Hamilton: More Seats idea... Brilliant or Dumb? — Page 2

aaaaaa15 said: "QueenAlice said: "I will be curious to see how this unfolds eventually in the West End; not sure If the show will have huge appeal in the UK for obvious reasons."



Plenty of people from the UK (including myself) have seen the show and loved it. Our most popular, long-running show is about the French Revolution. Most Americans aren't well-versed on Alexander Hamilton's life either. It will do well here, just like BoM did, despite us not having the same Mormon culture.



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I think the sentiment is just that the name of the musical is Hamilton: An American Musical, which has an entire character and several songs mocking the British King. It is based around rap and hip hop music, which is a huge part of American culture, but it also just might be weird to have British actors with British accents playing distinctly American characters.

pupscotch said: "I think the sentiment is just that the name of the musical is Hamilton: An American Musical, which has an entire character and several songs mocking the British King. It is based around rap and hip hop music, which is a huge part of American culture, but it also just might be weird to have British actors with British accents playing distinctly American characters."

I get that but I'm sure they could just not include the 'an American musical' part on the British marketing. And honestly it's not like King George III is some beloved person from British history, most people can't differentiate between the different Kings of the same name. A lot of people don't even like the current Queen. For the most part, Brits aren't as patriotic as Americans.

Rap/hip-hop is also huge in the UK. We may not have rappers that are as famous as Kanye/Jay-Z but if you look at our Top 40 charts it wont take you long to find rap.

I don't think the accents will be much of an issue, especially considering the show is pretty much sung/rapped-through.

Updated On: 3/18/16 at 02:42 PM

QueenAlice said: "Yes pupscotch elaborated on my reasons for wondering about the productions long term appeal in the UK. I do feel there is a home grown patriotic spirit and sense of country pride that is part of the undercurrent of what has made this into a phenom in the states. Unlike Les Miserables or Book of Mormon, Hamilton is very much an history lesson- a rather complicated one at that. im just not sure audiences here would really be invested in that. I was delighted that they brought back "In the Heights" after its fringe run a few years ago, but it is not doing well at the box office in London. I think it's just too specifically American for broad tastes here.

I think doing a limited season with members of the original cast might do very well but I can't imagine this running for years in London. I actually don't see Hamilton having huge international appeal at all, but of course could be proven wrong."

In the Heights is a completely different thing though. It's not like that did even half as well as Hamilton is doing in New York. It has a rather average book and songs that are great, but nowhere near on the same level of the songs of Hamilton. Also much of the success of In the Heights in NYC was due to the large hispanic communities that live there, we don't have as much of that in London.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I would be very shocked if Hamilton didn't run for years in London. Of course, I think the NYC production will be the most successful of all but that's usually the case with any American musical.

Updated On: 3/18/16 at 02:47 PM

Yep, just a case of wait and see. Although from what I can tell it's not the history of the show that's drawing Americans to it either, it's the quality of the score and the word-of-mouth reviews.

Another aspect to consider is that the American revolution was their revolution against Britain, so it is very much our history as well.

Updated On: 3/18/16 at 03:27 PM

Even the multi-ethnic nature of the cast seems to be a direct commentary on American cultural history. I do think the show is very American. But I suppose so was HAIR and that actually ran longer in the West End than it did on Broadway!

QueenAlice said: "Even the multi-ethnic nature of the cast seems to be a direct commentary on American cultural history.

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It will be interesting to see the ethnic make-up of the London cast. I recall an interview in which LMM expressed excitement about casting the London production to reflect the immigrant population in England. (I think it was somewhat hypothetical, because I don't think that London has been officially announced yet)

Updated On: 3/18/16 at 04:34 PM

I think the Chicago production and national tour will help, as will the eventual West End production. I'm surprised they didn't plan a Los Angeles/San Francisco sit down (like "Wicked" in addition to the tour. There were rumors of it reopening an old theatre on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, which is undergoing a revitalization of sorts. (Parking's a pain, but the area's changed a lot in the last few years.) I think the Orpheum and Los Angeles Theatres were contenders, but instead they're doing four months at the Pantages in fall 2017.

Cupid Boy2 said: "A second company would be a great way of sticking it to the scalpers. Their tickets would surely lose a good deal of their value if another production were to be mounted in New York."



I'm sure part of the reason this will never happen is because the box office would lose their minds trying to direct people to the right Hamilton theatre. The curtain would have to be held for 20 minutes every night.