My wife and I have been listening to the Hamilton musical soundtrack for a few years now and we have really enjoyed it. We had watched the production on Disney + as well and though the sound quality didn't compare to the soundtrack we still quite enjoyed it also. It was interesting to see how the scenes played out, which at times were much different than I had imagined them to be. It was like adding a new layer to it all and helped me understood what was happening in the story.
The production has finally made its way to Toronto Canada so we jumped at the opportunity to go an see it. The show started around noon that day so we headed there early and had a coffee and snack at a cafe while we waited to go inside. There are generally two showings each day and we chose to see the early showing so we could be home at a decent time.
Hamilton played at the the Princess of Wales theater, which is located in the heart of downtown Toronto. After our coffees we headed over to collect our seats.
The theater was quite nice inside and we had really decent seats in the middle of the second row on the balcony.
The wide angle lens of my phone makes it look quite far away but in actuality it was much closer in person. The theater isn't very large so I feel like any seat in the place would be pretty good really.
With its red velvet curtains and chairs, it's decorative moldings, painted murals and dimmed ambiance lighting, the theater really felt luxurious in a way.
But then again, all theaters are like that aren't they? They really want you to feel all hoity toity - no shorts allowed, you have to wear pants.
I couldn't take photos during the show (obviously) but I took a few of the set before it started. They did a pretty good job making it look like it belonged in the 1700s. It's kind of amazing how a simple and somewhat vague design can look like its of both indoors and outside, and like it's of an expensive place and/or a run down building, all at the same time. The lighting and a few minor prop additions really do wonders to tap into the human imagination, I guess.
We perused the Hamilton pamphlet while we waited and did some reading up on the actor/singers bios and some brief and interesting history about Alaxander Hamilton, the man itself.
My wife and I were pretty surprised at how much the Toronto cast resembled the cast of the original production. The characters were too alike for it to be a coincidence I think, so it must have been planned.
Anyway, we really enjoyed the musical in person and I'd say that seeing it live was everything that we expected and hoped it would be. We both agreed that it took a few minutes to get used to the different voices and tempo than those we were used to in the soundtrack, but once we did it was a pretty great to experience. All in all I would recommend seeing it if you're into musicals. I'd say that it was definitely among the best that I've seen. You can also check out the soundtrack if you care to. You can listen to it for free on YouTube - I posted the link below for convenience.
