Gmorning Hippodrome, Gnight Hamilton: Chapter 7 of Long Live the King of Broadway

 Copyright 2022 Lady in the Blue Box Publishing, Rachel Beth Ahrens. All Rights Reserved. You know what happens when you plagiarize- it's not nice anyway. Please be kind. 

Opinions are my own. Rated for ages 16+ for language content. Reader discretion is advised. 

Written October 16-17, 2022. 

So, it's been a year since I wrote my most popular post, the "Deep Dive at 3 in the Morning" from Midnight Mania... more than 60 views on that page as well, wow. 

It's also the anniversary, or book birthday, of G'morning, G'night by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun. 

And guess where I am right now? Take a guess. You won't believe this. 

I'm at the Hippodrome Theatre, celebrating the event, by watching the musical of which I spoke of two years ago in 2020. 

That means we have now officially come full circle here. It took two years to get there, but I'm here now. But I have been so long against Hamilton ever since it came out in 2015, I used to hate it with a passion. Now that it's been seven years and I finally got to see it on the live stage for the first time, things have changed, oh my... I'm so sorry to make you guys wait, I know you've waited long enough. Let's skip to the highlights again here... 

I was so tired after the 16th from a long drive from my boyfriend's home in Harford County to get back to Baltimore for the show. I couldn't stop yawning before and after the show because I had been up since 8 a.m. and been on the road for almost two hours going to and from the theatre. In between, however, was an extraordinary experience that I almost wanted to repeat again, because I was alert and excited from start to finish. 

It was a little toasty in the theatre because there were too many people in the audience and coming into the spacious lobby. It was basically a sold out show, and the crowd was immense. Alexander looked like he fit right in, wearing his adorable suit and bow tie, and I was looking like a fool in my crocheted Eliza gown, complete with blue corset and a bonnet, and my friend from college dressed the best way she could in a Schuyler Sisters t shirt she ordered online for this show. But the air was so terrible that I was worried one or both of us, me and my friend who went to the show, was going to have a panic attack, and it almost happened. 

It was a good thing I ate a pretty good lunch at the Red Bowl Vietnamese Asian Fusion restaurant across the street, but then again, the meal pretty much went right through me because by the end of Act II, I was hungry again and it was only after 4 in the afternoon. 

I was about to take a picture of me and my sweetie in our seats at the Hippodrome, but there were staff people holding up signs that said, "Please no cell phones." So all I did was take out my phone to unlock it and then turn it off. 

And the voice of Mad King George III boomed over our heads saying, "Welcome to Hamilton! Please turn off all electronic gadgets, and any audio, video, or photography recordings in the theatre are prohibited. Thank you. Enjoy MY show!!!!" 

Everyone was laughing at his ridiculousness. We all knew that it was his stupid villainous antics. 

And the one thing my boyfriend Alexander noticed in there was the paintings above the theatre stage overhead- He said that there were three muses in that painting, three of the nine muses that represented the theatre and the arts in mythology. This was actually all new to me and an eye opener as well. 

My favorite line in Hamilton has always been, "I'm past patiently waiting, passionately smashing every expectation... for the first time, I'm thinking passed tomorrow..." And the actor in the show delivered his lines with such gusto and pride, being one of the best Alexander Hamiltons I've seen in my life since Lin-Manuel Miranda's original cast performance before he finished the show and left for other projects. This was also probably my boyfriend Alexander's favorite performance since the Disney + version. 

Aaron Burr gave me chills on "Wait For It" and "The Room Where it Happened", of course. A very worthy and scary adversary to the hero of the story. I sort of wondered why George Washington was stalling in his lines, but I pushed it away because his showstopper "One Last Time" was absolutely stunning and heartbreaking at the same time. Angelica was hilarious in the beginning when Aaron Burr tried to flirt with her, but that quickly faded on "Satisfied", for she became a powerhouse of light and electricity in the storm. Eliza even started to be a little bit silly on "Helpless", starting to be just as silly as Hamilton's funny dance when he lands her father's blessing... But by Act II, her performance of "Burn" almost drove me to tears. She was probably the best Eliza I have ever seen in my life. (But I adore Philippa Soo nevertheless.) The original actor playing Hercules Mulligan and James Madison wasn't there for the stage performance, but his understudy or swing was absolutely perfect for the role, delivering his lines as Hercules brilliantly in both "Aaron Burr, Sir" and "Yorktown". 

But possibly the most breathtaking moments were when someone dropped lights and a chandelier over the stage for my favorite part of Act I, also my favorite song, the end of "A Winter's Ball" and going right into "Helpless". And when getting to "Satisfied", the lights suddenly went away and everything was moving in reverse, the cast and crew moving backwards when you heard Angelica say, "Rewind." It was the most powerful moment in the first half of the show before intermission. But in Act II, the scene with "Hurricane", was actually, surprise to me, my mother's favorite scene when she watched it on Disney +. At the same time I was watching it on the stage, I got a bigger picture of how Hamilton was in the eye of the storm and you could see the lighting depicting the winds and lightning, with the cast and ensemble holding up furniture and people and props like you were actually watching a real storm. The captivating intense scene of how Lin-Manuel Miranda was able to put a live thunderstorm-tropical vortex on a stage, it was as if you were actually seeing the real tornado picking up Dorothy's house and seeing the house land on the wicked witch. 

In the words of the cast members in "The Reynolds Pamphlet": DAMN. 

But here's what sold me. This was the real rub. I was blinking back tears in the end of "The World Was Wide Enough" and actually choked on Baltimore's Alexander Hamilton's words in his spoken monologue, in which he executed beautifully, holding up his weapon and saying to Aaron Burr: "If I throw away my shot, is THIS how you remember me???!!!" 

That moment right there was the moment where I learned the true meaning of ending violence. This show was about ending gun violence and promoting the end to all of these fights, terrible wars, and school shootings, all at once. I hung on every word of that monologue where there was no music, no beat, no melody, and no rapping- it really was a soliloquy as I thought. And 100 times better than Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. 

And I thought of my friend Robbie Greenberger, who passed away from complications following treatments for leukemia. 

And I thought of my dad. Two years since I lost my daddy to cancer this December 31. 

No musical EVER makes you cry twice, until now. It was hard to take near the end, but totally worth it. 

That's why one of my new favorite t shirts says on the front: "Past Patiently Waiting. Black Lives Matter." complete with the Hamilton logo. I now have a button with Hamilton and Eliza on it, along with a Playbill, and a golden quill pen that writes in black ink. The Playbill has a lovely new home in my bookshelf, all cozy and tucked in my copy of G'morning, G'night that I also brought with me to the show to celebrate four years since Miranda published that book. 

