Review: ‘Hamilton’ remains crashingly relevant in return to Chicago’s CIBC Theatre

It’s been 11 years since I first saw “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s trailblazing Tony Award-winning musical. It feels like several lifetimes and another country ago. What’s remained unimpeachable through the crashing tumult of recent history is the show’s ability to amaze and astonish.

Running through April 26 at the Loop’s CIBC Theatre, the musical (with its book, score and lyrics by Miranda) follows Ron Chernow’s door-stop biography of immigrant and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The tale it spins of the messy birth of a nation hasn’t aged since its 2015 premiere.

Directed by Thomas Kail, the production hurtles toward the climatic duel between the “immigrant bastard son of a whore” Hamilton (Tyler Fauntleroy) and “the damn fool that shot him,” Aaron Burr (Jimmie “JJ“ Jeter).

By the time “Hamilton” arrives at that fatal encounter in Weehawken, New Jersey, the musical has immersed the audience in a celebratory, hope-infused story about the power of conviction, and the fact that even a “rag-tag army” army reduced to eating its horses can take down a global super power in the name of democracy.

Miranda’s score (orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire) encompasses rap, hip-hop, ’50s-style do-wop, rock, killer ballads and old-timey vaudeville, plus nods to the Notorius B.I.G., Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Jason Robert Brown.

Still, the book and lyrics don’t pull any punches in pointing out the intractable contradiction of a country where the foundational premise that “all men are created equal” only applied only to white men. Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and roughly half the delegates to the Constitutional Convention owned slaves. The topic is a mic-drop flashpoint when Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson (Christian Magby, who also plays the Marquis de Lafayette) go mano-a-mano at a Constitutional Convention rap battle.

The performances feel as fresh as they were over a decade ago. A calling card of the musical since its original premiere, Hamilton, Burr and the cast of slave-owning Founders Washington, Jefferson and Madison are all portrayed by men of color. It’s a choice that adds layers on layers.

Some of the more lightning-quick vocals aren’t as clear as they need to be — whether that’s a sound problem or a cast problem, it’s a bit frustrating. Still, for the record, this cast stacks up well against the original, star-studded ensemble.

Fauntleroy gives Hamilton galvanic, powerhouse vocals and a swagger matched only by his intelligence. “My Shot” is an indelible earworm and a goose-bump raising call to seize the day, even when the world has turned upside down.

Jeter lays bare Burr’s striving, needy ambition. With “Wait for It,” the money notes feel like they could reach the Harlem neighborhood where Hamilton lived with his wife Eliza (Lauren Mariasoosay) and children. “The Room Where It Happens” has always been a table-jumping banger. Jeter nails the emotions powering the words; You can see his eyes turn to stone, moving from pleading to vengeful in the space of a verse.

Lafayette spits some of the fastest raps in “Hamilton,” notably in “Guns and Ships.” Magby nails it, making military strategy a subject of frenetic, can’t-look-away intensity.

A.D. Weaver reads as 10 feet tall as he struts onto the stage as George Washington, apropos for a playing a man who was 6 feet 2 inches at a time when most men were 5 feet 7 inches at most. With a basso profundo that oozes authoritative energy, he’s a magnetic, towering presence. “One Last Time” is a beautiful gut-wrencher, about the peaceful transition of power. Weaver gives it an aching, splendid melancholy.

The Schuyler sisters —Hamilton’s wife Eliza and her sisters, Angelica and Peggy — do not disappoint. As Eliza, Mariasoosay brings anger and devastation to “Burn,” giving the melody a spun-glass beauty and a steely determination. Marja Harmon brings the thunder to Angelica Schuyler, particularly at the ball where Hamilton initially meets the sisters. Lily Soto plays the lesser-seen sister Peggy, as well as Maria Reynolds, a key figure in a blackmailing scheme Hamilton falls prey to. “Say No to This” is Soto’s moment to shine with an irresistibly seductive siren song.

Last but hardly least: King George III. Matt Bitner makes George hilarious until he’s menacing until he’s mad. In all forms, he’s a highlight.

Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography remains mesmerizing, from the vaudevillian shenanigans of “What’d I Miss” (a hilariously apropos choice to open the second act, when a few people always come in late) to the orbiting chairs and circling bodies that render the hurricane that left Hamilton an orphan.

Paul Tazewell’s costumes speak volumes: Hamilton dons a new green vest once he comes into money; Eliza’s gown is Madonna-blue; Lafayette’s puce suit is a small masterpiece of splendid dandyism.

Hamilton is a lot. Every moment of it remains stellar.

Here’s a tip from someone who has seen the show 15 times: Get the Hamilton app, play the ticket lottery for a shot at $10 seats. You might end up in the tip-top of the balcony, you might end up in the front row of the orchestra. Either way, “Hamilton” stays gold.