Hamilton and Phantom

I grew up listening to the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera. It was the first musical I really loved. I saw the Broadway show in Charlotte many years ago but had to take the opportunity to see it in New York!

Dinner before the show at Viv. A great Thai place nearby.

The show was amazing even if Melissa and I were on the literal back row of the Majestic Theater.

Beautiful, iconic chandelier… which I took a picture of because it was beautiful and iconic, but also to show that we were at eye level with the chandelier!

There were bits and pieces of the story that I totally didn’t remember. When you only know the parts that are sung, you really can miss a lot! I enjoyed this show and I especially loved that I was able to go see Emilie Kouatchou, Broadway’s first Black Christine.

I love that Anna can see so many Black female leads on Broadway! Glinda, Christine, several of the Hamilton actresses!

Speaking of Hamilton…

I GOT TO GO! I will admit, I did not enjoy the music back when the boys were really into it. I vividly remember running on Fort Hood, trying to listen to it. I got to the first rap battle and quit. I figured there’d just be some things I wouldn’t enjoy along with the boys.

Fast forward to when Disney released the Broadway version and I was able to listen to the music, read the words, and watch the choreography simultaneously, and it all fell into place for me. I fell in love with the entirety of it.

Then we got orders to New York City and you KNOW I had to see it!

I expected to be a little disappointed that I wasn’t going to be seeing the original cast on stage. I did keep my eyes open to see if any of the OGs were still around and noticed one! Thayne Jasperson is the only OG who has been around continuously!

The cast I saw was phenomenal. Sure, I would have enjoyed seeing the creator of the show on stage but Miguel Cervantes was incredible! I was so very impressed and glad I saw it when I did…. especially since I’ve since learned that the history is not accurate and that the author who wrote the book the musical is based on got a LOT wrong. Oh well. If you want to dig into that, you will find a whole lot to unpack. Knowing how off the history is does take a little of the joy out of the show, but I still rate this as a phenomenal display of talent and genius.