I have seen “Hamilton” a total of three times. Now, to most people, this may seem quite excessive. I beg to differ. “Hamilton,” the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, based off of the book “Hamilton,” by Ron Chernow, is one of my favorite theatrical performances. Each time I have seen the performance, the actors have been completely different. My first time seeing “Hamilton” was in September of 2019 at the Orpheum Theater. After 4 years of listening to the soundtrack of the Broadway performance, I was bubbling with excitement to see the musical. It completely exceeded my expectations. Each actor and character had their own presence and threw in their own extra lines throughout the musical. There was so much value to seeing the actors behind the songs. The emotion from each of the actors was absolutely superb, and every single scene was amplified so much by the live actors in person. You almost felt as if the actors were speaking and singing directly to you. The two instances that I found were intensified most by the in person performance was the death of Philip Hamilton and all three of King George’s solos. The death of Philip in the show was so well preformed and so dramatic, bringing me and everyone with me to the edge of tears. Each of King George’s solos had the crowd bursting out with laughter, something that I was expecting but not to the amplitude that it actually was.

The second time I saw the musical was the Disney+ special with the original Broadway cast. Being able to see and hear the original actors that were on the soundtrack was astonishing. Connecting faces and acting styles to voices was so much fun, and even though this was the original cast, they also each had their own quirks and changes, things that you couldn’t see or hear in the soundtrack. Although it was remarkable being able to see the original cast, this was not yet my favorite rendition of the show. The third time I saw the show was this year, once again at the Orpheum Theater. Going into the show, I had the attitude that the show was a waste of time because I’ve already seen it twice. I could not have been more wrong. Knowing all of the songs and the words, I was able to focus on the parts of the show one wouldn’t usually focus on, such as the background dancers and characters outside of the few main characters that stayed consistent throughout the show. I saw some funny background choreography, especially during “The Reynolds Pamphlet.” King George was having an amazing time while two of the background dancers were doing snow-angels in all the pamphlets on the floor. I noticed how multiple actors had double roles, mainly how John Laurens was Philip Hamilton in the second half of the play.

To conclude, seeing a movie, play, musical or show multiple times is not a waste of time. Each time I had seen the show I became more and more observant and was able to spot things that one would never be able to see on the first watch over. I hope that I am able to see “Hamilton” more in the future, for it has taught me a valuable lesson.