Hamilton Comes to PPAC: A review

You’ve never had a history lesson like it and if you’ve managed to avoid the “Hamilton” buzz for the last nine years – or you’ve been missing the punchy tunes since the show’s last stop in Providence – here’s your shot.

The touring production of the smash Lin Manuel-Miranda hit musical is at the Providence Performing Arts Center through Dec. 22, using its rap-esque tunes to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father whose obsession with overcoming “lotta brains, no polish” origins to craft his legacy proved lethal.

Nominated for a record-breaking 16 Tony Awards after its 2015 Broadway debut (earning 11), “Hamilton” elasticizes musical storytelling and, through modern music and dance styles, beckons to wider audiences.

This production is in-your-face powerful from house-rattling, full-cast numbers like “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” to the climax of George Washington’s retirement in “One Last Time,” but Miranda layers those with poignant moments throughout. This includes parallels drawn between ambitious men laying the foundation of a new country and building their families.

The production has a basic set framed in a two-story scaffolding with moving staircases that shift action and create vignettes. Lighting is expertly employed to set actor positions, replicate explosive battlefields and temper tender interactions. And the spinning center section of the floor returns as a key element in managing larger scenes needing movement. At one point, Hamilton battles his emotions for two sisters, one of whom he married. The floor slowly revolves in the scene, ferrying one sister away from him and the second toward him for dramatic effect.

Bringing Miranda’s work to life is an outstanding cast delivering power – and occasionally comic – vocals and relatively simple choreography that allows them to fade to the background or muscle to the front of scenes. It’s a strongly layered cast with powerful depth. Tyler Fauntleroy is an absolute treat as Hamilton, bringing consistent passion and boldness as the ambitious politician.

But, early in the 2-hour and 45-minute show, you experience the skilled rapping of Marja Harmon as Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister-in-law and love interest, the measured depth of A.D. Weaver’s vocals as Washington, and the comedic skill of Jared Howelton whose Thomas Jefferson dresses like Prince with uniquely edgy pitch.

Also of note is the sneering sound managed by Justin Matthew Sargent as King George III, who watches the colonists’ antics with bemusement and hits the falsetto notes in “You’ll Be Back” perfectly; and Jimmie “JJ” Jeter as Hamilton’s nemesis Aaron Burr. Jeter lends enviable tone to powerful solos like “Room Where it Happened.”

“Hamilton” is a show for the ages, one you can see over and over again. For tickets to this production, go to www.ppacri.org.

Photo from PPAC production kit.