Write-up by: Bailey Guinigundo
Photos provided by: Joan Marcus, HAMILTON National Tour
Hamilton at Dr. Phillips Center: A First-Time Experience
(Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando FL) I finally got around to seeing Hamilton.
The show opened this week at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, and I attended the Wednesday, September 30 performance. The Orlando engagement runs through October 18, so there are still some opportunities to catch it before it leaves town.
This was actually my first time seeing Hamilton. I never watched the filmed stage production on Disney+, and although I’ve heard my daughters singing the songs plenty of times over the years, I never really sat down and listened closely to the lyrics. Seeing it performed live was a completely different experience.
The story, in a nutshell
Hamilton tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the Caribbean who rises from obscurity to become one of America’s Founding Fathers, George Washington’s trusted aide during the Revolutionary War, and the nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Along the way, the story follows his friendships, political rivalries, marriage, ambitions and ultimately the choices that shape his legacy. Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the story through a score that mixes hip-hop, rap, R&B, jazz and traditional Broadway musical theater. At its core, it’s a story about ambition, love, sacrifice, betrayal, loss and the question of what we leave behind.
There is a 15-minute intermission between the two acts, although on the night I attended, the intermission was somewhat extended.
My biggest takeaway: know what you’re walking into
If you’re seeing Hamilton for the first time, I’d strongly recommend becoming at least somewhat familiar with the premise of the story beforehand.
Not necessarily because the story is difficult to follow, but because there is so much information coming at you so quickly that knowing the basic historical relationships and characters gives you much more room to appreciate the actual performance.
And I’d go one step further: listen to some of the songs and become familiar with the lyrics before you go.
There are portions of this show where the performers are throwing lyrics at you at an almost unbelievable pace. Guns and Ships, for example, has a section that clocks in at approximately 6.3 words per second—an absolutely blistering pace.
You can certainly follow the story without knowing the lyrics in advance, but I found myself thinking afterward that I would have appreciated certain moments even more if I had already known what was being said. There are simply too many clever lines, references and rapid-fire exchanges to catch everything on a first listen.
And then there’s this cast…
That said, this specific cast was one of the most talented casts I’ve seen come through the Dr. Phillips Center stage.
What impressed me most wasn’t simply their ability to rap or sing. It was their ability to switch gears almost instantaneously—going from incredibly fast, rhythmically complicated rap passages into demanding Broadway-style vocals, sometimes within the same sequence.
That’s a tremendous amount of precision.
And the choreography is relentless. It isn’t just something that happens during the big dance numbers; movement is essentially part of the storytelling throughout the entire production. The actors, dancers and ensemble are constantly moving around the rotating stage, creating transitions, changing the visual focus and sometimes reinforcing the lyrics through movement.
The result is a show that feels almost continuously in motion.
Tyler Fauntleroy — Alexander Hamilton
Fauntleroy carries an enormous amount of the production, and what stood out to me was his command of the material.
Hamilton requires the lead performer to be simultaneously a rapper, singer and dramatic actor, and Fauntleroy moves between those demands naturally. His delivery during the rapid-fire numbers has the confidence and precision you’d expect, but I particularly appreciated the moments when he slowed everything down.
Those quieter moments allow the character’s ambition and vulnerability to come through, particularly later in the show. His performance doesn’t rely solely on the big numbers; he knows when to pull the energy back and let the emotional weight of a scene do the work.
Lily Soto — Eliza Hamilton
Soto was one of the performers I found myself watching especially closely.
Her singing brought a warmth and emotional quality to the production that provided an important contrast to the show’s more aggressive rap-heavy passages. Songs such as “Helpless,” “Burn” and “It’s Quiet Uptown” give Eliza some of the production’s most emotionally exposed moments, and Soto handled those transitions beautifully.
“Burn” in particular is one of those performances where the vocal delivery doesn’t need to be overdone. The emotion comes from restraint, and Soto allowed the song to build naturally.
