became a founding father. The final showing was on January 29, 2023.

Though the cast may be different from the original musical that debuted in 2015, the performances were not any less stellar. The set, music, music and acting were all on point and at no point during the performance was I bored. Each song was memorable in their own way with strong vocal performances from the entire cast. For me, the strongest performance came from the character Eliza Hamilton, the wife of Alexander. Her emotional scenes brought tears to my eyes and fully immersed me in the story. The songs did a good job of incorporating each other’s lyrics and themes to create a cohesive storytelling experience. This was aided by the dancing and incredible choreography of certain scenes such as the one during the song “Satisfied”. The sister of Eliza, Angelica, monologues about her feelings for Hamilton and the scene cuts between the previous scenes of the musical of her encounters with Hamilton and the wedding of Eliza and Hamilton and it is impressively fluid and seamless. It truly feels like you are watching a video replay of a scene and not actors on stage.

Other performances of Hamilton can be viewed online and through streaming sites, but to see it in person is certainly a different experience. This musical deserves nothing less than a 9.5/10. I hope that the success of this performance will encourage more people to start viewing live performances, and I would encourage anyone who missed this opportunity to see the show this time to attend if it ever returns to Hawaii!