I know I’m a little bit late on this trend, but I finally got around to seeing “Hamilton: An American Musical” here in Chicago.
A few of my friends flew/ Amtrak-ed in for a mid-week weekend centered around seeing Hamilton Wednesday night at the CIBC Theatre.
Spoiler alert: It was so good! I basically sat on the edge of my seat in rapture for the entire three hours.
The whole thing kind of came about a few months ago. My friend Angela had been dying to see Hamilton, but — since she lives in Los Angeles — ticket prices to see the touring production were absolutely insane. She quickly figured out that for the cost of a single ticket to see the musical on the West Coast, she could pay for airfare, an Airbnb room and a ticket to see the musical’s residency here in Chicago!
So, Chicago it was! She bought five tickets (on her 33rd birthday, nonetheless), booked a flight and ended up here in Chicago. She brought along two of her friends, Rafa and Carolina, and our other friend Caitlin came in from Michigan as well.
Everyone got into town Tuesday afternoon, and we spent a pretty low key night at the East Lakeview Airbnb. Angela, Rafa and Carolina were pretty tired from their early morning LAX flight, and I’d had a full work day. We ordered deep dish to the Airbnb and then Angela and I planned out the next day while Rafa, Carolina and Caitlin caught up on Game of Thrones.
The next morning we all met up for breakfast at Tweet. Angela is gluten-free, and she absolutely loves Tweet since it has an entirely gluten-free menu.
After Tweet, we went downtown to explore. We’d tried to plan for indoor activities since the forecast was solid rain for an entire day, but luckily, the weather had completely cleared up.
We did the touristy things, like seeing the Bean, Grant Park and the Lakefront. I couldn’t stop laughing at Carolina’s reaction to Lake Michigan. She’s from California and it was her first visit to Chicago, and she couldn’t get over the fact that Lake Michigan was a lake, and not an ocean. It was so adorable!
We went to the Harold Washington Library after we walked around downtown a bit. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but this was the first time I’d ever actually been to the library to explore. I’ve been inside a few times to renew my library card and pay off some of my late fees… but I’ve never actually explored the library.
So, we did that!
We trekked around the library to look at some of the exhibits and displays and made it up to the ninth floor.
If you didn’t know — I actually didn’t, whoops — the Harold Washington Library is the biggest public library building in the world.
Neat!
We left the library, stopped at Hero‘s Pickwick Place location for coffee (and Instagrams) and then went back to the Airbnb to get changed and ready for dinner and the show.
We got dinner at Wilde, since it also had an entirely gluten-free menu for Angela. After that, we took a Lyft to the CIBC Theatre for Hamilton.
I’ll preface this by saying that I’m not really a musical person. I don’t have a background in theater, I honestly couldn’t recite a list of the best Broadway musicals and I don’t ever listen to show tunes.
HOWEVER. Hamilton was fantastic! I went in completely blind. I hadn’t listened to the soundtrack at all (Avoiding it for three years was a serious challenge) and even though I knew the plot (I did take U.S. history and all) and some of the references (If you’ve never heard anyone say “immigrants: we get the job done,” what rock have you been under?!), I didn’t know much about the show, other than it was a rap musical and the casting was ultra-diverse.
I was blown away. First of all, the concept is so unique. Like… a rap musical about one of the founding fathers of the United States? Cast almost entirely with people of color? It sounds so insane in theory, but it absolutely works. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a complete genius.
While everyone on stage did a phenomenal job, I absolutely adored the performances of King George (Andrew Call) and Thomas Jefferson (Paris Nix). I giggled nonstop when Andrew Call performed “You’ll Be Back,” and after a few acts, I was straight- up giddy every time the character of King George stepped out onto the stage. I completely lost it during “The Reynolds Pamphlet” when both King George and Thomas Jefferson started dancing around to “Never gon’ be President now!”
I’ll conclude with this: If you ever have the opportunity to see Hamilton, even if you’re not a musical person, go see it! It’s so good!
After the musical, we went back to the Airbnb. We’d made plans to go out for drinks, but we were all so tired from the day — and I had to teach a yoga class the next morning — that we called it quits early. I don’t think anyone was too upset, though. We were all exhausted!
The next morning, after I taught my yoga class, we all met at Wheat’s End Cafe (entirely gluten-free!) for a late breakfast before heading downtown where we said our goodbyes. Angela, Rafa, Caitlin and Carolina had tickets to the Hamilton Exhibition at Northerly Island, and I had some appointments to go to.
Phhewww. I had such a fun mid-week weekend. I’m honestly not really sure how to close out this blog post, so I’ll just say I’m so grateful for my friends and how willing they are to do things like this, and to say GO SEE HAMILTON!
