HAMILTON! Yes, I Am Totally Obsessed and I want to Help You Plan to See It!

Even though I ended up going the direction of math and science in my education, I pretty much grew up on musical theater. My parents bought us season tickets to the Fox Theater in Atlanta, and we saw the Broadway tour companies come through with all of the big shows. My first ever tape was the cast album of Oklahoma. I practically wore out my Phantom of the Opera two tape set! And I was in every play I could get into put on by my wonderful local director David Beck. It was very much a part of my entire upbringing.

Fast forward to the massive hit to redefine Broadway hits--Hamilton! (I added the !, because that's how I say it!). The original cast was performing in New York before was ready and able to leave the boys. But this May, when the owner of my travel agency asked me if I wanted to do a one day training on Adventures by Disney in NYC, I said yes immediately. And since the Disney folks highly recommended that you get to New York the day before the training, that left me with an entire evening all by myself in the Big Apple. It didn't take too much discussion for me to grab up a ticket to Hamilton. 

This was me packing for NYC--but really, I wasn't checking that beauty. Carry on all the way for that precious piece of paper!

So, first, before I tell you how incredibly mind-blowing/incredible/amazing the show actually was, I'll fill you how I got my tickets. Because it was pretty last minute, I bought it resale on Ticketmaster. It was a mark up, but not a terrible one, really. I have bought other shows on StubHub too, but I was just too nervous about this "investment" to do anything except a direct resale ticket. If you can plan far enough in advance, you can get your hands on them at face value. You can also enter the lottery, which is front row for $10 each. We do have New York friends who enter literally every day, and they haven't won yet. I wasn't willing to put my faith in anything other than having a ticket in my hands when I went. You can also wait in the cancellation line before the show to buy tickets, and that certainly can work! If you have the time and not the cash for a last minute ticket, that's totally a good option too! 

The show itself is at the Richard Rodgers Theater, and for that trip I was staying just a few blocks away, so it was an easy walk (or really skip) over into the theater. A few people asked me if I went alone--you bet I did!

 And it totally didn't matter. I was sitting at the edge of my seat and everyone in the audience was FIRED up! There was a ton of cheering, yelling, laughing, and generally just being totally into the show. My only complaint is that it goes TOO FAST. It was probably the fastest three hours of my life. I mean for real--how do other hours go by so slowly compared to those hours?! It's hard for me to actually review something this great. People with much better words than me have done it. All I can honestly and truly say is that it lives up to all the hype. It is smart, funny, emotional, creative, fun, thoughtful, and fascinating. I don't have the adjectives to describe it....

So all that leads to saying that I had to see it again! It went to fast. I couldn't take it all in! My wonderful mom offered to keep our boys for a long weekend for George and I to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It was the first time we have both left them overnight. We tossed around a bunch of ideas of places we wanted to go. I "casually" threw out that it would be fun to go to New York to go see Hamilton. George loves history and hip hop. It was pretty much a no-brainer ;-). Every other idea seemed pretty lame after that idea. So, then the obsessing over hotel, plane tickets, and theater tickets began, because that's how I roll (and why I am a travel agent now!). 

I had read most of the book Hamilton by Ron Chernow before my first trip to see the show. The play is based on this book, so I had to buy one for George too--this was our only twinning this weekend!

For this trip, we decided to stay in Soho to be farther south closer to the action from the time period of Hamilton (and to be closer to Ansel Dominique bakery!).

One of the main lessons I have learned as a travel agent is that it is my job to design the vacation that works for YOU and not the one that works for me. For me, we like to GO. Our vacations are exhausting. We have always crammed in as much as possible. I plan lots of different styles of travel for people, but this trip was a reminder of what I really love--going and doing tons! 

One of the things we did was a walking tour about Hamilton and Burr. We went with Patriot Tours, and she was just fantastic. She was informative, and interesting, and I would reccomend these tours to anyone!

 On the the show! It was so fun to see it again--live theater is always different, and that is exciting to watch. I also felt like I could actually relax a little and just take it in this time. George on the other hand kept saying "I wish it would slow down!" during intermission! I know how you feel, man.

We got "Rise up Rye" which actually benefits the foundation started by Eliza Hamilton and The Federalist red to drink! We just couldn't resist--it's like the adult version of getting light up toys at Disney World for the fireworks!

 At dinner at Balthazar after the show, George kept saying..."I just feel like I need to say it again." And because I can't keep a secret, or because he is persistent, I spilled the beans that I already have tickets for us to go when we are in Chicago for him to run the marathon in October! I can't wait to see a different cast perform. And you KNOW we are going to get our little hands on some tickets when it comes to Atlanta next year!

So, if you are looking for a Hamilton fix and can't go yet, you can totally listen to the cast album (it's playing pretty much on loop at our house), or read the show book too! I know that people probably feel differently about this, but I would really reccomend doing your reading/listening before you go see the show. It is so dense with words and meaning, that I really felt like knowing the history and being comfortable with the lyrics ahead of time helped me get more from the show itself. I'm sure some people would rather be surprised by it all, but I didn't want to feel like I didn't know what was going on. Lin Manuel Miranda crammed in SO much meaning into each of the lines of the show, that I didn't want to miss it!

Is this a travel agent post--probably not. Did I just want to write about Hamilton, and I have a blog going right now? Pretty much!

But really, if you have questions about Hamilton, or if you want help picking a hotel in New York or Chicago to see it, you know I would enthusiastically help you! My help is totally free to you! Just shoot me an email at kacietravelplanner@gmail.com and I would be happy to help you plan a trip that fits you! I'll be waiting to hear from you :-)