Then comes “It’s Quiet Uptown,” which is among the show’s most tender moments. Her performance there was particularly effective because the emotion felt personal rather than theatrical.
Deon’te Goodman — Aaron Burr
Goodman’s greatest strength was his vocal presence and control.
Burr has some of the show’s most musically distinctive material, and Goodman gave those songs a smoothness that contrasted nicely with Hamilton’s more frenetic energy.
“Wait for It” was a standout. It’s one of the songs where the production temporarily stops feeling like a nonstop verbal race and allows the audience to sit with the emotion. Goodman handled that beautifully.
His delivery of Burr’s more reflective material also gave the character a sense of patience and calculation without requiring him to oversell it.
Marja Harmon — Angelica Schuyler
Harmon was outstanding.
“Satisfied” is already one of the show’s most complicated pieces of staging, choreography and lyrical structure, and she handled it with impressive precision. The sequence itself is almost like watching a scene being rewound and replayed from another emotional perspective.
But what really stayed with me was Harmon’s ability to move beyond the technical difficulty and make the emotional material land.
Her performance in the quieter portions of the show, particularly “It’s Quiet Uptown,” showed a completely different side of her vocal ability. The contrast between the confident, rapid-fire Angelica of earlier scenes and the tenderness of the later material was one of her strongest accomplishments.
Auston Henderson — George Washington
Henderson brought a tremendous amount of gravitas to the role.
There is an authority to his voice that works particularly well in the Washington material, but he also understands that the role isn’t simply about sounding commanding. Some of Washington’s most effective moments come when the performance becomes more reflective.
“One Last Time” was especially strong because Henderson allowed the song to feel like a genuine farewell rather than simply another big Broadway number.
His presence also provided a nice counterbalance to the younger, more energetic performers surrounding him.
Tevae Vontrell Shoels — Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson
Shoels had one of the production’s most demanding assignments because these are two very different personalities, requiring two very different energies.
The Lafayette material is energetic, rhythmic and physically explosive, while Jefferson’s entrance brings an entirely different theatrical personality.
And, of course, there is “Guns and Ships.”
That number is a legitimate athletic event for the performer delivering it. The speed is extraordinary, but what’s even more impressive is maintaining clarity and character while doing it.
Shoels made the transition between his two roles particularly noticeable without allowing either performance to feel like a gimmick.
Eddie Ortega — Hercules Mulligan / James Madison
Ortega brought a lot of personality to both sides of his assignment.
His Mulligan performance had the physicality and comic timing necessary to make the early material pop, while his transition into Madison demonstrated just how different a performance can feel when the actor changes the character’s posture, delivery and energy.
That contrast is part of what makes the show’s dual casting so interesting.
León Tak — John Laurens / Philip Hamilton
Tak’s performance was particularly memorable because the two roles require such different emotional approaches.
The John Laurens material has youthful energy and revolutionary enthusiasm, while Philip Hamilton allows Tak to show a much more vulnerable and tender side.
The emotional scenes surrounding Philip are among the places where the production stops being about spectacle and becomes much more intimate.
Tak handled that transition very effectively.
Nadina Hassan — Peggy Schuyler / Maria Reynolds
Hassan demonstrated impressive versatility.
The two roles couldn’t be more different in tone, and she shifted between them convincingly. Her Maria Reynolds performance in particular required a completely different energy from her earlier material.
The strength of her performance was in the distinction between the characters—she never made the two roles feel like the same person wearing different costumes.
Jack Bianchi — King George III
Bianchi absolutely understood the assignment.
King George provides some of the show’s comic relief, and Bianchi’s timing was excellent. His appearances are intentionally different from almost everything else happening onstage, and Bianchi leaned into that contrast.
The result was a character who could walk onto the stage, completely change the mood of the room and get the audience laughing within seconds.
Oscar Whitney Jr. — Philip Schuyler / James Reynolds / Doctor
Whitney Jr.’s triple-role assignment is another example of how much versatility this production asks of its performers.
