For the few people that don´t know, Alexander Hamilton was a seemingly small piece of history that Lin-Manuel Miranda based an entire musical about. Initially, you would not think the life of a barely memorable man would be interesting enough to create an almost three hour musical about it, but Lin Miranda dug deeper into his story and found more than enough material to work with. Now at first, I was not a musical fan, but after some research, and hours watching pieces like Sweeney Todd, Be More Chill, and many more, I have never felt more excited to see one of my own. Then I heard amazing news from Mrs. Geary our choir teacher.

The reason I bring up Hamilton is that the New Castle Choir was accepted into a program that not only gave the choir the opportunity to see the performance live but to also talk with Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as, some of the cast behind the performance. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t refuse.

Students eagerly went to their bus first thing in the morning and headed to Pittsburgh. Students were driven to the cultural district and met in the Benedum Center where Hamilton took place. Once we went in, we went to the balcony and sat down. Once we did, the actor who portrayed King George in the story came out with a handful of the cast and answered the school’s questions. Hamilton representatives went into detail about how it takes about two hours to ship the set and move cities. Students from New Castle also learned about how the musical had its own doctor on set for the rare occasion of an on-set injury.  The cast was fairly vocal on their beliefs that if you want to pursue something in your life, you have to make the choice to drop everything and put all of your effort into your dream. When the cast spoke, they didn’t act like celebrities. They interacted with students on a friendly basis and seemed that enjoyed what they did and liked to talk about it. It makes me wish that I had a job like them in the future. Most people work somewhere because they have to, but you never truly enjoy yourself unless you actually want to work and have fun doing so. When you think about it like that, you almost feel jealous that they work with people who all enjoy themselves.

After the Question and Answer get together, as well as lunch, we went back to our seats and it finally began. The entire musical was choreographed and performed perfectly. Each movement and lyric performed with genuine passion and emotion while the set simultaneously spun. The actors sang strong and whenever they spoke, their interactions felt real. I loved how memorable each character was and each of their own flaws. When somebody cried, you felt like breaking down yourself. The way each actor puts real emotion into every word, every movement and every lyric moved both myself and my fellow choir classmates. As the final act played out I could hear sniffles of sorrow in the crowd and witnessed streams of tears fall down their faces. It was at that moment when I realized that Lin-Manuel Miranda´s goal had been achieved. He made us not only care but cry for historical figures that initially had no place in our memories. I will even admit that I shed some tears by the end. 

Hamilton has earned it´s place as one of the best musicals of it´s time.