I mean, yes, that was the gist of that letter. 'I have been shit-talking you for literal decades, because actually, we are political rivals, and I'm not sure what part of the decades of shit-talking you're taking offense to, because it was mostly said in a political context and mostly right.' And yes, that is beautiful. That letter is a treasure. However, he didn't bullet point thirty years of grievances, which is what I wanted in my heart. Weehawken. Dawn. Guns. Drawn.
So, in the staging of that song, Burr and Hamilton are writing at their desks in their own parts of the stage, and ensemble members carry the letters back and forth between them. As Hamilton writes his long-ass letter including the itemized list, twirling ensemble members drop page after page in Burr's hands, which makes for a hilarious visual lead-up to his exclamation of "Sweet Jesus."
>u< Thank you for telling me this. I've never seen a visual so I don't have this context. I was imagining... I mean, there was no way it was actually happening, but this one lyric site had this bit of commentary, and, I was imagining something slightly different, sue me. (hate waaaaaaltz)
HE GOES FOR THE TANGO THANK GOD y'all are too good for me thanks for continually supplying me with this bs.
ALSO, in Farmer Refuted, Seabury is standing on a box declaiming, and as Hamilton sings he jumps up on the box next to him (it is a small box) and it devolves into shoving. I swear to god. I love the staging of this musical so much. (Ask me questions!! I can't guarantee I remember everything, but I have seen it and I will gladly babble about it)
: D How do they stage them cabinet battles?? Do the actors tend to act silly on stage in ways I wouldn't pick up from just listening to this thing? WHAT THE HELL IS KING GEORGE THE THIRD DOING IN HIS SONGS BC HE'S SO DRAMATIC THAT I'VE BEEN SEEING SOME STRAIGHT METTATON POSING MY HEAD
Cabinet battles: Hamilton and Jefferson stand opposite each other in the middle-front of the stage, each with a microphone. They react to each other's parts - Jefferson is pretty chill and often laughs at what Hamilton says, while A. Ham frequently gets mad and acts like he's gonna interrupt. Madison stands behind Jefferson. Behind them and to the sides is a V-shape of chairs, with Washington in the middle and various ensemble members along the sides representing the members of their parties (bits of the ensemble occasionally cheer or boo). in the second cabinet battle, Burr replaces one of the Democratic-Republican ensemble people, which I think is clever as hell. OH, and Jefferson does a mic drop into Madison's hand. King George: God, it's the funniest fucking thing. He stands completely still in his kingly regalia, leaning forward on a cane, spotlit, until in the middle of the songs he starts, you know, rotating his leg around to take one step forward. Slowly gyrating one shoulder. It's all so measured and at the same time totally over the top. And on "I'm so blue" he stomps his foot and the spotlight on him turns blue. At the end of "I Know Him," he climbs up the stairs into the balcony/raised border of the stage and chills there watching events up until The Reynolds Pamphlet. During The Reynolds Pamphlet, various ensemble and Democratic Republicans and Burr are throwing around an enormous amount of sheets of paper while Hamilton sits on his desk and looks angry and tired of this shit.. and KGIII joins in in the paper-throwing and dances slowly across the stage. It is Great. Edit: Another awesome thing is that the choreography in the REWIIIND bit of Satisfied is ACTUALLY a backwards version of the choreography from the beginning of Helpless. Edit: ALSO Burr spends most of the play either standing-and-singing or moving slowly and smoothly, but in Room Where It Happens he accelerates suddenly into jumping around the stage like a maniac, at one point standing on a table and then jumping in the air while the tablecloth is pulled out from under him. Edit!: Eliza actually burns several letters while singing the song of that title, and also .. man, Phillip's death. Ok so they bring Phillip to the hospital and he's lying flat and sadly singing with her, and he stops and the music stops and - this isn't on the soundtrack - she /screams/. And, uh, Hamilton reaches for her hand and she yanks it away.
I keep editing that post to add more things - I maaaaybe get obsessive about theatre fandoms sometimes.
