Hamilton

...Continued from yesterday:    
On Sunday Maria, Justin, Tommy, Emily, Callie, Theresa, and I  caught the afternoon matinee of "Hamilton"  at the PrivateBank Theatre in the Loop area of downtown Chicago,

...thanks to my daughter Claire, who managed to hook for us five of our  seven Hamilton tickets. This was the second time Claire has succeeded in procuring "Hamilton" tickets from among the many thousands of Chicagoans vying to acquire them. Claire possesses excellent ticket Karma.

    Theresa, Callie, Emily, Tommy and I left from our hostel,   the Holiday Jones, with the plan of meeting  Maria and Justin at the theater. 

     Tommy and Emily took an Uber downtown while Theresa, Callie, and I took the ubiquitous Chicago rapid transit line known as the "L." 

     Guess who arrived at the theater first?

    Though Tommy and Emily arrived only minutes behind us.
 

  Although we'd arrived an hour and a half before the 2:30 pm performance, the sidewalk outside  the theater was already crowded,

...mostly with folks taking photos in front of the marquee.

   We got into the spirit as well.

     Since we had lots of time before the show, we decided to case out the Loop for some place to grab a snack.

    We came upon a cute little eatery on Wabash Avenue called BeeZzee Fresh Food,

...where, despite fresh, healthy food being he house specialty, I did manage to snag an
oh-so- delicious - and highly calorific, I'm sure - butter-soaked sugar crèpe, which I virtuously washed down with a Diet Coke.

    After our snack we made our way back to the PrivateBank Theatre,

...amidst the sold-out crowd,

...where we met up with Justin and Maria.

...and where we had acoustically good seats with a good view of the stage.

    As for "Hamilton":
    The performance was all the things one hears about this musical:  Beautiful. Uplifting. Inspiring.  Educational. Worth the $177 price of a ticket.
     And though I'd listened to the "Hamilton" soundtrack dozens of times, knew every word and could have sung along with every song - and did sing along with a couple of them, as did others in the audience - I was amazed at how,  seeing and hearing it performed live, this musical sprung to life for me in a whole new and wonderful way in the powerful voices of the singers, the beautiful harmonizations, arias, use of counterpoint, the complex rhythms, the dancers, the clarity of the orchestra music, and, of course, seeing played out with real people a story that up until now I'd only been seeing in my mind, all  done to perfection, not a missed beat, step, or line.
     But something else I took away from this performance of "Hamilton" was a feeling of gratitude that in this day and age when children in this country are programed to value above all careers in technology, medicine and business, when they're pushed by parents to excel in sports while their art and music education languishes, when the arts and music are the first subjects to be axed on the altar of education budgeting because our society as a whole does not value these subjects, it's a miraculous wonder that children in this country still grow up to become professional singers, dancers, musicians, choreographers, set designers, costume-makers, composers, writers, and directors of the caliber that can produce a masterpiece such as "Hamilton."  
       Most of the cast of "Hamilton" were people of color,

...which also made me wonder:
     After "Hamilton," who will compose the next great musical opportunity for  brilliant performers of color?

      "Equal And Opposite Reactions" is now available in Kindle Edition, and also at http://www.blackrosewriting.com/romance/equalandoppositereactions, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com