RADICAL HISTORY TOUR

Julius Thomas III (C, L), Simon Longnight (C, R), inHamilton

Hamilton in SF: I was in the room where it happened!

Back when I was trying to market my very first historical fiction novel, I did a lot of research into the genre. Certain historical eras, I discovered, were trendy among editors and publishers: The Tudors. Ancient Greece (or Rome, or Egypt). The Civil War.

But the one period agents cautioned writers away from was the American Revolution. It was perceived by editors and publishes as a bunch of old white guys in powdered wigs haranguing each other about politics. Readers weren’t interested. It wasn’t sexy, youthful, or exciting.

Tell that to Lin-Manuel Miranda. When his blockbuster Hamilton hit Broadway like a tsunami in 2015, all the rules flew out the window. Miranda reframed the dry, dusty story of our Founding Fathers into a startlingly relevant, immediate, hip, and entertaining show; along the way, he reinvented both how history is retold, and the entire genre of musical theater.

All of which is on vivid display in the production of Hamilton currently playing at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco.

This is the third official U.S. touring company, featuring many performers who have appeared in previous productions of the show, on Broadway and on tour. (This is the troupe Miranda took with him to his home turf of Puerto Rico for a three-week engagement earlier this year.) And, boy, do they know their stuff!

Not a traditional play with musical numbers, Hamilton is more of an uninterrupted song cycle (like Tommy). There is hardly any book (i.e. spoken dialogue), but the show’s musical and lyrical themes build and weave in and out of each other as the story progresses.

And what music! It’s an irresistible mashup of hip-hop and Broadway, with traces of reggae, jazz, and boogie-woogie, along with haunting ballads and big show tunes. And all of it is performed by a multicultural cast, with people of color in all the major roles — including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton himself.

The show repurposes these figures from the mundane engraved portraits on our paper currency into the hot-blooded young radicals they once were, talking sedition and revolution in taverns while hatching their plan to resist the far-off, woefully out-of-step King of England and his ruinous taxes, and jumpstart a revolution to claim their freedom as an independent nation.

Filling in for Miranda in the title role at the Orpheum is Julius Thomas III, whose presence and strong singing give the show its center. Also impressive is Donald Webber Jr as Hamilton’s lifelong adversary, Aaron Burr, (and, ultimately, the victor in the duel that took Hamilton’s life), whose wry narration gives the show a wistful tone as he reflects on the part he is destined to play in shaping Hamilton’s legacy.

Harriman, Sloan, Castillo: rock on

The three women playing the pivotal Schuyler sisters sing beautifully, especially Julia K. Harriman as Eliza, who becomes Hamilton’s wife. Sabrina Sloan is smart and sassy as alpha sister, Angelica, who submerges her own feelings for kindred spirit Alexander and engineers his relationship with Eliza because she realizes her duty as the eldest is to marry rich. Darilyn Castillo plays kid sister Peggy; their soaring trios rock the room.

Simon Longnight has a blast in the showcase dual role of the Marquis de Lafayette (delivered in a buttery French accent) and a flamboyant Jefferson. Isaiah Johnson plays General Washington (the designated grown-up in the room) with tremendous fortitude, and Rick Negron steals the show in his three brief (but hilarious) appearances as King George.

In a recent article in the SF Chronicle, author and activist Ishmael Reed denounces the show as “bad history” for (ahem) whitewashing Hamilton as an abolitionist who fought against slavery. You can Google a plethora of opinions on whether Hamilton himself actually owned slaves (Jefferson and Washington certainly did), although Hamilton bought and sold slaves as property in his early career at an import/export firm, and on behalf of his Schuyler in-laws.

Thomas (Hamilton), Johnson (Washington): write, not fight

But this show makes no pretense to serving up a strictly factual biography of Hamilton or his era. After all, the Founding Fathers were not men of color, debating in vigorous hip-hop rhymes. The point of the show is to make the spirit of revolution accessible to a contemporary audience in our own era of resistance.

The multicultural casting of Hamilton and his allies identifies them visually and spiritually as scrappy outsiders on the fringe of the mainstream, determined to shape a better world.

Along with its pro-diversity and pro-immigration sentiments (in colonial America, with no national identity of its own yet, everybody except the native tribes had migrated from somewhere else), the show delivers a resounding rejection of slavery and celebrates equality for all. And that’s the take-away here. No matter to what degree the real-life Hamilton earned his abolitionist cred, the powerful message of this show is unmistakable. 

But don’t go for the message alone; go for a rousing three hours of live theater!