If you haven’t heard about or seen Hamilton the Broadway musical on Disney+, I will just have to assume that you have been living under a rock. Though, to be fair I only heard about Hamilton last year. My best friend recommended me giving it a watch on Disney+. Previously, I loved musicals in the past with school trips and such, but it had been a while since I had intentionally gone to see a musical.
About Hamilton
Hamilton is a Broadway production inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The musical follows Hamilton from his early life as an orphan in the Caribbean, all the way through his ascendency as the right-hand man of George Washington. Ending with the infamous duel with Aaron Burr, which ultimately resulted in his death. Despite its historical deposition, don’t let that fool you. Different from conventional ways of historical ‘storytelling’, the creator and its star Lin-Manuel Miranda recounts Hamilton’s story through the utilisation of rap music and hip-hop.
The original Broadway production was performed in New York in 2016, so it has definitely been around for a while. This surprised me as I had not heard about it till last year, but like I mentioned I am not well-versed in the musical theatre world. However, when I saw the accolades the play had been rewarded, inclusive of 11 Tony awards, I knew that I was possibly about to stumble on a gem.
Her Obsession became Mine
I was introduced to Hamilton through my best friend, who had been religiously watching the Broadway production. She became enthralled by the soundtrack, choreography, and the unconventional use of rap to retell a moment in history.
However, if I am going to be honest, the main persuader for me to watch the show, and potentially join this bandwagon was the duration. Funnily enough, the fact that the show was nearly 3 hours long was the primary pull. Normally, especially for those who are not accustomed to musical theatre, that may act as a deterrence. Yet personally, I looked at it from the angle of if my friend is able to sit through 3 whole hours of a musical from beginning to end on multiple occasions. Then surely there is something magical here.
The cherry on top was I decided to surprise my friend with tickets to see Hamilton in London for her birthday. Therefore, I wanted to give myself the chance to fully appreciate the musical whilst familiarising myself so I wasn’t sitting in the stalls like a lemon.
What had initially started as a necessity to familiarise myself with the plot and songs, became my own obsession.
Victoria Palace Theatre Seating Plan
When it came time to buy the tickets, I was driven by my best friend’s words. After watching the play, we had always said that we were going to go see it live in London; ‘I want to see the sweat falling down their faces. I want to see every facial expression’, words my best friend always said when it came to seeing it live. Hence, finding the right seats was important, and hard to envision the view when I had never been to the Victoria Palace Theatre.
Initially, my goal was to secure seats in the stalls (towards the stage). I thought surely if I wanted to fulfill my friend’s dream of seeing the actors perspire on the stage, the stalls would be my first point of call. However, just because the stalls were the most expensive and the closest to the stage, does not necessarily mean the seats will fulfill my needs. The only issue was how would I be able to confirm this without physically going to the building myself. Here is where I am going to let you in on a little hack I discovered that resulted in I believe securing the best seats in the house at a discounted price!
Royal Circle or Nothing at Hamilton
In the stalls, the price ranged from £150-250 per person depending on which rows in the stalls you sat. Sometimes seeing around £300 for front-row seats at the stalls. However, for front-row seats at the Royal Circle, I managed to still get the experience of seeing the sweat and facial expressions clear as day, whilst being able to see the mechanics of the stage, as well as the choreography all in one. Elements that you sacrifice when being seated in the stalls. Not to mention, that for the view we had I ended up paying £200 altogether (£100 per person).
Now this may not be news for those who regularly attend Broadway shows, but for those of us who are new to this theatre life… let me introduce you to Seat Plan. A website that allows you to not only see the seating plan of Victoria Palace Theatre, but it allows people to upload photos of the view from whichever seat they watched the play from. Moreover, Seat Plan lets people add reviews of their seats, ranging from leg room to view of the stage. This is how I went from being hellbent on securing stall seats to securing front-row seats in the Royal Circle.
If you are planning to attend Hamilton London, and you take anything away from this blog post. Let it be to get front-row (Row A) Royal Circle seats, particularly towards the center of the row. When we went, my friend and I sat in seats A28 and 29 (see view in videos and photos below).
‘The Room Where It Happens’
Having fallen in love with the play through the original Broadway version, we were both skeptical about how we would take to hearing the soundtrack that we re-played over and over again sounding different. Additionally, when you have watched Hamilton as much as we had you get to the point where you know the play word for word. Along with knowing the play word for word, is associating the dialogue and songs with the original American cast.
Despite our reservations, we absolutely loved the show and the spin the actors put on the 2016 play more so. It was performed in a way that still was reminiscent of the original Broadway show, but in little ways, the actors made the role their own.
Summary – Hamilton
All in all, I would 100% recommend Hamilton London even to the most die-hard Hamilton fans. Before we even left the show, we already said that we needed to come back again.