The staff at the Hippodrome were terrific as well in caring for all of us, especially for my friend who wasn't the best with crowds, neither was I. I gave her the biggest hug of my life, which turned into a group hug with my boyfriend as well, she needed it. 

And I got to meet one of the fans who suckered me into falling in love with the musical as well. Pretty much everyone has been so kind and nice to everyone, and we loved every second of it. Every moment. Even at intermission as I was waiting to use the bathroom, I was even shocked to find a woman who had seen the show in New York with the original cast, and she complimented me on my dress, plus the woman behind me, going, "Did you make all of that yourself?" 

"I designed it!" I said. "It's all crochet, based on Act II of Eliza's costumes." 

The women surrounding me in line for the bathroom were all in shock, saying, "That is impressive! You look amazing!" :) 

It was horrible that I didn't have that much access to my phone after the show or even during intermission so that I could take more photos, but I was finally able to breathe when I came home that night to find my mom finishing up watching the streaming version of the show on TV. And that's when my mom told me her favorite part of the show, which was "Hurricane". She said that it is the one thing in musicals that has never been done before, where everything is moving in a complete slo-mo of a vortex, bringing a hurricane to the stage, which is mesmerizing. 

For me, it was a literal record needle scratch- where George Washington is singing while on a moving part of the stage, going from stage right to stage left... just like the needle of a record player... 

And we were lost in the show again. 

Thank you, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the newest King of Broadway, for getting me to fall in love with musicals all over again. Long may you reign. 

As for King George, the villain, he truly was the comic relief in all this, only the actor who played him on the Baltimore stage was even more ridiculous and laughable. 

And the songs "Alexander Hamilton" and Yorktown"? The songs I didn't like? I didn't mind it one bit anymore. 

I love this show. There I said it. This is one of the reasons I love being a writer to write about triumphs. 

Worth every second. 

And now we've come to the conclusion of Eliza's Story: Long Live the King of Broadway. Sorry, this is it, guys, it's the end of the series, I've actually done it. 

Now all I have to do next year is get my butt in gear and get to New York in 2023. 

I love y'all. Na night. Oiche mhaith. 

-The Lady in the Blue Box 

THE END. (Finally!) 

Playlist Selection to end this long dissertation- 

A little bit of a jazz version of one of my favorite Pharrell songs, Gunhild Carling is an incredible virtuoso of music, playing all kinds of instruments, even playing three trumpets all at the same time... This woman blows my mind! Here is my new favorite viral video sensation, Postmodern Jazz, led by Scott Bradlee. 

Plus, the newest song from Meghan Trainor that I was listening to yesterday on the drive to Hamilton at the Hippodrome, another great 50s throwback that I just love to death- 

Pink and White Nightmare: Save Gallifrey Essay #1

Or... The tale of why do overs for proms should be doable. (Because I went to Prom with a Bully) 

Copyright 2022 Lady in the Blue Box Publishing, by Rachel Beth Ahrens, All Rights Reserved. Don't plagiarize, just don't. Believe me, you don't want to. Opinions are my own. 

It was May 13, 2006, Saturday night.... And everybody was having such a great time at the senior prom, especially considering nobody was the prom king or prom queen. But I went to a very cliquey school anyway, even the theatre kids were very popular, even to the teachers. 

Everybody at the prom had a fantastic time... except me. 

I can't tell you how many people either wore pink or white dresses, or even wanted to dress as Disney Princesses that night for the prom. The theme was "Remember Me This Way", based on a song by Jordan Hill in which the lyrics said, "Make a wish" somewhere in the song. Basically, it was fairytale themed for Prom 2006 at Perry Hall High School, and I can still remember being so skinny I was able to fit a size 6 prom dress that was pristine white with beautiful silver glitter flowers, and a white shawl that I crocheted by hand for two whole months to finish before that night. If I had known better about the theme of the prom, I would have gone as Princess Ariel in a fluffy frilly pink or blue gown, but I advised myself against it, I don't know why. Now that my fashion sense has switched, I don't mind the ruffles and the color pink and of course, lots and lots of rainbows. 

I almost remember every moment that went on at the prom, and I don't regret some of it. Two girls wearing matching black and pink prom dresses held hands and kissed in a beautiful moment as I was leaving the bathroom, and I finally knew the meaning of love is love. My friend Danielle wore a blue and silver gown worthy of Cinderella's ballgown that she wore with her date. There was at least one girl who wore the exact same dress at the prom as me, but we left the bathroom on good terms, and there were smiles all around. I got to ride in a limousine for the first time and we waited to go into the main ballroom on the second floor at the glittering Marriott Waterfront Hotel on the Inner Harbor in a very classy upscale neighborhood of Baltimore City. Dinner was tortellini with chicken fingers, I don't know why it was served that way, but it was delicious, and the sparkling punch didn't taste sweet, it tasted bitter and wrong. There was a decadent dessert table in the back, but I didn't bother looking at it or eating some of it because I was running on a clock to leave before midnight so we could all make it to the after prom party at the bowling alley in Perry Hall on Ebenezer Road, my favorite place to go cosmic bowling. 

The only thing I appreciated about the prom was the music, kind of, from Rihanna's "SOS" to Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away" and singing it at the top of my lungs. But I hated it when they played "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira, but I started to appreciate Shakira as a person and as a singer in my 20s and 30s. But that was about it. 

What I didn't tell anyone until my 30s was the humiliation that followed suit, as well as the time leading up to prom. I asked so many guys if they could be my date, no one wanted me. I kept getting rejected day in and day out. Worst of all was in the days leading up to the Snow Dance in February, which was unfortunate. I was running for Snow Queen, and I wanted my friend Josh to put fliers up that would say "Vote for Rachel for Snow Queen", and unfortunately, when Josh was in the middle of putting up fliers, some nasty bullies went up to him and started dissing me in front of him, calling me names like stupid bitch and crazy 'Rolling Rachel', and they wouldn't stop telling him that I ruined their lives by being a whistleblower in getting them in trouble for telling the principal on them for harassment. They called me much worse names than crazy bitch, though. I was one of the most bullied and most hated girls in school. And for poor Josh to go through that, when he told me all that he went through to put up my fliers, I felt sorry for him. 

