Did you hear the people sing — sorry, wrong musical. The cast of Hamilton at the Grammy Awards sang live via satellite on Monday night. Finally, fans of the show were able to see the full opening number in all its glory. It's rare for a Broadway show to perform at this event, but it has happened before with the casts of American Idiot, La Cage Aux Folles, and Godspell among others. Hamilton's performance went beautifully, Twitter exploded, and everyone who has been listening to that music for months without any clue of what it looked like on stage gets it now.
The opening number of the show, titled "Alexander Hamilton," was first performed at a White House Poetry Slam in 2009. It's come a long way since then! If this was your first exposure to Hamilton, here's what to do next because trust me, it only gets better from there. You'll be completely obsessed before you know it without having to buy tickets to the show (if you aren't able to, and it's difficult, so that's most of us). The show chronicles the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, and you can stream or download the Hamilton cast recording and pick up where the Grammys left off — because I know you wanna know what happens next, even if you're not a history buff.
You can also watch the "Ham4Ham" show on Youtube, a series of live and recorded performances from the cast as an incentive to fans who enter the lottery for $10 tickets. (Get it? Because Alexander Hamilton is on the ten dollar bill?) You could also read the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired composer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda.
But, back to the moment in which we all got a peek at this must-see musical: There wasn't a single flub. Lin-Manuel Miranda paused when the audience applauded his entrance, and I got choked up. Everyone played to the cameras really nicely, which is no small feat for theater actors. Don't think I didn't notice how the way the camera shot the cast standing in line was reminiscent of Rent 's Tony Award Performance of "Seasons Of Love," either. Hamilton is full of references to both hip hop and musical theater, and I love that even the Grammys performance fit that tradition.
Watch the Hamilton performance below again, and again, and again. That was fun. See you at the Tony Awards!
