Just Watched the Movie Hamilton

Hamilton is a 2020 movie of the same-titled Broadway musical, filmed at its Richard Rogers Theatre on 46th Street in Midtown Manhattan, just a block or so from where I stayed at the Marriott Marquis while visiting with my family in 2010.  At that time we saw the Broadway production of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center...today it was Melissa, Will and I sitting in our living room watching my second Broadway play on our television screen, thanks to Disney Plus which carried it in their listings.  The first few minutes quickly knocked me off my feet with the diverse cast and fast-paced rap, music and action...at first I had to ask if this show was about the same Alexander Hamilton I knew from studying American history.  An immigrant from the Caribbean West Indies, Hamilton was a patriot during the American Revolutionary War and served under General George Washington, a role which would later lead to his appointment as the first president's Secretary of the Treasury.  Along the way he got to know others like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Aaron Burr...the Broadway play makes his relationship with Burr much more extensive than it apparently was in real life.  Those at all familiar with the real Hamilton know of the tragic end of his life, but I felt the show did an admirable job of presenting it and the aftermath...well, the ending was a real tearjerker!  It's a pretty long film at 2 hours and 40 minutes, so plan in advance some free time to watch it.  I felt that the music was incredible, and may be the first time ever that I had experienced rap on such a high artistic level...amazing.  Later on I read up on Hamilton and found the the Broadway play, which debuted in 2015 and won numerous awards, was not only coproduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who portrayed Alexander Hamilton, but he also wrote it and composed its music and lyrics: what an incredible, daunting accomplishment!  All of the acting was fantastic, but I especially appreciated that of Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr.  If you're interested in history, then I would suggest this movie as a point of departure and not the final word on what really transpired.  I would rather have been there in person to see Hamilton performed live on stage, but still feel very privileged to have been able to experience this beautiful work of art even if only at home on a wide flat-screen TV.  Why not try it out for yourself?

Just Finished Reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The other day I checked out, from my local public library's online source Libby, an audiobook version of William Shakespeare's longest play, the tragedy Hamlet.  The version I listened to was by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and was pretty powerful, even though they stuck to the original archaic language...which was a great mental exercise in concentration and listening as I struggled to follow it.  Still, I somehow managed to keep up with the story's general flow as the fictional Danish Prince Hamlet, distraught over his father's recent death, discovers from his ghost its true cause...which leads him down a path of vengeance and disaster.  Hamlet, the Ghost, Horatio, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern...quite an unforgettable list of characters as well as memorable lines, plot twists, and that ending: ouch!  I liked hearing the play instead of visually reading it, but unfortunately since I wasn't actually watching a stage play in the way it is supposed to be experienced I was often confused as to which character was doing the speaking...and the climactic duel scene was pretty much indecipherable just listening to it, necessitating some reference to the written script, available free online: here's a link to the Gutenberg site: [Gutenberg Hamlet].  I'm not yet finished with Hamlet: I'd like to see some film versions, the 1948 Lawrence Olivier movie being the most celebrated one...although I understand it considerably altered Shakespeare's written play.  Libby offers some other plays of Shakespeare on audio, and I'd like to try them out as well.  I had a lot of fun with Hamlet, something that greatly surprised me.  Back at Nova High I had a classmate named Frances who was crazy about Shakespeare...I'm beginning to see why.  I suggest that if you're having trouble reading a play of his, try like I did and see how much you can follow on audio, or find a quality stage presentation to watch...sometimes you can pick up some good stuff from YouTube, and then there are the modern language versions on the market as well...

Attended Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap at Gainesville Community Playhouse

This afternoon Melissa and I went to see the Gainesville Community Playhouse's production of Agatha Christie's whodunit murder mystery The Mousetrap, which you can see from the above promotional picture has been going on for more than two weeks...with tonight's showing at eight and tomorrow afternoon's at two being the last ones scheduled before it closes.  It's the first time I've been to the Van York Theater, which is located in the northwestern part of Gainesville adjacent to the Millhopper Post Office on NW 16th Boulevard.  I don't think I've been to a play since my daughter's in high school a few years ago...this is the first professional production I saw since South Pacific at the Lincoln Center in NYC back in 2010...

The stage setting for The Mousetrap is simple enough: the living room area of a guesthouse, on its grand opening day.  There are eight characters, each one playing an important part in the proceedings: the young couple who have bought and opened the guesthouse, five guests, and a police detective.  And no, I'm not about to go any further than this with my descriptions...why not experience The Mousetrap for yourself, if not this time around with time quickly running out, then the next time it comes to this town or to another you happen to find yourself in...

Sitting in the second row from the stage, everything in the play seemed close-up and immediate to me.  Since the setting is England, that pesky British accent (most) of the characters assumed was at times a little challenging for me to keep up with...but that's my fault, not the excellent actors'.  And watching a live play was different than with a movie or television production...or even reading a book...in that with the latter forms, the audience/reader's attention is focused on the characters directly involved in the action or dialogue while with plays while the actors still present within the scene still have to perform within their respective characters...even when the spotlight is on someone else.  The performers in this play were very good in all aspects.  I hope to see some of them in future presentations.  And regarding upcoming productions of Gainesville Community Playhouse at the Van York Theater, Legally Blonde: The Musical with be July 7-30, Fiddler on the Roof September 23-October 16, and Little Women (which I am almost finished reading) will run November 25-December 18...