Who? The Hamilton Tour of UK and Ireland is produced by Jeffrey Seller and Cameron Mackintosh

What? Hamilton

Where? Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

When? 18 March – 26 April 2025

What the show is about? The show is about Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US. It follows his life from his arrival to New York to his death. In the first part of the show you meet the main characters. Hamilton is an orphan from the Caribbean who goes to King’s College and there he meets 3 fellow revolutionaries, John Laurens, Marquis de Lafayette (Lafayette), and Hercules Mulligan. He also meets Aaron Burr, one of the most recent graduates from King’s College.

They join the revolution to fight off the British and once they have succeeded, they set about writing the constitution and leading the newly United States of America.

We also learn about Hamilton’s private life as he meets and marries his wife Eliza. They have 8 children together but in the musical they really only focus on one of them, Phillip.

What was really good about it?  What I think was really good about the show was the amount of songs that there were because I quite like musicals, and at the time I watched it I didn’t know many of the songs but afterwards we got the CD so I learned them off of that. I know them quite well now….it might be slightly driving my mum crazy.

I liked how the stage was set up and the revolve worked really well, and rather than the actors having to walk around the stage, the revolve took them that way instead. The choreography for the performance was really quite clever, especially as there were most likely going to be about 5-30 people on stage at a time, they also used revolving bit on the stage skilfully when actors entered and left the stage. The whole thing was incredibly slick and seamless.

Also at some points at the start of the second act there are rap battles between Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State at the time) and Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of Treasury at the time) during cabinet meetings. The rap battles are really interesting, deciding first where they should put America’s main banks and the capital city and whether they should work together to demolish New York’s debt but Jefferson, from Virginia, doesn’t want his home state to be in debt as well as New York.

The second rap battle (or Cabinet Meeting) between Jefferson and Hamilton is about whether they should help France (who at war with England) or stay out of it. Jefferson wants to help France but Hamilton believes that America are just too fragile to keep fighting, and that they should stay out of it.

What could be better? The thing that could have been better was that, although I had loads of sweets, I didn’t get an ice cream during the interval.

What my Dad thinks? Hamilton is worth the hype. It’s just incredible. The music, the chorography, the lyrics, the storytelling, the acting and the emotion are all done perfectly.

I’d been a little concerned that the 2 hours 45 minutes would be a bit long for the kids (and me) but it flew by. It was worth watching the Broadway version on Disney+ beforehand because it meant the children were able to follow the plot better and were familiar with some of the songs. It also meant they were giddy with excitement whenever King George came onto stage.

Star Rating? 5 Stars

Find more of my theatre reviews and match reports on my blog page.

Life of Pi – December 2023

Who? Simon Friend Entertainment

What? Life of Pi

Where? Chichester Festival Theatre

When? November 16 – December 2

What’s the show about? The show is about a girl called Pi and it is her recount of the ship, the Tsimtsum, sinking along with the rest of Pi’s family and how she survived.

She starts the recount by setting the scene in an Indian zoo, where she lived. The government had had a few arguments with one another and India became a dangerous place to live. There is also a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, who is new to the zoo and he eats a goat, who does nothing to her, and this makes Pi annoyed.

The family decide to move to Canada as India has become too dangerous. They do this by boat. On the boat they had put the zoo animals in container ship crates. The ship’s cook is quite the butcher. Pi turns down the offer of food as she and her family are vegetarians. They then meet the friendly sailor, who is also Indian.

The ship sinks in a storm and everyone, except for her, drowns and goes down with the boat. She then finds a lifeboat with an injured zebra lying on the deck. The Bengal tiger, Richard Parker, also finds the boat and is hungry. The hyena, from the zoo, is on the boat as well, and is also looking for a meal. It’s a very dangerous place for any child to be. The hyena eats the zebra and after a few days, Richard Parker eats the hyena.

She is telling this story to the Canadian and Japanese government’s officials in her hospital room after being saved after 229 days at sea after the ship sunk. Back to the recount…

For the next few weeks, it is just Pi and Richard Parker. One day, when Pi cannot see anything because she was hallucinating through lack of fresh water, she thought that Richard Parker was talking to her in a French accent. This was my sister’s favourite part of the show and probably mine too because it was funny.

The government representatives don’t believe her and they ask her to tell them the real story with the proper facts and so she does.

In this version the ship also sinks and Pi’s dad and brother both drown. She also finds a lifeboat but this time the cook from the ship and the Indian sailor are on the boat as well. Then her mum comes across the boat and joins them. The Indian sailor’s leg is broken and Pi’s mum is the best doctor she can be to him until the cook suggests amputating the leg. He amputates it himself using his butcher’s knife. After a few weeks, the cook kills Pi’s mum. Pi then gets so angry at the cook that she also ends up killing him as well. It’s all pretty gruesome and very sad.

This time, the government representatives believe the story more than they did the first recount Pi told them. Pi asks if it matters which story was true because they both involve her losing her family, the ship sinking and all of the crew and animals dying. They agree it doesn’t really matter, but that the one with animals is the better story.

What was really good about it? The set looked really good with the lifeboat being on set most of the time. The hospital room/bed looks good also. The projections on the stage looked like the water was real and when the characters touched it, the water actually rippled. There were also sea creatures along the stage, or at least it looked like that anyway. The storm also looked menacingly good.

The puppets were very nicely done. The main puppet was Richard Parker but other puppets, like the hyena, needed more than one puppeteer. Another puppet was the turtle. All of the acting was good and I enjoyed watching the show.

What could be better? It was a bit too gory for me to give it 5 stars. I know it had to be in there because that’s what’s in the book but I didn’t really enjoy those bits.

What my Dad thinks… This was so good. I didn’t know the story beforehand as I’ve never seen the film or read the book, but I adored it. There are some quite dark and graphic moments, so it’s not suitable for younger children really, but my 8 year old thoroughly enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have thought children younger than that should see it, really, but we were careful to explain what to expect to both of the children and that some of the animals die in the story, so it will have sad moments.

The puppetry (and acting generally) was fantastic. The staging, including excellent projections, was really cleverly done. The reoccurring theme of religion is handled really well and it made for an excellent conversation starter with the kids. For me, the plot turned into a modern day parable that hits really hard was the bit that will stay with me. As humans we often find it more palatable to use animals in stories in place of the humans to explain some of the more extreme behaviours. Overall, it was simply brilliant. The national tour continues into 2024, so go and see it if you can.

Star Rating… 4 Stars