I hoped and prayed to God that there would be no voting for a Prom King and Queen after what happened at Homecoming. It was almost predictable who would have won anyway. Homecoming Queen was our Vice President of the student body, Christina Teng, and she was probably the nicest girl in school. I knew that our valedictorian Jon Graf was going to be the Homecoming King as well, kind of obvious, and he wanted to be a teacher when he went off to college, but he came up with quite possibly the most predictable high school graduation speech I heard as a new graduate. But we're getting off topic here. 

It was a good thing that there was no consideration for voting for prom royalty until the mid 2010s, hooray for me. But that wasn't the worst of it at all. When I went to the rendezvous point at Josh's house for the prom limo arrival, I had no idea that my riding partner was going to be Ryan, a horrible bully from freshman year Spanish class and Spanish Club who kicked my book bag, put kick me signs on my back, and threw crumpled bits of paper at my head to mock me because I was a weak pushover victim of all the bullies at that school. He was even my secret Santa at Spanish Club's Christmas party sophomore year of high school, and the only thing I got from him were lame Christmas ornaments for my tree. I wished that my secret Santa that year was my crush, Jack, who became my first boyfriend almost overnight, but he dumped me almost a year later my junior year. He was kind of a hypocrite anyway, I later found out at our ten year reunion, that I was kind of glad he dumped me before the prom. 

However, that senior year Jack was considering me to go to the prom with him, but I kept telling him how my dream was to wear a corsage and ride in a limo to the prom, and he didn't want to, he wanted to ride in a rental sedan. I had been riding in rental cars for a long time, since my father bought a black Jeep Cherokee that was as old as me, a 1988 "stealth Jeep" we called it. It died sometime as I was off to college anyway. I wanted to ride in style. He stood by his decision, so we decided to part as mutual friends and just go to prom without each other. 

So when I went to see Josh at his house and met up with Ryan, the only thing my evil sadistic blind date said was, "Sorry I didn't get you a corsage, Rachel." I felt like he was teasing and messing with me, because he really didn't have a date either, and I could see why. I hated him. I gave him a look that could kill when those words escaped his mouth and I said, "How can you say that? I despise you." 

And I pulled Josh aside and said, "Josh, what is going on? You said you were bringing someone to ride in the limo with us-- why did you have to bring someone who bullied and harassed me freshman year in class?" 

Josh simply said, "I'm so sorry, Rachel, I didn't know he bullied you. Maybe he's changed since then. I'm sorry about this, but he was the only one who'd come with us to keep the cost of the limo down. If you don't want me to invite him, do you want to pay more money to go stag?" 

I was sunk. I simply said, "Then never mind, I'm sorry." 

But here's what should have happened: I should have said, "Josh, I refuse to pay more money than go with a bully as my date for him to make me feel like hell. But I don't want to go stag because my parents are practically bankrupt, you have no idea how much money my mom had to take out of her paycheck to help me pay for this. So that said, here is my prom ticket, give it to anybody you want, I'm going the hell home. Mom, dad, I'm sorry, but I can't go to prom at all if my prom date is Ryan the Bully from freshman Spanish class. Take me home!" 

I should have never gone to prom that night. Ever. 

But I kept lying to myself that the prom was going to be the most fun thing ever. But I could have never foretold what happened next when I arrived in my knockout white and silver gown, crochet shawl, matching bag and shoes, and my hair and makeup done by professionals at an expensive hole in the wall hair salon- all advised by my beautiful and amazing mom. My mom did a super job at making me look like Debra Messing in the movie The Wedding Date, the scene where she's dressed in green for her sister's wedding, Debra being the maid of honor, and the bride played by the talented Amy Adams. I even had my nails done with a French manicure, my first one ever. I was drop dead flawless that night, and my confident self beauty was ruined in hours. 

Arriving at the hotel, I gave the staff my prom ticket with a smile, after I rode the limo in the seat closest to the driver, since I was weird and I loved riding the limo backwards. (But I also wanted to keep Ryan far, far away from me.) I can't tell you how many pink and white prom dresses I saw among all the people wearing tuxes and gowns. The prettiest girl at the prom to me, however, was definitely Christina Teng, decked out in a white and red rose gown with a tiara in her hair. She definitely fit the bill for belle of the ball and the possible prom queen of the night, so to speak. 

As for me, I was dubbed, "Sexiest girl in the school!" by a whole group of teenage boys dancing and grinding up against me as they shouted. Completely forgetting the senior superlative I got in the school yearbook, "Most Dramatic", a group of taller guys jumped in on me as I was dancing with the crowd, I think there was one kid named Bobby Anderson from my freshman year history class who loved bullying me by calling me by my initials- Rea with a long E, even during reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He jumped in on me once and started gyrating on top of me while I was dancing to Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away", (one of the biggest hits on the radio at the time), and as soon as I trailed off, I didn't see it coming, but a whole bunch of boys started gyrating and grinding on top of me as I tried to find my way out of the suffocating vacuum of sweat and fear. 

And those boys screamed as they grinded on me: "RACHEL IS THE SEXIEST SLUTTIEST GIRL IN THE SCHOOL!" 

Finally, I found an opening in the crowd of immature assholes, in the manner of Cruize in Cars 3, where Lightning McQueen is her new crew chief telling her, "Sneak through the window." I left the dance floor laughing and trying to catch my breath in that time, feeling the cold relief of air rushing back to me. I should have gone to the dessert table right then. 

Even that wasn't the worst of it. I thought it would be a good moment to try making amends with Meryem Ahmadian from the school spring musical Bye Bye Birdie, after I humiliated her by saying something stupid that I shouldn't have at rehearsal and getting in trouble with our director Mr. McShea and my guidance counselor Mr. Seward. Not a good idea at all, because when I tried to talk to her and ask her nicely to bury the hatchet and "let's be friends now and enjoy the prom"- before I could even get those words out- 

Meryem cursed me out by screaming at me, "You're a BITCH, Rachel! DON'T F--- UP MY PROM! GET LOST!" 

And instead, I sat there in misery. The entire night, I got no slow dance, no reconciliation with Meryem, and no date on the ride home from the prom. I didn't even go to get a professional photo done at the prom, with a cute backdrop of a fantasy castle courtesy of Life Touch Prestige photography. 

And when my first ever cell phone rang, it was Josh, and he was telling me to meet them out front for the limo ride home. I wanted to ride in the back of the limo this time, but unfortunately, Josh wanted to keep things the same in assigned seats. 

