YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE IT!

You’ll never, ever believe what happened to us so unexpectedly.

There is a musical that came to Toronto called ‘Hamilton’. The Globe and Mail sums it up: ‘(It) succinctly captures the frictions and alliances among the founders of the United States.

The play was hatched, writes Martin Morrow in the Globe, when Lin-Manuel Miranda, invited to the White House several years ago to help provide an evening’s entertainment for then-US president, Barack Obama.

Instead of what Miranda was expected to do, he wowed everyone there with impromptu hip-hop numbers from, you guessed it, the musical he was working on. Hamilton. He blew away the Obamas.

Alexander Hamilton, as Morrow tells us, is about the brilliant, doomed American founding father from the viewpoint of his deadly political rival, Aaron Burr. The pair ending up in a duel, of all things

.

It’s been the hit of Broadway in New York, all over the U.S. and abroad. It’s had its Canadian premier on February 11, at Toronto Ed Mirvish theatre. It’s scheduled to run through until 17 May. It was sold out in twenty minutes, I’m told. The least expensive seat? Somewhere round 350$.

Rosanne heard about a lottery over the radio for tickets. You had to download the app and check in every morning. You could enter the daily lottery. You’d get an email mostly saying ‘sorry’.

Last Friday Roe signed in for the fifth day. On Saturday afternoon came what she thought would be the same message. Except she was told two tickets would be set aside for the Sunday matinee.

The cost? 10$ each.

Author’s comment: We didn’t know where our seats would be until we picked up our tickets at the box office this morning. They were in the orchestra, six rows from the stage. The musical was a blast. Beautifully done, hardly covers it.