REVIEW: HAMILTON Returns For A Final Sydney Season

Thursday 8th August 2024, 7pm, Lyric Theatre Sydney

In 2021 Lin-Manuel Miranda’s (Book, Music and Lyrics) multi-award-winning musical HAMILTON blew us all away and it is back for a final encore season at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre.  Having toured Australia in 2021, then Manila and Abu Dhabi, and Singapore, the Michael Cassel Produced production returns to educate and delight those that may have missed out on a ticket the first time around or are returning because they know how captivating this revolutionary musical is.

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When HAMILTON debuted in Sydney in 2021 it secured three Sydney Theatre Awards and four BroadwayWorld Australia – Sydney Awards.  While much of the original cast have changed through the tours, Jason Arrow, Akina Edmonds, Elandrah Eramiha and Brent Hill remain as Alexander Hamilton, Angelica Schuyler, Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds, and King George respectively.  They are joined by a strong cast that ensure that the energy of the piece is maintained while bringing new elements to the characters they inhabit. 

As with the original Sydney season, the tempo of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s score has been tweeked to ensure that the all-important text is clear to the Australian ear which may not be as conditioned to understand the American accents when combined with break-neck rap stylings.  For this season, it also feels like the work has been further adjusted to add more weight to the musicality underlying the rapid lyrics, allowing the melodies to shine through as well as allowing the emotional connection to land deeper.  With the benefit of time the performers have nestled in and found deeper connections with their characters allowing them to lean in further to the underlying motivations, emotions and temperaments.  The familiarity with the story has also enabled the performers to consider their physicality more with brilliant, nuanced actions, expressions and reactions that are subtle but clear enough to reach the rear of the stalls while ensuring that they are still delivered with an honesty and realism.

The cast changes since the 2021 season have helped put a different slant on some of the relationships.  Callan Purcell’s portrayal of Aaron Burr frames Hamilton’s rival and eventual killer as even more of an awkward outsider, the kid never picked to play that holds a resentment that leads to calculated self-serving political climbing.  His physicality reinforces the picture of the whiny weird little rich kid that can’t buy his way into popularity, always on the outside and never “In the room where it happens” as while previous Burr Lyndon Watts gave Burr a more controlled gravitas, Purcell gives Burr an anxious weediness with a simmering anger and entitlement.  Googoorewon Knox presents George Washington with a much softer tone which does compromise his image as the military power that would have the gravitas to become the first President of the new United States.  There is much more humanity which does undermine the idea that his vision for the new nation is captivating enough to inspire Hamilton and Burr to want to serve under him on both the military front and the political stage.

As Hamilton’s posse of fellow revolutionaries, Gerard-Luke Malgas, Etuate Lutui, and Tainga Savage deliver strong performances as Marquis de Lafayette, Hercules Mulligan, and John Laurens respectively.  The trio add more impudence into their expressions with their antics walking the line between being amusing and ensuring they don’t pull too much focus away from the central narrative.  As Malgas and Lutui pivot to Hamilton’s rivals as and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the future third and fourth US Presidents, they give their characters a degree of caricature to ensure their absurdity and inferiority in Hamilton’s eyes is clear.  Savage doubles as Alexander’s son Philip Hamilton and his portrayal as the older Philip is matched with the cocky college student’s image he is less convincing as the 9 year old child treating his father to a new song due to his size and physicality, which is the opposite to the original casting of Marty Alix. 

Vidya Makan’s portrayal of Eliza Hamilton shifts the second Schyler sister’s energy to a milder personality more inkeeping with the Broadway production that many audiences may be familiar with, either from seeing the performance live, the Disney+ film of the original cast or the soundtrack.  While Chloé Zuel gave Eliza and energy that indicated a larger character suppressed by society’s expectations, Makan’s Eliza feels more naive and innocent and therefore more emotionally affected when betrayal then tragedy strikes her life. 

The detail in HAMILTON is incredible.  While first time viewing usually has the focus on the central characters, being able to view this work again enables more of Thomas Kail’s vision to be appreciated making it understandable that fans of HAMILTON often try to see the show multiple times, often registering with the $25 ticket lottery.  The detail in Andy Blankenbeuhler’s choreography that often utilizes the full company spread across David Korin’s multi-level set can be taken in while Paul Tazewell’s subtle shifts in costumes can be examined. 

At a time when the world needs hope and political leaders that have their countries interest as their primary motivation for seeking the top seats of power, the messages within HAMILTON remain relevant nine years after the work debut on Broadway and 15 years after Lin-Manuel Miranda first performed Alexander Hamilton at the White House in 2009 when he framed it as part of a “Mix Tape” of Rap Songs about the lesser known founding father.  Entertaining while being educational, secure a ticket to HAMILTON before it leaves town. 

https://hamiltonmusical.com.au/

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