That's where it hit me on the drive home. As I watched my so called fake friends make out with their dates and I watched Josh and his date communicate with Ryan the bully from freshman year, I knew exactly what it was like to be alone my entire life. I could see why prom was not that great as I had hoped. Maybe my mom was right in that regard, that my accidental blind date was going to treat me like garbage and I'd be humiliated by the entire school at the prom like I was Perry Hall High School's biggest laughing stock. 

Even though I was in the top ten girls running for Homecoming Queen my senior year- I was the most hated girl in school. It was true- everyone in high school Hated ME. That's why I should have never gone to my prom and I should have just stayed home, watching Pushing Daisies and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with my dad, telling him how much I loved him, because I knew sometime down the road, I was going to lose my dad to cancer before he would ever be 60 years old. 

TV show Ghosts, courtesy of CBS and Paramount +, 2022. 

Fast forward about 17 years, I think, and it's getting closer to Halloween, and there was the debut of Ghosts season 2 on CBS and Paramount + not too long ago. Alexander and I were getting caught up on season 1 where the "Attic Girl" who happened to be murdered on her prom night and now haunts the attic in her 80s prom dress, suggests that she needs a ghost prom with everyone else in the house. I felt for poor Sam, the woman who sees ghosts, because when she was a teenager, she was humiliated on prom night like I was for being obsessed with her French class. So, when the Attic Ghost plays a prank on her and makes her life miserable, I can't help but want to burst into tears. 

Long story short, the best part is saved for last, where all the ghosts finally allow Sam and her husband Jay to come to their ghost prom with them, and Sam finally gets to be the belle of the ball at last, with Jay as her date. It's finally the prom do over anyone could ask for. 

And as I'm watching this gorgeous scene unfold, Alexander pulled me aside and asked me, "So, Rachel, if we could do prom over again and you wanted me to go with you, would you want that?" 

I respond in kind like Sam was telling Jay how she "needed a minute" to get all dolled up like this, wearing a gorgeous pink dress and a corsage on her wrist, her hair and makeup done, and she was ready for the ghost prom. :) 

Basically, I said, overtop of listening to "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer, "Actually, if that's doable, I might say yes... Definitely, I'd say yes to that. That'd be really nice." 

So, I went to do a little online digging on Google, and I found an article in the New York Times, about how some adults never got to do the prom or never got their prom the way they wanted, so they decided to have a prom in their adulthood. One couple got to do their prom over again as husband and wife, but added alcohol to the mix, wearing a rented tux and a party dress, and they had to be safe going home after their hotel stay because they had children at home staying with a babysitter. 

And with that, I tweeted: Innocently reading New York Times article about adults having to redo their prom nights to relive high school proms. I kind of want to do this. I was bullied and sexually harassed at the prom- even my sort-of "date" bullied me freshman year. I'd love to do it again. 

And I didn't have enough room to add to that tweet because of the 280 limit, but I wanted to add- I'd love to do it again, but this time, differently from start to finish. I wish I had a real date to prom who actually liked me and treated me like a lady. 

And it suddenly reminded me: in 2020, prom in all 50 states of America was canceled because of the deadly virus COVID19. Nobody ever got to go to the prom because the entire country was in quarantine. In fact, the entire world for that matter. And it came at the worst possible time for me and my family as well, since my dad was sick with cancer and a lot of people were falling through the cracks in their education and in health. As I've said before in other posts, 2019 lasted three or four years, that 2020, 2021, even 2022 haven't started yet and things are never going to get better. Not even after the disgusting overturning of Roe vs. Wade that I find offensive as hell because women need healthcare more than ever and doctors are responsible for saving lives, and saving somebody's life is NOT a crime. 

Too many youngsters graduating from high school in 2020 never got their prom, never got a graduation ceremony either, didn't get to go to senior week, they got absolutely nothing. They didn't even get a prom in their high school cafeteria. The prom had to be held at HOME, and masks had to be worn if you were to go outside. Life was miserable. 

Which is why even before I met the love of my life, Alexander, I wanted to suggest that maybe in 2021 after the kids go to college or go into the military- Why don't we have a prom for college kids? Or why don't we have a special gala party for people who didn't have a prom and hold it for people who missed out because of the terrible times of Corona Virus? 

I know that if I was 17 years old again, I wish that was me. I wish my prom was canceled in 2006, so that I didn't get the chance to go to prom with people who hardly knew me and some idiot who bullied me all four years of high school, just to be humiliated by more morons, and going home all alone at 4 a.m. with a stupid laundry bag from a door prize at the after prom party. 

I really should have told Josh I couldn't go to prom and he should have asked someone else to go with Ryan. I should have just stayed home wearing my gorgeous white prom dress, with my hair and makeup done, and cried all night long because I got all dressed up for nothing. 

Well, at least I still have my crocheted shawl. I know it was an accident that my mom threw my prom dress in with the Goodwill, and I forgave her for that. 

Besides, I want a blue dress for my wedding day, someday. And I'm wearing my crocheted prom shawl as my "something old", and my wedding theme is going to be "The Wonderful World of Don Bluth and Disney". Basically, Anastasia, Thumbelina, and Little Mermaid all rolled into one. 

I want my gown to be blue, my dad's favorite color, and resemble that of the actual fairy princess Thumbelina in her wedding dress to Prince Cornelius at the end of the movie inspired by Hans Christian Anderson. "Let Me Be Your Wings" and all that. 

Now that's fairytale romantic. 

Playlist Selection- my new favorite record of the 2020s by one of my favorite bands I listened to towards the end of high school- Brendon Urie and his band Panic! At The Disco became famous sometime around my prom night and my high school graduation day. The summer of 2006 was the first time I heard "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" on the radio, and I'll never forget my dad's reaction, that he actually loved it for the strings and melody. 

But even though I don't have my dad anymore, the entire album of Viva Las Vengeance would have been my dad's favorite album of 2022 if he had lived to see it. It screams the best glam rock album since Freddie Mercury was a part of Queen. The guitar sounds a lot like Brian May, but it's not (gasp!), and dad would have loved every 1970s and 80s rock reference in the entire record. 

Viva Las Vengeance is the best Brendon Urie masterpiece ever. My dad would be very proud if he was here. Here's "God Killed Rock and Roll". 

 

What's the Matter with Petite-Plus Sizes... A Rachel's Rant post

Instead of posting this on my Patreon account, I thought I'd post this here as a little Blogger post, merged with a theory that will go on to be my small business mission statement, for the sake of women everywhere who are shorter than 5 feet 6 inches tall and are struggling with weight issues, particularly with clothes and Halloween costumes. Particularly, case in point- gowns, dresses, and cosplays. 

