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Every decade gets at least one Broadway juggernaut.
In 2011,The Book of Mormonroared into town to universalacclaim, immense box office, and crucially stamina.
This thing had legs, it had guts, it had the tourist market by the short hairs.
First, nothing sells like irreverence coupled with actual facts.
And also, we have a deep need to see young men horsing around.
I went to both productions when they opened, and let me be clear I loved them.
I did an unscientific survey of the Sunday-afternoon audience, and it looked almost entirely white and middle-aged.
(I am also white and middle-aged, so I melted right in.)
Until the plane lands, the show is still hilarious.
There were glints in the eyes, stifled giggles, a general air of slightly rambunctious bonhomie.
But lets be honest.
Thats not a joke about poverty or disenfranchisement.
Thats a joke about an African woman being an idiot.
In 2011, somecriticscalled the show out for its painful racism, but not many.
(Mormons dont actually obsess about hell, but whatever.)
Some, assuredly, were.
Mormons do well out of this thing, whereas Ugandans should have, I dont know, sued.
In the case ofThe Book of Mormon, the show didnt change I did.
When it comes to the actual production, it doesnt show its years at all.
Which brings me toHamilton.
I … know this is going to get me canceled.
But that juggernaut has mud in its wheels too.
Some of it is the inevitable disappointment that goes with the anticipation thatHamiltonstill sustains.
What musical-theater program is teaching anyone how to dothat?
The development ofHamiltonwas unconventional, with freestyle friends of Mirandas filling crucial roles.
Its instructive to see where new castinghasserved the show.
You cant picture this Burr raising an army to overthrow the United States on the border (facts!)
because he clearly just needs a calm drink.
Odoms Burr was apparently the same age as Mirandas Hamilton; Breakers Burr seems clearly older.
And what about the musical itself?
How does it read in 2019?
Well, King George is still the funniest bit, and he kills on every line.
You must write not just talk,write to control your destiny and protect your legacy.
That command still stands, and it hasnt been affected by the passing years.
And there the tides seem to run in two directions at once.
Yes, its still exciting to see.
After the show opened, we all became baby experts on these guys.
(If you dont know, now you know.)
The show that director Thomas Kail built zips along on polished rails, a wonderful machine.
But theres a little hollowness there, if Im hearing the room and my own mind right.
BecauseHamiltonwasnt just a musical.
It was a corrective, a cannonball, a call to work (Work!
), a promise.
The orchestra section is now, seemingly, just expense accounts and millionaires and one-show-in-my-lifetime splurgers.
Lines like Immigrants they get the job done!
now receive wild applause only from a very specific section of the theater, basically the lottery seats.
(The mainstreams best trick is that it commodifies even the things that critique it.)
Then we threw away our shot.
The Book of Mormonis at the Eugene ONeill Theatre.Hamiltonis at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
