I’m Not Throwing Away My Shot

I've been following Hamilton ever since I stumbled upon it on one of my many wonders through Tumblr in 2016 and, as corny as it is, I was helpless by the first note.

The story, the characters, music; I could talk about the music all day if you would let me. But in this post, I'll be talking about the show itself and the theatre, merchandise and so on.

The Victoria Palace Theatre got a new revamp for Hamilton and you can tell everything, and I mean everything, was shiny and gold. Even all the signs were engraved glass. Before you even go in you have to line up outside to have your bag checked, at this point I do recommend having your bag already open and trying to keep it as small as possible.

I know that's hard, as you'll probably be walking around London all day, but it just gets you through to the theatre a lot faster. If you're like me, once inside, you want to buy all the merchandise you can. Well, here's a tip. When you first enter there is one on the lower floor but I found that everyone was being directed to this one. There are two more that are a lot quieter and thus you can get what you want a lot quicker.

Once you're lined up, they give you a sheet of paper with everything you can get on it, I love this because it meant that I could choose what I wanted before I got to the desk which made the whole experience a lot nicer. I somehow spent over £100 just in the merchandise. I think I'll do another post going into detail about what I bought so you can have an idea of what you can get before you go.

As soon as I entered the theatre, I was blown away! The sudden contrast from the gold shiny outside to the dark brown wood of the stage was amazing and really gets you into the mood of Hamilton. I was in the stalls and could see the stage perfectly; the only problem was that is that I'm a very short person and I had someone who was at least a head taller than me in front but even that couldn't ruin the experience for me.

On to the actual show.

What shocked me at first that the Hamilton on stage wasn't the one I had seen in all the promo photos and videos. Normally if an understudy was on, they would tell you before the start of the show but this didn't happen. When I looked in the programme they had an 'Alternet Hamilton.' I still don't really understand why this is necessary but this is my only complaint about the show. apart from that, the show was perfect and exactly how I pictured it. I'm not going to go into detail about the plot. No spoilers here. But what I do want to say is that I love how Hamilton makes history and the past seem so real and current.

I feel that now there is a disconnect between the too as we sit in our stuffy classrooms learning about the six wives of Henry the eighth or WW1 using the same textbooks our parents did. Hamilton is a wonderful example of how to make history current again.

This is a story celebrating America's debt to an immigrant and at this time this is a story worth hearing.