Each appearance required a different type of characterization, and his ability to make those transitions without distracting from the story was impressive.
Alex Dorf — Samuel Seabury
Dorf brought excellent comedic timing and personality to the role.
His performance helped establish the political and ideological conflict of the early portion of the story, but he also understood the importance of not taking himself too seriously within a production that intentionally uses humor to move between heavier subjects.
Wesley Valdez — Charles Lee
Valdez made the most of what is a relatively brief appearance.
His delivery was sharp and memorable, and the character’s confrontation with Hamilton provided another opportunity for the production to inject humor and personality into the Revolutionary War storyline.
Andre Malcolm — George Eacker
Malcolm’s appearance is another example of how Hamilton can take a relatively short sequence and give it significant dramatic weight.
His performance helped make the confrontation feel consequential rather than simply another plot point, and he brought the appropriate intensity to the exchange.
The genius behind the double casting
One of the things I appreciated more after seeing the show is the intentional decision to have certain performers play two different characters rather than simply casting separate actors for each role.
There are four primary double-cast pairings in Hamilton: Lafayette/Jefferson, Mulligan/Madison, Laurens/Philip and Peggy/Maria.
This isn’t simply a practical theater decision.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has explained that the casting was intentionally designed so that characters who are important in Hamilton’s early life essentially disappear while other characters emerge later. Having the same actor return in a different role creates an immediate connection in the audience’s mind.
There is also a deeper piece of symbolism.
The actors who begin the story as Hamilton’s friends and allies later return as people who oppose him. Lafayette becomes Jefferson. Mulligan becomes Madison. Laurens becomes Philip. The same face that represented friendship, loyalty or shared purpose earlier in the story later represents a different relationship to Hamilton.
It’s particularly clever because some of the lyrics in the opening number intentionally carry double meanings that apply to both characters the actor will eventually portray.
Once you know that, you start looking for it.
And that makes a second viewing potentially very different from the first.
The ensemble deserves a lot of credit
The ensemble deserves enormous credit for keeping this production moving.
The dance sequences are intricate, precise and physically demanding, but what impressed me most was how seamlessly the ensemble members became part of the storytelling. They’re not simply background dancers filling space.
They help create the streets, the crowds, the political gatherings, the battlefield and the changing environments around the principal performers.
The choreography works especially well with the show’s rotating stage because performers can be moving in one direction while the scenery and stage itself are moving in another. It’s an incredibly elaborate visual machine, and the performers execute it with what looks like effortless precision.
And then there are the sets and costumes.
The production manages to create an eighteenth-century world without making it feel like a traditional historical costume drama. The costumes evolve with the characters and time periods, while the set itself is constantly being repurposed. Wood, brick, stairs, scaffolding, platforms and the rotating stage become different locations without requiring lengthy scene changes.
It’s another example of how Hamilton doesn’t really have many moments where the production stops.
Something is almost always happening.
Final thoughts
Walking into Hamilton for the first time without having watched the Disney+ recording was probably the best way for me to experience it. I came in knowing the general reputation of the show and recognizing some of the songs from hearing my daughters sing them, but I hadn’t already formed an opinion based on a filmed performance.
What I saw on September 30 was a remarkably talented group of performers executing an extraordinarily demanding production.
The combination of rap, Broadway vocals, comedy, drama, choreography, live music, elaborate staging and emotional storytelling makes Hamilton a lot to take in during one evening. And while I would definitely recommend knowing the premise—and ideally becoming familiar with some of the lyrics—before seeing it for the first time, there is something special about finally experiencing all of that material performed live.
The Orlando engagement continues through October 18, and if you haven’t seen Hamilton yet, this is one of those productions where the talent onstage makes a strong case for seeing it in person rather than simply watching it on a screen.
And judging from this September 30 performance, the Angelica Company is giving Orlando a seriously impressive production before the show makes its exit.