And I mean the kind you buy in a store, never online. 

Here is exhibit me: This year for Halloween, I am absolutely stumped on what to wear for a perfect Halloween costume for any potential October plans in the late fall. In fact, I think I've always had this ongoing issue with finding something that fits properly. This goes for all clothes as well. 

Every time I went to Marshall's, Burlington, T.J. Maxx, Hot Topic, even my favorite store of all time H&M, I had the biggest issue of finding dresses and jeans that actually fit my curvy body. The jeans would either be too long that I'd trip on the seams of the foot cuffs of the pants, or they'd be too tight that I couldn't close the zipper. 

Whenever I head into a store, it's always the same issue- I can never find the right size that fits my waist or fits the length of my leg. Sometimes even petite clothing won't fit my legs because they might be a little too long- I'm exactly 60 inches in height and no taller. I stopped growing taller at 16, if you can believe that. I had no growth spurt in puberty at all and I reached 5 foot nothing inches on the nose. I hate being short because I'm only 7 inches away from being a model, even if I became a plus size model. But even then, I don't want the fame unless I become a writer. Being on the New York Times Bestseller List is good enough for me. 

I pored and pored over the internet to look for costumes in my size, and I eventually went to the Spirit Halloween store in Bel Air at the Harford Mall not too far from here, and I was shocked and saddened by how many plus sized dresses and costumes they had for ladies in the sizes 12-20 region. When I went to DORS, I was 140 pounds and a size 12 petite in 2016. Now that it's 2022, I've gained about 40 pounds for no reason at all, I'm now 180 pounds and my jeans that I wear now, St. John's Bay, are a size 16 short. And my jeans only graze the back of my heels and are just slightly tight around my belly button. 

This is getting ridiculous. Shouldn't there be more costumes and dresses for women who want to look glorious as well as pretty in pink on Halloween? Or conventions? Or their wedding day? 

I think I'm getting ahead of myself. But still, women are even finding it harder and harder to find a wedding dress that fits them because there is no such thing as petite-plus size wedding dresses too. It's almost impossible unless you go to Amazon or Etsy online. And don't you hate shopping online for dresses that don't fit online? 

This article that I found online whilst I was Googling away set my mind at ease, at least a little. Women in not only the United States, but in Canada as well, are having it harder and harder to find a suitable outfit for everyday wear, even for work or school, especially if you're under 5'3": https://www.petitepoire.ca/being-petite/advocacy/yes-you-can-be-petite-and-plus-sized.html 

I'll confess that I'm absolutely terrible at advocacy because it's been almost 15 years without going to a leadership retreat and there is definitely something I'm missing. For the life of me, I know I'm in desperate need of a life coach. 

But this sounds like something's been building up all along. I read this article and said, "Oh my god, how many women in America are struggling with too many curves and too short? There are lots of women whom have the same issue as me? Unbelievable." 

It was a call to arms. I wasn't going to take it lying down anymore. Plus size short women needed some help to find better designs that were breathable and functional for everyday wear. The same goes for Halloween costumes too. I'm sure that women my height and my weight had problems looking for store bought costumes that actually worked for Halloween, or for going to a convention at that. I've seen a handful of people advertise costumes they make or sell on Instagram, and only one or two actually make cosplays that are made for plus size. There might be a market for these as I go along. 

That said, I'm still taking commissions, but from this moment on, my mission is clear: Find a way to give back to people like me whom are struggling to find costumes and clothes that don't necessarily require weight loss to wear beautiful and pretty things. I may be a pessimist, but I also think that the Body Mass Index, BMI, that they teach you in health class and medical practices is completely FLAWED. The BMI is wrong because I try to eat healthy and exercise the best I can, and I know my limits on certain foods- I don't even eat fast food anymore. I'm still boycotting McDonald's and Burger King with a passion, and I never eat at Chick Fil A for even more reasons than diet, for the CEO of Chick Fil A is against LGBTQ and nonbinary human rights. I love waffle fries, but I can get them cheaper at a grocery store than eat somewhere where all their money goes to funding Donald Trump's disgusting idea of taking away women's health rights and taking away transgender and nonbinary rights to people who need it. Trans is beautiful and Love is Love, that's what I believe. I've always said everyone deserves love and I mean that.

You deserve to look beautiful and you deserve a nice costume on Halloween and nobody should judge you for how you look on Halloween or at a convention. Cosplay is meant to be FUN. Cosplay is for FUN. Don't hate yourself, no matter what pronouns you use, for what costume doesn't fit you. You are beautiful the way you are and I see you as a lovely person. Cosplayers come in all different shapes and sizes and you should be comfortable as you are in your skin. That includes us short people with actual curves. I've always had an hourglass figure since I was in high school and college, but I've always had a weird looking belly since I joined DORS and WTC in 2015-2016 to find a real paying job, and I feel like society has been growing down.

If you've ever seen my all time favorite Anne Hathaway movie, The Devil Wears Prada, you will see the dark side of the fashion industry and how flawed it actually is. In real life, the actress Anne Hathaway is very tall and a vegetarian, but her character, Andie Sachs, says she's a size 6, which Nigel, played by the incredible actor Stanley Tucci from Captain America: First Avenger, says to Andie that the size 6 is basically a plus size at this time in the present day. He has pointed out that weight loss is the key to making it in the fashion world today, which is a huge misconception and myth about finding a happy medium with finding clothes that fit. In Runway Magazine, the magazine run by glamazon editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), all you see are tall and skinny models wearing clothes that are very fashionable and in a dreamy world of perfect high end expensive designers from Calvin Klein to Lagerfeld to Versace and Chanel. Huge poppy glittering romcoms liven things up about the fashion world being absolutely beautiful and perfect, such as Head Over Heels and Confessions of a Shopaholic, but the darkest side of fashion is shown in Devil Wears Prada, that not only is the workforce industry hell on heels, but in the fashion industry, it really isn't pretty for it requires stomping on a lot of people's feelings and making enemies out of friends in order to get that promotion and get to Paris, France for Fashion Week in the fall.