That sounds about right, yes >u< I mean they were clearly rap battles so the staging can only go so many logical ways. Good. :D :D :D :D never gon' be president now See, that's the downside of OST listening. King George is sarcastically observing/participating in A. Ham's demise and despair? I would never have known, yet I should have guessed. It sounds like they use a set that's pretty built up?... I don't know if most people would pay a lot of attention to that sort of thing or not but set making is near and dear to me. I think it's cool what a show can do with a set that has a lot of parts/heavy construction, how they can get creative with it, like, I saw a production of Sweeney Todd once where the biggest piece of furniture they used, aside from a table, was a coffin that was alternatively used as another table, a bed, an oven, and, well, a coffin. People die. And Todd climbed up this fenced wall on the back of the set to shriek as us as he sang Epiphany... anyway I've also seen sets with entire Edwardian houses set up on stage (My Fair Lady) where they don't have as much obvious freedom so they have to get creative with how they use their heavily constructed set, and I think the differences in how those sorts of shows run are cool. Hee hee.
There is a bootleg if you're a filthy dirty pirate like me. I fucking love everything about Satisfied on stage.
ALSO in Guns and Ships at one point the actor says 19 words in three seconds, in a false French accent, while jumping on a table and its just daaaaaaaaamn
Yeah, the set.. would probably be easier to find a picture of than to describe. The middle bits spin, the staircase on the left is detached and dragged around by the ensemble during What'd I Miss, the brick walls in the back /get more built up during intermission/!! It's rad
Lafayette jumps around like a madman during all of Guns and Ships, yeah - oh! And during My Shot all the revolutionaries slam their shot glasses on the table when they finish their parts and the word "shot" is said. .. Hey, has everybody here heard the cut extended version of Angelica's part in The Reynolds Pamphlet and/or the alt version of Schuyler Defeated? Lemme find them.
that makes a lot of sense. at those parts, i was sure that either there were shot glasses slamming or gunshots firing.
I don't know what I expected. It wasn't that. That is BEAUTIFUL set work, gee golly GOSH. First off, I practically have a kink for rotating stages, because you can do SO many dramatic effects with them, and it's an easy way to have complicated heavy set work that you can put to the side temporarily for a larger number. Oh, or just fit a lot onto the stage at once without it being there for the whole show. Second off, holy hell, there is so much set work there. I'm just looking at it and I'm imagining about a dozen different things that you could do with a high energy number... levels to show power inbalances, jumps off the side in ecstatic pub numbers, stairs to dramatically descend (the best) and, of course, levels that you can abuse as illusions of other places or people commentating from elsewhere.... and despite that it's so SPARE I mean nothing beats an absurdly full-mansion set in my mind but the practical jungle gym they got up there would really lend itself to movement with a creative director. -ahem- Where
THE SET IS SO GOOD THE CHOREOGRAPHY IS SO GOOD in Helpless, they use the rotating stage to transition between the different scenes Eliza mention and it's really good. At least three different characters dramatically descend the stairs, yes. Cast members who aren't in the action frequently watch from above. During Non-Stop and Take a Break, Angelica is on the balcony while Alex is on the main bit of the stage. And in The World Was Wide Enough - the bit where Hamilton does his sad monologue - an ensemble member moves slowly across the rotating turntable, "holding" the bullet as it moves towards him slowly.... it's so good. <333 songs: Schuyler Defeated, now with Eliza being sweet and dragging Hamilton away from a fight with Burr: x Angelica fucking killing it, telling A. Ham off for being a dumbass: x
PM'd it to you since I don't know forum policy about such things. If anyone else wants the link, just let me know I love how they use the rotating stage to simulate walking down a street in The Schuyler Sisters I also love that they do all this cool stage stuff on Broadway but really you could put this play on with next to nothing and it'd still work. I think it'd actually be interesting to do it with everyone in modern clothes and modern props.
That "I know my sister like I know my own mind you will never find someone as trusting or as kind" riff gets me every single time
