To be praised, censured or none? The question that surrounds Alexander Hamilton only intensifies after experiencing this Broadway musical.
Met with packed theaters and standing ovations, the show is playing at the Overture Center from Jan. 6-18. It’s blend of humor, aspiration and tragedy with webs of love, intermittent grief, political pugilism and battlefield courage make it a worthy drama. But, it is more than that. It is a tale of love, loss and the human experience surrounding the first breaths of a nation.
A prodigy, a persona non grata, a paramour, a father and a husband amongst many other things, throughout the musical Hamilton spurs on a different mask.
As a prodigy he leads the young nation’s soldiers — scaling its ranks and ultimately serving under the nation’s first president. As persona non grata, he fights his most famous enemies Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Aaron Burr.
Hamilton’s personal life in the musical is as intermittent with joy and pain as his political one. As a husband and father he is far from paradise. His publicly scrutinized infidelity and paternal grief cast a long staggering shadow.
Hamilton’s life portrayed by the show can be best summarized by Niccolo Machiavelli’s words regarding his own — historical, comical and tragic.
The show also studies Eliza Hamilton and her grief. Her story is as profound as her husband’s, if not more. Her battle with her husband’s publicly known infidelity and maternal grief of losing her son show a human experience so many of us share — a mother. Her tale of love and loss both of a son and a husband and her fight to promote their legacy is present throughout show.
Lauren Mariasoosay, who plays Eliza, described her views on the character in an interview at the Des Moines Civic Center.
“What I love most about Eliza is her tenacity to turn her pain into change, to create something beautiful out of it,” Mariasoosay said in the interview.
Hamilton was played by Tyler Fauntleroy, who also has a history of appearing in hit shows like HBO’s “Succession.”
Mariasoosay is also known for her performances in Broadway shows “SIX,” “Alladin” and “CATS.”
Historical fame is a weird thing. Alexander Hamilton’s legacy teaches us so — if history forgets you for what you were, tag yourself to a spectacular piece of art. Even if the world has forgotten the man for who he was, it will forever remember him for the musical that wears his name.
