‘Hamilton’ on tour – same dramatic power, but a different vibe
The touring production of 'Hamilton' runs through Feb. 2 at the Belk Theater
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on Jan. 9, 2025. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. And check out this link for Toppman’s archive of reviews in the Ledger.
Review: Washington thunders, Lafayette overdoes it and Alexander and Eliza forge powerful dramatic arcs as ‘Hamilton’ returns to Charlotte
The choreography and non-stop energy of the touring production of “Hamilton” embody the chaos and turmoil that are the story’s cornerstones. (Photo courtesy of Blumenthal Arts)
by Lawrence Toppman
Masterpieces don’t change, but we do. How we respond to them over time depends on how we’ve altered as viewers — or, in the case of “Hamilton,” what has happened in our country.
The show, which reached Broadway during the second term of Barack Obama’s presidency, celebrates the multicultural, immigrant-driven nature of America in its unorthodox casting and its narrative: A Scots-French-British orphan born out of wedlock comes to the United States as a self-educated 17-year-old clerk and ends as one of the architects of American government.
Now, as we prepare to inaugurate a president who has encouraged xenophobia and embraced the support of openly racist groups, the musical has come to Belk Theater for a month-long run. I saw it Wednesday night not as a celebration of the diversity that makes America great but a reminder of a dream that seems to be slipping from our collective grasp.
This doesn’t dim “Hamilton’s” power. The squabbling political factions, damaged love between the title character and wife Eliza, and the personal battle between Hamilton and Aaron Burr play out with the same tragic and occasionally comic intensity. Compared to the pettiness of modern politics, these people seem to have the authority of Greeks and Trojans in a Homerian epic.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s diffuse array of songs — hip-hop, ballads, anthems, jokey numbers for petulant King George III — have the same punch and pathos. Thomas Kail’s direction and especially Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography propel the action forward; the constant motion doesn’t just create non-stop energy but embodies the turmoil and chaos of a nation a-borning.
This iteration (my fourth) has differences from the others, most of them positive. It goes faster than I recalled in Act 1, which helps us get through a lot of exposition but may leave newcomers confused. Hamilton gets more of a dramatic arc in the hands of Tyler Fauntleroy: He begins impetuously, motor-mouthing to express all his ideas, yet grows into a somber character with great emotional weight. (Lauren Mariasoosay matches him as the softer-spoken Eliza Hamilton.)
The crucial casting of Washington has changed. I have seen Asian-American actors play him as a quietly authoritative strategist. A.D. Weaver, a bull of a baritone with a huge chest and stage presence, makes him a Roman warrior troops would willingly follow; he’s so virile the phrase “father of his country” might not be metaphoric. When he leaves the play — as presumably happened when the real Washington retired — the people who remain are a bit diminished.
Unfortunately, the emphasis on broad comedy goes too far in Jared Howelton’s double impersonation of Marquis de Lafayette in Act 1 and Thomas Jefferson in Act 2. His faux French accent as Lafayette makes his raps incomprehensible, and he channels Little Richard so giddily you expect Jefferson to scream “Tutti frutti! Awwwwww rootie!” when elected president.
Aaron Burr is frequently played as sinister from the start. Jimmie “JJ” Jeter offers a more interesting slant: He’s less deceitful than empty, someone who advocates concealing political views because he has none. Burr becomes an amoral, calculating Iago to Hamilton’s idealistic Othello, one who doesn’t discover just how much he hates his superior until he’s thwarted in every circumstance. (The show alters history: Burr shot Hamilton in a duel because he felt Hamilton’s opposition cost him the governorship of New York, not the presidency.)
I found myself drawn this time not only to Hamilton, Eliza and Washington but also to Burr, a gifted man without a moral compass and with a terrible fear of inadequacy. In fact, I felt some sympathy even for King George, who by the time of Hamilton’s murder in 1804 ruled as a bigoted, quarrelsome autocrat descending into the dementia that would completely overtake him seven years later. That, of course, wouldn’t happen in America.
If You’re Going: “Hamilton” runs at the Belk Theater through Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews about two times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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