Photos provided by: Joan Marcus, HAMILTON National Tour
Hamilton at Dr. Phillips Center: A First-Time Experience
(Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando FL) I finally got around to seeing Hamilton.
The show opened this week at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando, and I attended the Wednesday, September 30 performance. The Orlando engagement runs through October 18, so there are still some opportunities to catch it before it leaves town.
This was actually my first time seeing Hamilton. I never watched the filmed stage production on Disney+, and although I’ve heard my daughters singing the songs plenty of times over the years, I never really sat down and listened closely to the lyrics. Seeing it performed live was a completely different experience.
The story, in a nutshell
Hamilton tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the Caribbean who rises from obscurity to become one of America’s Founding Fathers, George Washington’s trusted aide during the Revolutionary War, and the nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Along the way, the story follows his friendships, political rivalries, marriage, ambitions and ultimately the choices that shape his legacy. Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the story through a score that mixes hip-hop, rap, R&B, jazz and traditional Broadway musical theater. At its core, it’s a story about ambition, love, sacrifice, betrayal, loss and the question of what we leave behind.
There is a 15-minute intermission between the two acts, although on the night I attended, the intermission was somewhat extended.
My biggest takeaway: know what you’re walking into
If you’re seeing Hamilton for the first time, I’d strongly recommend becoming at least somewhat familiar with the premise of the story beforehand.
Not necessarily because the story is difficult to follow, but because there is so much information coming at you so quickly that knowing the basic historical relationships and characters gives you much more room to appreciate the actual performance.
And I’d go one step further: listen to some of the songs and become familiar with the lyrics before you go.
There are portions of this show where the performers are throwing lyrics at you at an almost unbelievable pace. Guns and Ships, for example, has a section that clocks in at approximately 6.3 words per second—an absolutely blistering pace.
You can certainly follow the story without knowing the lyrics in advance, but I found myself thinking afterward that I would have appreciated certain moments even more if I had already known what was being said. There are simply too many clever lines, references and rapid-fire exchanges to catch everything on a first listen.
And then there’s this cast…
That said, this specific cast was one of the most talented casts I’ve seen come through the Dr. Phillips Center stage.
What impressed me most wasn’t simply their ability to rap or sing. It was their ability to switch gears almost instantaneously—going from incredibly fast, rhythmically complicated rap passages into demanding Broadway-style vocals, sometimes within the same sequence.
That’s a tremendous amount of precision.
And the choreography is relentless. It isn’t just something that happens during the big dance numbers; movement is essentially part of the storytelling throughout the entire production. The actors, dancers and ensemble are constantly moving around the rotating stage, creating transitions, changing the visual focus and sometimes reinforcing the lyrics through movement.
The result is a show that feels almost continuously in motion.
Tyler Fauntleroy — Alexander Hamilton
Fauntleroy carries an enormous amount of the production, and what stood out to me was his command of the material.
Hamilton requires the lead performer to be simultaneously a rapper, singer and dramatic actor, and Fauntleroy moves between those demands naturally. His delivery during the rapid-fire numbers has the confidence and precision you’d expect, but I particularly appreciated the moments when he slowed everything down.
Those quieter moments allow the character’s ambition and vulnerability to come through, particularly later in the show. His performance doesn’t rely solely on the big numbers; he knows when to pull the energy back and let the emotional weight of a scene do the work.
Lily Soto — Eliza Hamilton
Soto was one of the performers I found myself watching especially closely.
Her singing brought a warmth and emotional quality to the production that provided an important contrast to the show’s more aggressive rap-heavy passages. Songs such as “Helpless,” “Burn” and “It’s Quiet Uptown” give Eliza some of the production’s most emotionally exposed moments, and Soto handled those transitions beautifully.
“Burn” in particular is one of those performances where the vocal delivery doesn’t need to be overdone. The emotion comes from restraint, and Soto allowed the song to build naturally.