In context, the movie is awesome with a killer soundtrack and the costume changes on Anne Hathaway are just amazing (my favorite is the little white coat and hat outfit they put on her in the montage on top of the vintage song "Vogue" by Madonna), but even then, those clothes would probably feel tight on me and also too tall for people like me since the fashion industry doesn't necessarily cater to women under 5'4". Believe it or not, there are real celebrities under 5'4" whom have possibly tailor made clothing when they walk down the red carpet: Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa McCarthy, Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who and Victoria, Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Kravitz, America Ferrera, Avril Lavigne, the list goes on! Oh yeah, and I almost forgot- Ariana Grande is my height too- 5'0" on the nose.

But has any of these fine celebrities created a line of clothing for petite plus size? The answer: none of them. But I know someone definitely made a glittering fluffy ballgown for Ariana Grande for the Grammy Awards, making her look like a stunning princess of pop music. Though I don't listen to her music, I really do appreciate her taste in fashion and philanthropy.

The bottom line is, I think I came up with a new mission statement for my Patreon and for designing costumes for women like me with finding the right clothes from sizes 12p-28p. Petite plus size is definitely a thing, and it's definitely a marketable cause for women who want to find costumes in their size instead of buying a costume that will drag on the floor and get messy, dirty, or get snags on their hem line and need repairs. I want to buy a royal empress costume on Ebay, or even buy that purple celestial robe on Spirit Halloween in plus size, but the problem is, what if they are too long in the skirt area? That is always a major issue where I'd have to pick up the billowing skirt and sacrifice my sanity for fashion.

Ladies, if you're reading this, you know exactly what I mean by this. You don't want to sacrifice this kind of sanity for the sake of fashion and looking and feeling good, right? You want to feel comfortable instead of constantly getting mad at the costume because you keep tripping on it.

Here's my Patreon for more info: patreon.com/arachelbethahrenscreation

Don't forget! There will be a follow up to Long Live the King of Broadway coming soon in October! Alexander and I have decided to go to Baltimore on October 16 for a Sunday matinee of Hamilton at the Hippodrome Theatre in Charm City. Look for me there, and I will be reporting live as it happens, in the room where it happens!

Love y'all! Everyone deserves love, no matter what size you are. Even you. Especially you there, reading this article. I love you.

With love, The Lady in the Blue Box

Playlist selection-

I Totally Caved: Chapter 6 of Long Live the King of Broadway

Copyright 2022 Lady in the Blue Box Publishing by Rachel Beth Ahrens. All Rights Reserved. Please don't plagiarize. Plagiarism stinks, it's sick, it's wrong, it don't make no sense. Please don't copy my writing without a Works Cited page, thanks, love you doll! 

Trigger warning is still in effect. 14-16 years old and up. Please be kind and show some decorum, don't lose it. There are some heavy themes in this. Love you. 

Also, please show my Patreon some love, if you can- https://www.patreon.com/arachelbethahrenscreation

Welp, you guessed it folks. Alexander and I caved and streamed on Disney + for a few months now. I'm so very sorry I did this. 

And it all started one wintery and cold night a year after I started making these posts on WordPress. Actually, make that two years, because I think I started around 2020. Eh boy... 

Also, as you can tell, my Eliza costume is nearly ready for Balticon 56. A new episode of the Nerd Queen Journal is coming up very soon... 

If you haven't read my last post already... The first thing we watched on Disney+ was indeed Hamilton. My sincerest apologies. 

And thus, the madness has begun... 

I've also been updated on the Oscars- I think Lin-Manuel Miranda was cheated again. They should have nominated him for Tick, Tick... Boom!, or at least given him the award for Encanto's "Dos Oruguitas" because it's a gorgeous song in Spanish about BUTTERFLIES in LOVE- and they gave it to James Bond instead! We already had Adele win for Skyfall! Why does Billie Eilish need one? I don't get it- maybe the Academy that handles the Oscars are all racist imbeciles... But that's for another time... 

I'm now going to get off my soap box. I'm coming down off of that. 

To recap, last time we talked about Long Live the King... we went into the importance of failure in Tick, Tick... Boom! and a little on the Disney+ version of Hamilton. Of course, the Chapter 5 episode took a little too much longer than I thought, so I had to end it a little bit earlier than I intended. 

Here are the facts. 

#1. I'm going to say this out of peace and kindness, Hamilton deserves the Tony win for the whole thing. I tried to undermine it with facts that I discovered, but yeah, it is very well written in music, lyrics, and libretto. I tried, I really tried to hate it, I can't hate it anymore. It's a little TOO good. But Waitress is still my favorite musical, Sara Bareilles is my favorite songwriter. But I just can't help it, Hamilton is probably... Just as good, I guess??? 

#2. The Twitter and social media following on Hamilton and Lin-Manuel Miranda is beyond impressive. I followed the @HamiltonMusical Twitter page at long last TODAY. They have millions of subscribers around the world, even as far as Asia and Europe. There is a London, England show of Hamilton on West End as well, which is the neighborhood of the UK devoted to plays and Broadway shows in Europe. Some people go as far as leaving the States or even leaving the damn country to see this show. I think it's on the fast track to making a huge fandom following, if my calculations are correct. If my costume of Eliza goes to Balticon this weekend and all goes well, I just might eventually get noticed on Twitter with maybe another 1,000 followers? I don't know??? I currently have over 2,300 followers right now, which is pretty good so far. Instagram, on the other hand, is being kind of slow with my crochet following on #crochetersofinstagram, however, I haven't been posting that much. So far, my top posts have 17 likes each. :) 

#3. The musical in question had a very thorough background in lots and lots of research, backed by the Ron Chernow biography, but it's still considered historical fiction because some of the things in Hamilton were either fictional or left out of the musical completely. Like I said before, Chernow's biography is a huge BRICK- the spine is humongous, you can't fit every single page into a three hour or two and a half hour musical on the stage. Unless it's anything like the play that Andrew Garfield performed on the Broadway stage playing a man in the hospital who is dying of AIDS, and just before he stepped off stage to play Jonathan Larson in Miranda's directional debut of Tick, Tick... Boom!. I forgot what that 5 hour long play was called, but I think it was called Angels in America, I'd have to fact check that. Other than that, Hamilton is very well thought out and most of what you see in the show actually happened in our American history classes. Especially the radio trivia question in the Got Milk? commercial where a guy eating a huge peanut butter sandwich  is the only guy who knows who murdered Alexander Hamilton, but he has to run to the store to buy milk and he's freaking out because he's on the phone and his mouth is full. (One of my favorite ads from my childhood in the 90s!) Miranda got it right this time. 

