POP-A-LOOZA: Hamilton

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my story about actor Leslie Odom Jr., Broadway, live theater, old friends, and the 2016 Tony Awards: Hamilton.

At this writing, I have not yet seen Hamilton, but I do subscribe to Disney +, and very soon now my TV room will transform itself into the room where it happens. I can't wait.

When I wrote the Hamilton piece in 2016, I also had not ever seen a play on Broadway. I had seen Jesus Christ Superstar off-Broadway in 1973, Wicked in London's West End in 2010, and a number of touring productions, local presentations, and college, high school, and younger-grade plays, starting in either the late '60s or very early '70s. But I never made it to the Great White Way until 2019, when lovely wife Brenda and I took a bus to New York for a day trip, and scored tickets to the revival of Oklahoma! We had planned to make such Broadway jaunts an annual event for us, but the quarantine scene squashed that plan for now. We'll get back to Broadway someday.

Meanwhile, I've detailed my own history as a lover of theater in a post called "All The World's A Stage," and followed that with "The Show Must Go On! (Oh, The Shows I've Seen)," an attempt to list every play I've ever seen in live performance.



While seeing Hamilton stream on TV won't be the same as witnessing it in person, it will join a select group of movies based on plays that I've re-watched recently: 1776 and Bye Bye Birdie, both thanks to Turner Classic Movies. My Fair Lady is on the DVR, so we'll likely get to that one at some point.

(I couldn't even attempt a list of movie musicals I've seen over the decades, whether based on a play or otherwise. The list would include West Side Story, Grease, Oliver!, The Music Man, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Into The Woods, Carousel, Hello Dolly, Cinderella, The Sound Of Music, Singin' In The Rain, The Wizard Of Oz, Guys And Dolls, The Wiz [one of the worst movies I've ever seen], Cabaret, Chicago, Hairspray, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Train Ride To Hollywood, Sweet Charity, Rent, Enchanted, some Elvis flicks, that episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (which totally counts), and many more. And dramas adapted from stage to screen? From Romeo and Juliet to Our Town, I've seen a few of those, too.

But today, I am not throwing away my shot at Hamilton, the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.



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