Hamilton

This past Sunday, I went with my sister’s family to see Hamilton at the Pantages theater in Hollywood. The ticket was originally my birthday present from August 2019 to see it in June 2020. As we all know, everything in California was basically shut down, especially indoor entertainment venues. The Pantages just recently opened its doors again, and we got tickets again for one of the earlier performances.

I thought long and hard about going to the show. I am not a huge fan of musicals. The only other shows I have seen are Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera, but I feel everyone has seen them as well. Since the pandemic began, I have not been indoors with a lot of people except at hospitals and medical clinics. Since the show was sold out, the venue will be super crowded. I think the combination of getting a third Moderna shot, and “strict” vaccination/mask rules at the Pantages convinced me that it was safe enough to go.

In hindsight, I am glad I went. The show was really good, though I only got about 75% of the words/lyrics. Disney released a movie of a Broadway performance so I will need to watch that with subtitles on. The theater was checking everyone for proof of vaccination, but not ID, and there was 99.9% mask compliance (I saw one idiot walking around without a mask). I sat in the middle of our five seats, and for the first act, the three seats behind me were empty. Things did get a bit stressful after the show as hundreds of people were trying to get out through one set of doors. I was basically shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers for about five minutes so hopefully no one around me was sick but asymptomatic.