I got to be in “the room where it happened”. Then again given how long it’s taken me to finish this post maybe it should be “What Did IMiss?”
Well sort of.
Back at the beginning of March, I went to see Hamilton in the West End. Sometime last year it was announced it was coming. Then in November following a couple of hiccups the tickets went on sale. Jen and I decided we were going. Jen and I chatted on Twitter and Instagram. However, other than a bit of youth work she’d done with Chris, we actually hadn’t hung out together. We got our tickets booked and then decided we probably should hang out before our adventure. In February about two weeks before we were due to go, we grabbed a coffee on her day off and got to know each other a bit better!
The countdown could properly begin from our coffee date.
Yes we were *that* excited.
Over the last few years since Hamilton came out on Broadway, I’ve been watching the Ham4Ham videos on YouTube as well as various live versions of the Hamilton songs. Most recently a parody called Hamilton Polka by Weird Al has been added to the playlist too – thank you Amy for the intro!)
(My favourites have to be the The Schyler Georges and My Shot at The White House).
The Journey to Get There
After the challenge of getting across Bedford, from my house to the station we were very relieved when we just about managed to catch the fast service into London. This was after running down the platform and shouting STOP! at one of the conductors as he was folding up the wheelchair ramp. Thankfully he let us on (although he looked panicked!). Once on the train finding a seat was interesting. However, in the end we found two sort of across the aisle from one another. I spent some of the journey trying to get my head around the Dotted Rays Pattern by Stephen West.
When we arrived at St Pancras, we had a quick visit to Cath Kidston and then headed down to the underground. I’m glad Jen knew where we were going because the route I’d been looking at was completely different.
We got on the Victoria Line which took us straight from St Pancras to Victoria Underground Station. I didn’t realise we could get the tube that close to the theatre. I’d been looking at wandering there via JP Books if possible so I’d not entirely clocked where the theatre was. We left he underground station and the exit is directly across the road from the theatre. so was very surprised when we left the tube station and the theatre is right there in front of us. which is directly across the road from the Victoria Palace Theatre where the show is.
Well This is Where it Gets Dramatic!
As we left the underground station, there were crowds of people absolutely everywhere. I figured it was just because we’d hit rush hour and people were trying to get into the Underground and Victoria Station. It was only when a lady walked passed us talking, did we realise what was going on. Victoria Station had been evacuated due to a suspicious package. We decided to go into a local Pret A Manger and grab a sandwich. Due to how early you have to queue for ticket collection, we decided it would be better to grab our sandwiches and then eat in the queue. It also meant we could get out of the crush of people on the pavement outside.
While we were in the queue in Pret, my Social Media hat came on and I got checking Twitter – was anyone tweeting about what was going on? I couldn’t find anything at first so I texted Chris to explain that if anything did go on the news we were safe and weren’t involved in whatever was happening.
Having got our food, we headed over to the theatre. Thankfully Jen put up with my Mum moment. As we crossed the road, I grabbed Jen’s hand. I think I’m too used to dealing with Jaxon or something! (Sorry Jen!)
We followed the barrier to join the queue to get tickets and it turned out that we were at the front of the queue. I don’t know whether they’d opened the bar areas for people to wait anyway or had heard what was going on the other side of the road in the station and decided to clear the street of “their” people but it meant we were able to eat our sandwiches in the warm and dry bar area while killing time.
When it had come to booking tickets, I kind of left Jen to it. She’d said we were in one of the boxes and that there was kind of a restricted view. I was so surprised when we got into the auditorium and saw our seats.
This was from the door way, we’d done all the leg work getting from the street to the bar area so I don’t think we’d (or specifically me) had clocked quite how high we were. This took us in at Circle level then went down the stairs and through a special corridor to those chairs (they look like dining chairs!)
When we found our eeats and helped someone else find their seats too, we took some photos including a few selfies, updated the relevant family members who had been texted to make sure we were okay etc.
While sat there I checked my email and ended up setting up a telephone call with a new client for my business! That was an unexpected surprise!
Thoughts after Hamilton
I’ve been listening to the songs and various covers. I think I had a little idea of what the show was about based on the songs that I had seen. Along with the interviews that I had seen with Lin-Manuel Miranda. But on the other side I don’t think I’d quite realised a lot of the story. I love the different styles of music that appear in it, You have a Beach Boys/Beatles style thing going on with You’ll Be Back next to a Prince jazzy number with What Did I Miss?
I got caught up in all the history bits when I got home. The Schuyler Sisters were related to some of the original Dutch settlers that arrived in New York – or what was New Amsterdam. So, my inner history nerd was very happy!
At first I wasn’t entirely sure that I would like Hamilton. I guess when I heard that it was mostly rapping that may have put me off. Rap music is generally not my first choice! However once I’d heard a few of the songs, I fell for it and I loved the musical.
