Hamilton South Florida

[Gene3]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 5:44am

I just saw Hamilton this afternoon in Miami and it was one of the worst things I have seen in years. Hamilton is my favorite production of all time and I have had the privilege of seeing the original cast back in 2016, twice. I went to see it three times in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa in 2018 & 2019 and it was really good, obviously nothing even comes close to the original cast but this year the performers were so bad I wanted to leave. The best were Lafayette / Jefferson, Peggy / Reynolds, Lawerence / Phillip. Other than that all main players were awful. It is obvious they have not seen the original production, maybe they are trying to "make it their own", I do not know but all I can say is it was painful to watch. Hamilton, Burr, Washington, Angelica & Eliza were terrible, not good singers and their timing is bad. There were a couple of good moments but this thing felt so forced it was ridiculous. The King was over the top hokey and not funny, again very forced. The guy who played Reynolds was pretty good but his part was about 5 minutes. Sorry to say I would not waste my money, save it and fly to NYC. I would like to know who did the casting? they should be fired immediately, where is the quality control. This was like seeing a bad cover band. I give it an F+. The + is for the ensemble, they were pretty good. 

Disappointed Fan

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 9:35am

Huh, we saw it in West Palm and loved it. Of course, we won the lottery and had front row tickets for $10, so maybe that helped, haha. Also I (surprisingly) wasn't familiar with the show, other than the parts that can't be avoided, so I didn't have much to compare it to. But I assume the casting director for the tour is the same as the Broadway version (Telsey, probably), so I don't think that was the problem. Maybe they had an off night, or you just weren't in the mood? 

[Gene3]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 11:58am

Hey DooWahDiddy, I am glad you liked it, I may be tainted due to the fact I am comparing to the original cast, but I saw it last year in Lauderdale and Tampa and thought it was great. I left out that we also went to see it in Fort Myers 4 weeks ago and it was so bad we bought tickets to Miami because we thought maybe they had a bad night, Miami was slightly better but still uncomfortable for me to watch, my wife thought it was just ok and she could not care less about the details...... I cherish this production and I feel that this particular cast is just not nailing it. Typically I could not care less about who is playing who either, as long as it is good. But this one just bugs me. This may be one of the most significant productions in Broadway history and to see it butchered like this hurts... I am glad you thought it was good, I was worried that if anyone saw this version they would hate it and wonder what the hype was all about. 

[florida theatre kid]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 12:44pm

I saw them in Naples and thought of the 4 companies I’ve seen (Broadway, Chicago, Philip Tour in Tampa) the Angelica company was uniformly the strongest. Also much of the cast has been in several companies, so I don’t think casting is to blame. Entitled to your opinion though of course!

[Gene3]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 1:43pm

Hi FL Theatre Kid, I apologize but which is the "Angelica Company"? I have seen this several times and did not recognize anyone from previous casts? However, I have only seen this on Broadway, original cast in 2016 and alternate cast in 2018. Fort Lauderdale and Tampa 2018, 2019. All were great. Maybe my bar is too high, also seems they slowed down the music by a several beats per minute. Felt very slow to me. 

I am happy to hear many people liked or loved it, I am still trying to figure out why I am so upset over this cast.... I wanted to pull them aside and explain what they are doing wrong. For example, during the first number when Burr introduces Hamilton no one applauded, you could hear crickets. This is the first time I have seen this reaction....The opening number is so powerful but this cast sucked the energy right out of the song. Perhaps it was the tempo, again seemed very sluggish and slow. Also Burr changed one word of one line in another scene and that only reinforced my opinion he had no idea about the relationship between Burr and Hamilton and really had no idea about the character he was playing. What upsets me most is after seeing this cast I may never attend a live version again unless I go to NYC.... 

 

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 2:59pm

The Angelica company is presently in South Florida, and I've enjoyed this company numerous times.

Who played Hamilton, Burr, etc at the performance you saw?

[Gene3]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 4:33pm

Hi Dottie, I believe Edred Utomi played Hamilton, The guy who played Burr is not listed in the cast I see online and that goes for both Fort Myers and Miami, 2 different Burr actors (I think). Paul Stovall played Washington, looks like most of the others listed in the "Angelica" cast are accurate except for John Laurens / Philip, again not listed in the cast directory, but he was decent. I noticed the list for the "Philip" cast and those are the people that I saw last year in Lauderdale and Tampa. There was just something disturbing to me about this cast, the chemistry in my opinion was just not there. My wife who does not care like I do and usually just enjoys being there even commented that this cast appeared to be trying to hard and very rarely does she not like a live show regardless of which one it is.  However, I am particularly passionate about this show due to the fact I was lucky enough to see a great performance of the original cast. I just feel robbed since I had tickets so far in advance was looking forward to going only to be disappointed and upset that I wasted my time. I compare it to seeing Led Zeppelin, The Beatles or the Stones and then seeing a "so so" cover band, if I had not seen the original would my opinion be different? Tough to say because I really liked the Philip cast and the broadway cast I saw in 2018, I had no issue with either one of these casts, I thought they were all great. Again why this cast bugs me so much is unknown. Perhaps the visual of Hamilton being over a foot taller than Burr, perhaps Paul Stovall's lackluster physical performance, perhaps Zoe changing the phrasing during her solo numbers, perhaps the over the top facial expressions of the King and lackluster vocal performance, perhaps the lackluster vocal ability of Stephanie / Angelica, I do not know but I will go as far to say I hated both performances I attended, Fort Myers in January and Miami yesterday. And for me to not like anything Hamilton is rare. 

 

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/23/20 at 11:03pm

Edred Utomi is my favorite Hamilton out of all the ones I have seen. I saw the original Broadway company as well.

I wonder if you saw Blaine Krauss as Burr. He just joined the company as the new standby. The site has not been updated.

I happened to like Paul Oakley Stoval as George Washington.

Sorry you didn't enjoy this company.

[MannPhan24601]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 12:40am

I saw the Angelica company in Philly back in Sept with Utomi as Hamilton and Josh Tower as Burr. I thought they sounded just as spectacular as Lin and Leslie and the rest of the cast was on fire !

Glad to hear that Blaine K joined the show. I saw him as an angel in KB a few times and he was out for a concert when I saw the Cher Show ...

[bmgills]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 2:18am

Just to clear things up, Blaine is with the Phillip company, not the Angelica company.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 5:05am

^That's right. My bad!