How Hamilton returned to the stage in Sydney – with no social distancing

It was the night the world turned upside down… under. To the rapturous applause of a full house, Hamilton producer and Sydney’s newest fan, Jeffrey Seller (fresh out of his two weeks’ quarantine) declared March 27 2021 to be “the night Hamilton was reborn in the ‘greatest city in the world’.” He also asked if there were any real estate agents in the house.

The 27,000-plus words that make up Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony, Pulitzer, and Grammy-award winning musical are teeming with phrases that now seem almost deliberately written for the manipulation of reviewers (and Instagram stories) so let’s get them out of the way early. Yes, we were willing to wait for it. We were in the room where it happened. We were helpless for the young scrappy and hungry Australian cast. And boy, were we satisfied.

This was the first time Hamilton had been performed anywhere since March 2020, when both Broadway and the West End were shut down. The Lyric Theatre was filled with two thousand Sydneysiders, their eyes bulging over the top of black-and-gold-Hamilton-branded masks, glasses of Chardonnay sloshing as theatregoers bumped shoulders with real people, strangers even.

The masks were the only reminder of Covid. There was no social distancing; people coughed and no one scowled or ran for the nearest exit. The audience screamed, cheered and whooped and the air was full of our Covid-free aerosol. If this sounds like bragging, it’s not. Ok, it might be. But a city that has traditionally been the last stop for major musicals is now the only place in the world to see the biggest of them all. We're allowed to enjoy it while it lasts.

The story of Alexander Hamilton — American founding father, and secretary of the treasury of the United States — has been described as “the story of America then told by America now”. So how does a very un-American cast made up of 33 Australian performers spanning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Maori, Filipino, Japanese, Samoan, Jamaican, South African, Nigerian, and Egyptian backgrounds stack up?

Very well, as it turns out. Jason Arrow juggles the vulnerability and the arrogance of the “polymath, pain in the ass” titular character with aplomb. His entrance was buoyed by a euphoric round of applause that lasted so long the band had to stop to wait for the audience to get a hold of themselves. Arrow brings a pathos to the role that was made famous by Miranda, and it’s easier to like his - still arrogant, still unstoppable - somewhat softer interpretation. The cabinet battles are electric — Arrow spars with co-star Victory Ndukwe, who brings a masculinity to the foppish dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson.

But there are two stars in the Hamilton story. It’s the character of Hamilton’s nemesis, Aaron Burr, executed with an erect elegance by Lyndon Watts, who has the standout musical numbers. Watts’ Burr snakes his way through the performance with a control that is the perfect foil for Hamilton’s exuberance. He even nails the tablecloth jump sequence in The Room Where It Happens? He nails it. Phew.

And while it is a male-dominated show, it is the women who light up the stage. After just one performance it feels like only Chloe Zuel and Chloe Zuel only can play the role of the dignified Eliza Schuyler — her mellifluous voice as dazzling as her smile is brilliant. In the role of her sister Angelica, Akina Edmonds is effervescent in the role of the, at times tortured, doting, supportive sister yet die-hard #Hamilfan. Elandrah Eramiha pulls off the switch from the innocent, runt-of-the-Schuyler-litter, role of Peggy — all butter-yellow dressed and indignant —to the steamy Maria Reynolds who, clad in red, leads Hamilton to his (self inflicted) downfall.

And if the tale of the Reynolds affair sits uncomfortably with you, you’re not alone. A musical number about resisting the temptations of a ‘helpless’ woman, in a domestic violence situation, perhaps grows more distasteful with every performance.

Then there are Hamilton’s revolutionary sidekicks — Marty Alix is piquant as both John Laurens and, later, Philip, Hamilton’s young son. Shaka Cook does not disappoint, first as the burly scene stealer, Hercules Mulligan, and later as the more muted James Madison. Brent Hill belted out King George III’s jaunty show tunes and captured the character’s grotesque babyishness in a performance that had the audience roaring.

And while watching the original cast performing via the Disney+ streaming platform was a useful mid-pandemic distraction for many in 2020 (over three million, actually) the small screen cannot capture the added storytelling layer of Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography, nor the brilliant colours inherent in Paul Tazewell’s costumes. Tazewell had to endure many geographical challenges for the Sydney production, not least of which was a worldwide shortage of elastic due to the increase in face mask production.

The Australian production broke box office records before its opening; more than a quarter of a million tickets were sold prior to the first preview. With $40 million Australian Dollars (￡22 million) spent since tickets went on sale, it has been the largest advance in Australian history.

Sydney’s production would have been one of seven companies playing worldwide, and only the second to be performed outside of the US (the first was London). Despite the pandemic, the Hamilton franchise is one of only five musicals to have ever surpassed $1 billion in revenue, helped by the producers' $75 million streaming deal with Disney.

That it's such a polished production is frankly a miracle, considering the circumstances in which it was put together. While the pandemic precluded the original creative team from being on the ground in Australia, they have still been deeply involved. Miranda oversaw the year-long casting process, with auditions taking place via Zoom.

The costume department alleviated the need to travel by sending out DIY measurement kits — in person fittings only happened towards the end of 2020. The musical’s director, Thomas Kail, has kept a watchful eye over Zoom, from 10,000 miles away in New York, while resident director, Amy Campbell, managed the day-to-day proceedings. The rehearsal process, which is typically very open, was kept tight in order to contain the interaction and management of potential exposure to Covid-19.

It is one of the first productions to be granted approval by the New South Wales government to proceed with 100 per cent capacity performances — and it’s a full house. The premiere comes one night after Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s opening of La Traviata (which had been delayed for 364 days), and almost a month since the Sydney Theatre Company’s Playing Beatie Bow was the first to play to a full capacity audience.

Predictably, opening night ended with a prolonged standing ovation. It’s been 13 months since the lights went out in theatres across the globe; if Sydney is the canary in the coalmine to test the pent-up appetite of theatregoers worldwide, producers have little to fear.

Hamilton is playing at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney until November 2021