#4. The costumes in Hamilton are SPOT-ON perfection- it's a LOT like the movie and musical of 1776, only everybody is singing rap and hip hop musical numbers. 1776 is more of a classic musical show from the late 60s and early 70s, with songs like "Sit Down, John", "Momma, Look Sharp" and "But, Mr. Adams", and I truly love them all! But, I'm pretty sure that Miranda has seen that movie at least once because he was able to fit in the "Sit Down, John" line into his musical, but only for a split second before he cusses him out. There is actually a John Adams rap song that was completely cut from the show, and Miranda performed it in a Q&A talk back show after opening night on Broadway with the original cast in 2016. He even says the classic line "Bitch, please!" in the middle of the rap, which makes it even funnier, where he is totally dissing President John Adams! But he mentioned in the YouTube video of the talk back that the rap song ended up on the cutting room floor, and he was only allowed to say the line, "Sit down, John, you FAT MOTHER F-!!!" Still, it's pretty clever, and funny, because it's true- President Adams was kind of an ass. 

Still, the costumes are completely period cosplays from the Colonial into the early Regency Eras. This was around the time Jane Austen was born and growing up as a young English writer and author, even though she died long after the passing of Alexander Hamilton. She died at the age of 41 in 1817. Hamilton was most likely in his late 40s when Aaron Burr killed him in a duel in New Jersey. 

#5. Which leads us to- Eliza's costume. I simply can't get enough of it. She's gorgeous in the empire waisted gown similar to that of Miss Austen. 

#6. Also to add- Eliza is the entire heartbeat and soul of the show, especially when she makes the final epilogue of the show. I'm still, slowly, reading her biography, even though I took a long break from reading the textbook because I've been so focused on making the crochet cosplay for Balticon. Still, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" is the real heartbeat and soul of the show, the full centerpiece that comes full circle to the end of the show, in showing the entire audience: If you die, who will tell your story and live in your legacy? If you die, and you have no next of kin, no one will remember you, so who is going to tell your story? This entire song is important to this show, you can't skip over it no matter how much it makes you want to cry. It's imperative to have an Eliza in this show. She was the one who told her children to encourage them to write about their dad in a biography, and one day, one of them did, but not until after Eliza had died at the age of 90, which was unheard of in the 1800s. Most women either died in childbirth or died of terrible infections and diseases in the 19th century because medicine was just terrible. But she had a legacy that is still around today: she practically invented the American foster care system with her first private orphanage that became Graham Windham, and she started a school in Hamilton's name because she wanted to keep raising children and educating them so that they didn't have to live the horrible conditions her husband did. And the Washington Monument in D.C. wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her raising money to build it. She was truly an activist and a brave powerhouse woman at that. Eliza was as much a feminist as Jenna Hunterson in Waitress. 

#7. Sadly, it is true in both the Chernow biography and the Eliza Hamilton biography by Tilar Mazzeo that Eliza burned her letters. Jane Austen did the same thing, she burned most of them, until her brother Henry Austen found some of them and published them, especially since her sister Cassandra Austen, who also never married, kept her sister's letters she wrote to her. It was common during the Regency Era that women had to burn or destroy their letters in some way because it was not feminine at all for women to write in those days. It was a very cruel world in those days because it was more common that men should make money and men should be authors, not women- women were only allowed to cook, clean, and make babies in the 1800s, and there was no gender equality in those times, which was exceptionally evil. It took until the 1920s when women were finally allowed to work with the same pay grade as men, and women had the right to vote. However, women are still fighting for equal rights and equal pay all over the world, and that includes the United States as well, yes, we're still fighting for equality with men. 

Also, that includes LGBTQ+ rights too, because gender equality also includes the fight for gender neutral bathrooms because of transgender and nonbinary rights, which in this case, this is an absolute human right too. I saw one Mexican restaurant in White Marsh that had gender neutral bathrooms and it had just opened in 2020 or 2021, it's called Banditos, they serve awesome street tacos, and the gender neutral bathrooms are 100% private and very cozy! Honestly, there should be more public bathrooms like this, especially since believe it or not, gender neutral bathrooms like this are also disability accessible too. We need more inclusive public places everywhere you go. 

Ok, enough about that- Women should have the equality and purpose to write. Eliza deserved to have a voice. That's it. I'm so glad that Miranda gave her a voice at last. 

#8. Does anybody notice that the ticking of the clocks in the musical kind of remind you of steampunk? And the fact that Angelica and Eliza have parasols, which is a very steampunk nature in Act 2 of Hamilton, if you've read anything by Gail Carriger? I have, and I think that rocks. 

#9, and finally: I'm going to have to find out when I see the real thing on stage. 

Yes, my boyfriend and I caved. On Monday, May 16, 2022, Ticketmaster opened their gates to allow people to order online tickets to go see Hamilton at the historic and gorgeous Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore City. Tickets are NOT CHEAP! This was a huge deal for all of us, especially when my friend from college, Beth, asked us on Facebook if we were willing to go see the show on a Sunday matinee in October for her birthday. 

Alexander then called me on Monday afternoon after lots of stressing, hair pulling, pounding on the computer, and waiting, waiting, waiting for the computer to load, because web traffic was absolute hell... 

Alexander called me and said, "We're IN." 

I said, "Sorry, what? We got the tickets?" 

He said, "We got. The tickets. Sunday, October 16, at 2. We're going. We may have to trade phones with my mom because she has the Ticketmaster account, but think of this as an early birthday present for both of you." 

I couldn't believe my ears. I squealed and I jumped out of my seat. I was going to see Hamilton in Baltimore. My first ever Broadway show on a real stage. Just... wow. 

But I had to hold myself down, even though I was shaking from the caffeine in my tea and the adrenaline from the entire morning when he told me. This was insane. I had uprooted Waitress, for THIS, and I caved to go see the show LIVE. 

Eh boy. 

(Courtesy of Hazbin Hotel, this is Vivienne Medrano's creation, not mine)

Me: WHY AM I DOING THIS??? I'M LOSING MY MIND! 

Sara Bareilles, my sweet goddess of music and Girls 5 Eva, please forgive me for this. I adore you, still do. 

But I need to get to the bottom of this. 

Looks like this has to be a 7-part series, I don't know. 

THE DRAMATIC CONCLUSION OF LONG LIVE THE KING OF BROADWAY WILL RETURN IN OCTOBER!!! 

Stay tuned. Love you, everyone deserves love. Na night. 

