Gemma @ 'Hamilton' - Winning the Hamilton Lottery
What’s it about?
Hamilton is an original Broadway musical with lyrics, music, and book all from the genius mind of Lin-Manuel Miranda. The show is about the ten-dollar founding father without a father himself, Alexander Hamilton, and was inspired by historian Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton, titled, well... Alexander Hamilton.
Basically, since Hamilton was nominated for sixteen Tonys and won eleven, and the soundtrack is an undeniable GAMECHANGER, it’s practically impossible to find affordable tickets to the show unless you know someone in the know, or you win Hamilton‘s Official Digital Lottery, which, if you win, gifts you with (up to two) ten dollar tickets to a performance that same day.
What I experienced:
On May 31st, a little after 1:00 PM, I received an email that changed my life:
Yes, after three months (Had it only been three months?!) of entering and losing almost daily, I had finally won the Hamilton lottery. My hands started to shake. How long did I have to pay for my tickets? An hour? I wasn’t about to wait and find out. As the twenty-dollar payment (for two front-row seats!!!) was processing, I kept imagining the worst, that there would be some loophole to stop me from seeing the show. In my haste, while entering the lottery earlier that day, had I spelled my name correctly? What if I had made a typo and my name didn’t exactly match my passport? Would they not let me in? To reassure myself, I used the digital lottery’s “Check Lottery Status” function and was informed that I had not only won, but that my tickets had been paid for. This was real, and I had a payment confirmation to prove it:
I sat at my desk at work, wanting desperately to be almost anywhere else. It was less than a quarter after 1:00 PM, and I was seeing freaking Hamilton in under seven hours!!! So what’s the first thing I did? I unplugged my cell phone from where it was charging at my desk, excused myself to the conference room, and called my mom. Needless to say, she flipped out. She had known better than anyone else who knew me how badly I had wanted to see this show, and now she was seeing it with me!
The high had not worn off when I returned to my desk, but I pulled myself together to cancel the plans I had previously made for the night:
Dustin was a guy I was going to go on a first date with. He was going to take me to another show, called The Crypt Sessions. Thankfully, he was very understanding about rescheduling.
Carl is my new voice coach, and he couldn’t have been more flexible!
I thought back to how long I had dreamed about seeing this show... Before the rave reviews came flooding in, Hamilton was playing at The Public Theater. My friend, Melissa, urged me to see what she described as a new rap musical about history by the same guy who did In the Heights. While I had seen In the Heights and loved it, Melissa’s pitch wasn’t really selling me. I mean, I barely listened to rap, and while I found history interesting, I was convinced a musical on the subject would be beyond boring. And so, I passed. Fast-forward like two seconds later, and Hamilton is a major hit, completely sold out at The Public Theater! And it wasn’t long before it was announced that the show was moving to Broadway, and well, you know the rest. I missed my opportunity, and now, by some miracle, I was being granted another!
My mom and I met after I got out of work, and we headed to the public space at the Marriott Marquis to kill time. Coincidentally, the hotel was literally on the same block as the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where Hamilton was playing. #Convenience
I was so nervous, I had no appetite. It still didn’t feel like this was my reality. But it was. Within minutes of arriving at the theatre, my mom and I (along with the other lottery winners and their plus-ones) were ushered inside to the first two rows of the orchestra. And my mom and I were sat right in front, meaning there wasn’t even a chance that somebody would block our views. It didn’t get much better than that! We could touch the stage and see the sweat dripping off of the actors’ faces.
I was familiar with the entire soundtrack and story, but there was something unreal about witnessing it all play out on stage... I felt so deeply for both Angelica and Eliza, and even for Alexander, although it was difficult for me to forgive his infidelity. The two moments that just got me, though, nearly to the point of tears, were:
When the actress playing Eliza sang Burn, once Alexander had made his affair known to the world, utterly breaking her heart. I identified with her, having been betrayed by a loved one in my own life. I understood the sort of sick attachment a person in that position could have to old letters, cards, and other tangible reminders of happier times, and I understood how painful it could be to see these relics of a relationship that was, and how it could make a person want to destroy them.
When Alexander and Eliza sobbed over their dying son, begging for him to “ Stay Alive,” and then ultimately, after he had died, the entirety of It’s Quiet Uptown. Seeing the grief stricken duo, Alexander and Eliza, walk about the stage in a zombified state, it was impossible not to be affected. Alexander was visibly remorseful, and appeared to be a changed man. And Eliza, somehow, was able to forgive, something which in her position, I doubt I would have been capable of.
Hamilton ended on an uncomfortable truth: The fact that “[we] have no control who lives, who dies, who tells [our] stor[ies‘].” Alexander Hamilton didn’t, and neither will we. It made me think about all of the journals, photos, letters, birthday cards, etc. that I hoarded obsessively. Yes, I knew that I was sentimental, but the things I collected over the years made up an enormous part of my identity. But what would become of them? Would they endure when I did not? What sort of legacy would I leave? Even if these objects, which I applied meaning to, survived after my death, would my remaining family pour over my lifetime’s worth of belongings and tell my story? What would they tell?
Previously published on the HuffPost contributors’ network on 06/14/2017 9:35 am ET
