A
few weeks ago I had the opportunity to fly to Chicago and see the Theatre
production, Hamilton. I first heard about the show three years ago from some
theatre friends, and started listening to some of the soundtrack here and
there, but had no idea when I would be able to see the live show.
Upon telling
my theatrical parents about this new show, they began listening to the
soundtrack as well and ended up seeing the show about a year ago now, while
they were traveling in the United States. With a raving review and the
descriptive beliefs or, “the result of direct observation by the individual”
(Sullivan, 2013, p. 121), from both of my reliable sources, I had enough
validity and verification that the show was as incredible as my friends had
told me previously (Sullivan, 2013, p. 90). Therefore, when I heard that my
parents were going to be in Chicago for a business trip and that they were
flying me out to visit them and see Hamilton together, for lack of better
terms, I freaked out.
A week before I was to depart for Chicago, my mom emailed
me and said I should listen to the soundtrack for the show at least three times
prior to seeing the show so that I would be able to follow the quick story line
(as the whole musical is rapped). My expectations were high, which Sullivan
(2013) would explain in light of the expectancy-value theory, “that individuals
approach new situations and information with a built in set of beliefs and
expectations, in that these expectations in turn shape motivations in these new
situations” (121). With these high expectations, I was highly motivated to get
myself to Chicago and see this production I had heard so much about. With my
headphones in, the Hamilton soundtrack playing and my seat reclined, I was on
my way to Chicago. Though I landed on a Friday, we listened to the soundtrack a
few times in the car while driving around, fully prepared for the show that
awaited us on Sunday.
Waiting
in a line that stretched down the sidewalk and around the corner of the
building, my anticipation for Hamilton was a ten out of ten. We walked towards
the grand city-theatre entrance, being drawn in by the sign, “Hamilton” in
bright lights in front of us.
Surrounded by an instrumental audience, or an
audience that “would search for specific kinds of message content, often
seeking out and selecting informational material in a purposive way, suggesting
greater care and selectivity over media as well as increased involvement with
the programming itself” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 117), we were able to look around
and see that our fellow audience members were just as excited as us, talking
about what they had heard and ratings and reviews they had looked up online. I
do not believe that Neilson creates the ratings for theatre productions as he
does for television (Buzzard, 2015), but I am sure there is another system for
checking the ratings of theatre productions, as some of our surrounding
audience members seemed to be educated about them. The informational beliefs
that these audience members held were strong as they were, “formed by accepting
information from outside sources” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 121) Once our tickets
were scanned and we were through the security line we bee-lined to our “gates”
to receive our programs and find our seats.
After a quick family picture in
front of the stage and a couple of exchanged words with the kind audience
members next to me, I was ready for the performance to begin.
Once
the performance began, my inferential beliefs, or “those beliefs based upon
characteristics of objects or facts as opposed to being directly observed, but
that are developed on the basis of logic, personal experiences, or stereotyping”
(Sullivan, 2013, p. 121), lead me to believe that there would be dialogue
within the Musicals, based on my previous experiences with musicals, but I was
nicely surprised when the story was told was strictly through music.
At the
intermission we left our seats and went to the concessions to discuss the
performance so far. My mom thought it was a seven out of ten compared to the
last time they saw it when it was a ten out of ten, assuming that because it
was a matinee that the original leads were resting for this performance. Her
gratifications sought were not obtained for this performance thus far, but
because this was the first time I was seeing the show, my gratifications sought
were abundantly obtained (Sullivan, 2013, p. 120). Though we were viewing the
same media, we had very different interpretations and perspectives on the show
so far due to polyvalence (Granelli, 2016, p. 5058). Once we had finished
chatting and drinking our Hamilton-branded drinks we headed back into the
theatre for the second half of the production. Once the show was complete the
audience stood in unison, applauding the incredible performers, creating an interpretive
community. 
Sullivan (2013) explains this concept as “groups of viewers or
readers [that] may begin to construct similar meanings based on mutual shared
interests or demographic similarity, social pressures, or past experiences. In
this case, viewers may form…. an interpretive community” (p. 155). Next thing I
knew, I was rushing out of the theatre through the crowd to catch a cab and
head towards the airport.
The
story of Alexander Hamilton was incredible. Though his name is sometimes
forgotten as a founding father due to his scandal with a woman that was not his
wife and the duel to his death, Hamilton played a huge role in American
history. The producer of the show was able to take Hamilton’s story and portray
it in a way that made youth and adults interested in his story. The dominant
patriotic ideology of the United States is reproduced through this show in the
culture industry, which is the “process of manufacturing dominant ideologies”
(Sullivan, 2013, p. 138). Hamilton grew up in the Caribbean and went to America
to make something of himself, striving for the “American dream,” and ended up
working as George Washington’s right hand man and secretary in the war for
independence from England. It was interesting to observe the intertextuality,
or “the process of connecting our media experiences together” (Sullivan, 2013,
p. 154), as Hamilton would rap different parts of the constitution within the
show, and you would only understand this reference if you knew about these
documents prior. Hamilton also wrote 55 of the essays that made up over half of
the Federalist papers and was known for all of the writing he did. The producer
was able to encode the history of Hamilton into this musical, allowing his
audiences to decode these messages and leave with new understandings.
Sullivan
(2013) explains that the encoding process, “transforms experiences and ideas
into meaningful discourse[s] within existing social, economic, and cultural
contexts” (p. 141), and is followed by the decoding process where, “audiences
then interpret these messages within their own contexts. Decoding is there for
both the creative and the social practice” (p. 141). Reflecting
on my incredible experience, I started to consider whether the show was as
amazing as I thought it was, or if the circumstances around the production had
an affect on my experience.
I sat in a full theatre with over 1,500 people
surrounding me, ranging from children and grandparents to groups of middle-aged
women, families, and couples ranging from teenagers to old married couples. Sullivan
(2013) explains these various determinants as demographics and psychographics.
Demographics are, “specific subgroups that are of particular interest, based
upon certain basic social features of these audiences such as age, income,
gender, geographic location and race” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 95-96) while
psychographics, “refer to the general association of personality or
psychological traits with groups of consumers in an effort to create even finer
distinctions among them” (p. 98). Sitting in a theatre in Chicago, I was
surrounded by such a diverse audience and wondered about their experiences. I
had flown in from Canada to see this show for the first time, but others had
seen the show multiple times before and others were simply walking down the
street to see the show. I wondered if this start to my trip might have
heightened my expectations and overall review of the show, and also wondered
about my interpretation versus others. The musical was polysemic or, “capable
of being interpreted in distinctly different ways by different viewers because
audiences approach texts with a plethora of experiences and cultural knowledge
of signs” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 141), therefore although we all shared the same
experience, we may have different interpretations of the show itself.
Looking
past this specific showing of Hamilton, I over heard the couple sitting on the
other side of me say that the stage was set up exactly how it was when they saw
the show in New York. I thought this was interesting, as different individuals
might interpret the same show differently, but the producer of the content
wants to keep the story and structure around it consistent from location to
location so that people can take what they want from it. Overall, I would
recommend Hamilton to anyone and had an amazing audience experience.
Image 1: https://www.google.ca/search?biw=1346&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=hObYW5aFBKiOggfcuIWYBA&q=airplane+route++from+toronto+to+chicago&oq=airplane+route++from+toronto+to+chicago&gs_l=img.3...12675.14241.0.14714.7.7.0.0.0.0.78.503.7.7.0....0...1c.1.64.img..0.0.0....0.T9nN5KUob-I#imgrc=Je2zsidc0HRgdM:
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Image 4: Personal Picture
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Image 9: Personal Picture
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