Then comes “It’s Quiet Uptown,” which is among the show’s most tender moments. Her performance there was particularly effective because the emotion felt personal rather than theatrical.
Deon’te Goodman — Aaron Burr
Goodman’s greatest strength was his vocal presence and control.
Burr has some of the show’s most musically distinctive material, and Goodman gave those songs a smoothness that contrasted nicely with Hamilton’s more frenetic energy.
“Wait for It” was a standout. It’s one of the songs where the production temporarily stops feeling like a nonstop verbal race and allows the audience to sit with the emotion. Goodman handled that beautifully.
His delivery of Burr’s more reflective material also gave the character a sense of patience and calculation without requiring him to oversell it.
Marja Harmon — Angelica Schuyler
Harmon was outstanding.
“Satisfied” is already one of the show’s most complicated pieces of staging, choreography and lyrical structure, and she handled it with impressive precision. The sequence itself is almost like watching a scene being rewound and replayed from another emotional perspective.
But what really stayed with me was Harmon’s ability to move beyond the technical difficulty and make the emotional material land.
Her performance in the quieter portions of the show, particularly “It’s Quiet Uptown,” showed a completely different side of her vocal ability. The contrast between the confident, rapid-fire Angelica of earlier scenes and the tenderness of the later material was one of her strongest accomplishments.
Auston Henderson — George Washington
Henderson brought a tremendous amount of gravitas to the role.
There is an authority to his voice that works particularly well in the Washington material, but he also understands that the role isn’t simply about sounding commanding. Some of Washington’s most effective moments come when the performance becomes more reflective.
“One Last Time” was especially strong because Henderson allowed the song to feel like a genuine farewell rather than simply another big Broadway number.
His presence also provided a nice counterbalance to the younger, more energetic performers surrounding him.
Tevae Vontrell Shoels — Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson
Shoels had one of the production’s most demanding assignments because these are two very different personalities, requiring two very different energies.
The Lafayette material is energetic, rhythmic and physically explosive, while Jefferson’s entrance brings an entirely different theatrical personality.
And, of course, there is “Guns and Ships.”
That number is a legitimate athletic event for the performer delivering it. The speed is extraordinary, but what’s even more impressive is maintaining clarity and character while doing it.
Shoels made the transition between his two roles particularly noticeable without allowing either performance to feel like a gimmick.
Eddie Ortega — Hercules Mulligan / James Madison
Ortega brought a lot of personality to both sides of his assignment.
His Mulligan performance had the physicality and comic timing necessary to make the early material pop, while his transition into Madison demonstrated just how different a performance can feel when the actor changes the character’s posture, delivery and energy.
That contrast is part of what makes the show’s dual casting so interesting.
León Tak — John Laurens / Philip Hamilton
Tak’s performance was particularly memorable because the two roles require such different emotional approaches.
The John Laurens material has youthful energy and revolutionary enthusiasm, while Philip Hamilton allows Tak to show a much more vulnerable and tender side.
The emotional scenes surrounding Philip are among the places where the production stops being about spectacle and becomes much more intimate.
Tak handled that transition very effectively.
Nadina Hassan — Peggy Schuyler / Maria Reynolds
Hassan demonstrated impressive versatility.
The two roles couldn’t be more different in tone, and she shifted between them convincingly. Her Maria Reynolds performance in particular required a completely different energy from her earlier material.
The strength of her performance was in the distinction between the characters—she never made the two roles feel like the same person wearing different costumes.
Jack Bianchi — King George III
Bianchi absolutely understood the assignment.
King George provides some of the show’s comic relief, and Bianchi’s timing was excellent. His appearances are intentionally different from almost everything else happening onstage, and Bianchi leaned into that contrast.
The result was a character who could walk onto the stage, completely change the mood of the room and get the audience laughing within seconds.
Oscar Whitney Jr. — Philip Schuyler / James Reynolds / Doctor
Whitney Jr.’s triple-role assignment is another example of how much versatility this production asks of its performers.
