Oh jeez, that sounds scary.

And much more important than my non-Hamilton thing I was going to say, which is: I was with a few friends this afternoon for hot dogs and hamburgers, and in the absence of charcoal, the host cooked the burgers in the oven and the hot dogs in boiling water. I was so surprised! I would have done both in a skillet, or at least one or the other!

So, what say you?

skillet for both or skillet for burgers and boil the dogs. I have never heard of oven hamburgers.

^^^^This.

My mom always did burgers under the broiler. After all, a broiler is pretty much an upside down gas grill. Could that have been what your friend did rather than roasting? She also did thickish patties with bread crumbs that were closer to meatloaf than a griddle hamburger - looking back on it I'm slightly horrified but they did / do taste good, even if I do prefer a smashed burger these days.

The King George we saw in Providence was much more physical in his performance, not standing there in a regal manner. So, that was different.

My mom always did burgers under the broiler. After all, a broiler is pretty much an upside down gas grill. Could that have been what your friend did rather than roasting?

That is possible, and would make more sense! I mean, they tasted fine (I didn't have a hotdog).

Yeah, I mean, a burger is cooked ground beef. How it tastes depends mostly on how much fat is in it and whether they use enough salt. Excellent prep will get you better browning and texture, but pretty much any way of cooking it through will taste pretty good given those two things. Especially with mustard and pickles.

If you're interested in a historian talking about the play and the person of Hamilton, here's Joanne Freeman, who has studied Hamilton for much of her career (history prof at Yale), talking about the play:

[link]

Askye, that's alarming. That would be a stiff drink when I got home.

My pleasant surprise was Phillipa Soo Eliza, who I liked MUCH more on stage then on the recording. She sings beautifully but her vocal performance on the recording is the least nuanced to me, very straightforward ingenue, but on stage her delivery was more expressive AND her facial expressions were awesome.

Her singing is so perfect that it can sound effortless. I think seeing her gives a fuller picture of everything she's doing.

I was fortunate to see the original cast. The thing I think the film can't capture is the magnetism of Christopher Jackson (Washington) and Leslie Odom Jr. (Burr). They're both a tremendous physical presence - Chris just brims with power and Leslie has this simmering frustration. When he finally got to In the Room Where it Happens it was like he'd take flight... I wish they'd shot that further back because his dancing is so much more solid than your average lead - he's holding his own with every dancer on that stage.

Daveed Digs' (Lafayette/Jefferson) Okieriete Onaodowan (Mulligan/Madison) and Renée Elise Goldsberry's performances all translate really well to the screen. I think Lin's does too - he's not a world-class singer, but his energy was the template for that role and I think it shows in the film.

Some stuff is better - you get lots of facial expressions, subtle choreography. Anthony Ramos (Laurens/Philip) is straight-up playing his love for Hamilton in both roles. Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy/Maria) is a lot of fun in close ups. In the finale Chris Jackson does something worth watching for: He's beaming when he sings "She tells my story..." and then his face just collapses in confusion and sorrow when she goes on to sing "I speak out against slavery" and he backs away.

I saw it from a box (which is nice and close but a bad angle and loses some upstage entrances - that's how we got the tickets, because they were obstructed view and they only sell them at the box office) and had a glorious view of Jonathan Groff (King George) and his every little twitch. His vocal control is just delicious and he stuffs so much comedy into every little syllable. I'd actually seen him in two prior musicals (Hair and Spring Awakening) and hadn't fallen in love with him but he got me as the King and now I am his forever.

askye, this sounds so stressing. The whole "pretending everything's normal" while some major things are absolutely not normal is a bit beyond me.

I suspect that going forward the standard single-camera archival video of any theatrical production will become multi-camera shoots that can be edited into something that can be streamed. Not quite the scale of Hamilton, but better than what is meant for production/touring staff to study.

I did not see Hamilton, but I saw this week this production while it was streaming via the NTL YouTube channel. [link] It was delightful, and they did a great job filming the facial expressions, moving stage, and aerial choreography.