Went to the first performance tonight with my partner.
Show thoughts:
-This was my first time back in a big theater, and it was quite surreal. I got emotional over dumb stuff like the merch stand and even the stairs to the Orpheum's bathrooms.
-*Tons* of applause for every character entrance in the opening number. The music stopped for a good 15+ seconds when Julius Thomas III made his first appearance as Hamilton.
-The And Peggy tour cast was largely the same, but with some new-to-me faces. Victoria Ann Scovens was a phenomenal Eliza, and really carried the heart of the show. Darnell Abraham played Washington with really strong Obama vibes, almost to the point of being distraction, but redeemed himself with his belt in One Last Time. Paris Nix was a fun Lafayette/Jefferson, and really nailed some of the harder bits in Washington on Your Side.
I've seen Hamilton 3x before, but it hit me differently this time. There are so many lines about life and death; "I may not live to see our glory", "When's [death] gonna get me, in my sleep, seven feet ahead of me?", "How lucky we are to be alive right now." We've all been in this place the last 18 months of either losing people we care about, or being terrified of it.
For the first time it really hit me what the characters were living through in the first act, and what it means to keep fighting despite the impossibility. For me, the show became about defiance and standing tall in the face of calamity and world-changing events. Needless to say, I cried through The Schulyer Sisters and That Would Be Enough. (Plus It's Quiet Uptown, but that's just a given!)
No speeches at the beginning or end. I wish there had been more to mark the occasion, but it was still a really special night of theater.
Health and Safety thoughts:
-The Orpheum staff really did check everyone's ID and vaccine verification, and actually scanned the barcode for the digital verification on my phone. I'm sure people can fake these things, but they took the process seriously.
-We purposefully chose partial view seats on the far left. This meant I could dash to the restroom at intermission before a line formed, and we quickly exited onto the street after the show.
-I really wish theaters would just stop selling food/drinks for the foreseeable future. I enjoy a drink at a show as much as the next person, but it's not a critical part of the experience, and it means more time with people unmasked. (For context, I still don't eat indoors at restaurants. And yes, I know that they sell food/drinks to make money).
-Wearing a mask for 3 hours is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but I was more than happy to do it in exchange for getting to see real, live people singing and dancing a piece of drama in front of me. (For God's sake, the last time I saw a live musical was in March 2020!)
-Audience members were largely good about following the masking rules, but for God's sake, we're 18 months into this, and some people still don't understand that the mask goes over your nose. A woman several rows ahead of me was doing this at intermission, and unfortunately it took me out of the whole experience for a bit. (I work for my local public health department's Covid response, and I have to look at post-vaccination data all day. It's hard for me not to think about these things).
All of this is to say: I think feeling safe at the theater depends on your own risk calculus. My partner and I are in our 30s, vaccinated, no underlying health conditions, and we're not caring for anyone vulnerable. Still, we still play things pretty cautiously most of the time. I'm *really* glad we went, and I think the theater did a lot of things to make it much lower risk, but it's still not a no-risk situation, unfortunately.
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