Each appearance required a different type of characterization, and his ability to make those transitions without distracting from the story was impressive.
Alex Dorf — Samuel Seabury
Dorf brought excellent comedic timing and personality to the role.
His performance helped establish the political and ideological conflict of the early portion of the story, but he also understood the importance of not taking himself too seriously within a production that intentionally uses humor to move between heavier subjects.
Wesley Valdez — Charles Lee
Valdez made the most of what is a relatively brief appearance.
His delivery was sharp and memorable, and the character’s confrontation with Hamilton provided another opportunity for the production to inject humor and personality into the Revolutionary War storyline.
Andre Malcolm — George Eacker
Malcolm’s appearance is another example of how Hamilton can take a relatively short sequence and give it significant dramatic weight.
His performance helped make the confrontation feel consequential rather than simply another plot point, and he brought the appropriate intensity to the exchange.
The genius behind the double casting
One of the things I appreciated more after seeing the show is the intentional decision to have certain performers play two different characters rather than simply casting separate actors for each role.
There are four primary double-cast pairings in Hamilton: Lafayette/Jefferson, Mulligan/Madison, Laurens/Philip and Peggy/Maria.
This isn’t simply a practical theater decision.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has explained that the casting was intentionally designed so that characters who are important in Hamilton’s early life essentially disappear while other characters emerge later. Having the same actor return in a different role creates an immediate connection in the audience’s mind.
There is also a deeper piece of symbolism.
The actors who begin the story as Hamilton’s friends and allies later return as people who oppose him. Lafayette becomes Jefferson. Mulligan becomes Madison. Laurens becomes Philip. The same face that represented friendship, loyalty or shared purpose earlier in the story later represents a different relationship to Hamilton.
It’s particularly clever because some of the lyrics in the opening number intentionally carry double meanings that apply to both characters the actor will eventually portray.
Once you know that, you start looking for it.
And that makes a second viewing potentially very different from the first.
The ensemble deserves a lot of credit
The ensemble deserves enormous credit for keeping this production moving.
The dance sequences are intricate, precise and physically demanding, but what impressed me most was how seamlessly the ensemble members became part of the storytelling. They’re not simply background dancers filling space.
They help create the streets, the crowds, the political gatherings, the battlefield and the changing environments around the principal performers.
The choreography works especially well with the show’s rotating stage because performers can be moving in one direction while the scenery and stage itself are moving in another. It’s an incredibly elaborate visual machine, and the performers execute it with what looks like effortless precision.
And then there are the sets and costumes.
The production manages to create an eighteenth-century world without making it feel like a traditional historical costume drama. The costumes evolve with the characters and time periods, while the set itself is constantly being repurposed. Wood, brick, stairs, scaffolding, platforms and the rotating stage become different locations without requiring lengthy scene changes.
It’s another example of how Hamilton doesn’t really have many moments where the production stops.
Something is almost always happening.
Final thoughts
Walking into Hamilton for the first time without having watched the Disney+ recording was probably the best way for me to experience it. I came in knowing the general reputation of the show and recognizing some of the songs from hearing my daughters sing them, but I hadn’t already formed an opinion based on a filmed performance.
What I saw on September 30 was a remarkably talented group of performers executing an extraordinarily demanding production.
The combination of rap, Broadway vocals, comedy, drama, choreography, live music, elaborate staging and emotional storytelling makes Hamilton a lot to take in during one evening. And while I would definitely recommend knowing the premise—and ideally becoming familiar with some of the lyrics—before seeing it for the first time, there is something special about finally experiencing all of that material performed live.
The Orlando engagement continues through October 18, and if you haven’t seen Hamilton yet, this is one of those productions where the talent onstage makes a strong case for seeing it in person rather than simply watching it on a screen.
And judging from this September 30 performance, the Angelica Company is giving Orlando a seriously impressive production before the show makes its exit.
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