Love, Rachel, Lady in the Blue Box 

In Loving Memory of my fur baby, Cinderella Angel. August 10, 2008 - February 15, 2022 

Final note- I've kind of taken a sabbatical from writing in this blog to focus on Patreon, and I've also taken a break from Twitter as well for this reason. Cinderella went over the Rainbow Bridge on February 15, 2022 in the afternoon while I was on my Valentine's vacation with Alexander. My mom called me to tell me as we were checking out of our hotel to come home immediately for a family emergency. She would have been 14 this year, but she passed away on the 7th anniversary -to the day- of when we lost my favorite fur baby D'Artagnon. They are now reunited with my daddy. And I could hardly bare it, neither could Alexander. We hugged each other and cried with each other when we said our goodbyes for the last time. 

The Impossible Year With No End still thrives with no end in sight. 

Playlist selection- 

Double Danger: Chapter 5 of Long Live The King of Broadway

Copyright 2022 Lady in the Blue Box Publishing by Rachel Beth Ahrens. All Rights Reserved. Please don't plagiarize. Please don't. Pretty, pretty please. I'm super nice, so please be nice to the nice and the (not so) nice, that's the right thing to do. 

Trigger warning in effect. 14-16 years old and up. Both movies talk about serious stuff, and I'm going to talk about movies I've just seen last weekend of January 27-28, 2022. 

Rating of Tick, Tick... BOOM! on Netflix: 4.85 stars out of 5... maybe make it an inch behind five stars. Lin-Manuel Miranda NEEDS an Oscar for Best Director. Nuff said. If he doesn't get an Oscar for Director, then give one to him for "Dos Oruguitas" from Encanto. Please and thank you very much. 

Rating of Hamilton on Disney +: It's really hard to say out of a full five stars. I'd better back this up with a story. 

____________________________________ 

I did it. I finally did it. 

I saw a double feature double danger of Lin-Manuel Miranda movies back to back, Friday night and Saturday night the final weekend before February came. Tick, Tick... BOOM, and then Hamilton. And yes, Alexander still has a subscription to Netflix, and yes, we now have a subscription to Disney + streaming package with Hulu. Alexander doesn't like sports that much, so we still don't have ESPN, which is fine by me. 

Tick, Tick BOOM is nothing short of heart stopping and for all counts AMAZING. I heavenly adore it. Literally, because we just passed Jonathan Larson's birthday. Happy 62nd birthday, Jon, wish you were here on Earth, you are immensely missed, and I am now one of your big fans, even though I never liked Rent, because too many kids in high school sang the "525,600 minutes" song WAY, WAY too many freaking times. "Seasons of Love" still makes me want to gag, apologies in advance. 

Anyway, here is the great thing about Jonathan Larson. The guy was a prodigy and practically a little genius that nobody knew about until after he died, which is incredibly depressing as hell. On the other hand, he left behind a legacy that outlived him, for I found out that Rent became so popular that it ran on Broadway for 12 years after his death the day before the first preview. From what I researched, Jonathan Larson had a highly preventable sudden aortic aneurysm, because even in the 1990s, if he had gone to the hospital sooner, the doctors could have reversed it. However, I think that because of how stressful his life was, especially with the first scene of the rooftop with his best friend Michael, where Larson is smoking something with him- I think that might have led to the heart condition at 35 years old. He would have been 36 a week later on February 4, 1996, if he had lived to see his Broadway show open that year. 

When he lived, he produced his first one-man show, Tick, Tick... BOOM, which is also the title of the movie, but unfortunately, it never went to the big stage, and neither did his absolute pride and joy, which I'm still confused what the plot is, the dystopian rock musical Superbia, which I think almost sounded something similar to Rocky Horror meets the dystopian sci fi movie with Kirsten Dunst living between a pair of twinned planets, in Upside Down, one of my dad's favorite science fiction concept films. Unfortunately for Larson, both musical shows were never meant to be, because Jon's agent calls him back in the movie scene where Larson plummets into failure: 

The Agent: "It's not going to work..." 

Larson: "So what do I do now???" 

The Agent: "You start writing the next one... and the next one... and then the next one..." 

And Andrew Garfield's face, the way you look at him, he goes with that excited expression of joy that he's going to put his show on the big stage... and he's instantly washed over with despair, depression, anguish, fear, and a total big pile of doom and gloom. 

My god, the poor man looks like ME. A poor, starving, struggling writer, with nowhere to go but down, and he's got ZERO HOPE LEFT. Just like me. 

In one interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda playing the role of the Director of the movie (yes, he did direct the film, and I'm really riding on the notion that he's definitely going to get an Academy Award nomination for being the director of his first movie ever)- Miranda said that he wasn't really on the same wavelength of his father-in-law. But upon watching that scene for the first time with the family at home, since TTB only got a very limited cities' release (They never released the movie in Baltimore County- they released it in Annapolis and Bethesda, which is an hour or two hours' drive from where I live- dammit! Dearest COVID19, I hate you.)... Miranda's father-in-law looked back at Lin-Manuel and went, "Woah! How do you do this? How can you have so much stamina to make something like this happen? You deal with failure, like this, all the time? How do you cope? How do you do it? How do you live?" 

Holy shit. 

Which brings us back to the musical Hamilton, which I had no choice but to see the original Broadway cast recording in 2016, courtesy of the Disney streaming service. It took a long argument at first late that night after dinner, no fighting was involved- I was very much against buying one more streaming service when Alexander told me, "My brother is borrowing someone else's password to Disney +, I'm sorry, Rachel. We would either have to buy the streaming thing ourselves, or we'd have to watch something else and just wait for someday when the stage show of Hamilton to be a LOT cheaper and affordable so we can go see it. Really sorry, my love..." 

I was ready to give up. Like Jonathan Larson almost did before he created Rent. 

Alexander made a very simple phone call. He asked a simple question to his mom. He got an answer. And then he pumped a fist in the air and grunted, "YES!" I wasn't sure what that meant, however, until he got off the phone. 

He made a tiny monthly purchase right then and there. And we AT LAST watched Hamilton. 

Get a load of my reactions, from start to finish. I call this post-traumatic-Hamilton-esque-shock-syndrome. Get ready for what actually turned me into a complete fangirl, from a dopey mopey pile of goo on the floor who's desperate for a publisher (STILL have not heard from Penguin Random House! GRR!), and still a nasty grumpy Hamilton-hating Grinch. For six, 6, stinking years, I've been like that mopey idiot who hated that blossoming musical, and unfortunately, Miranda found me and said, "Got you now..." and I was turned into a rap-history musical nerd. 

This is why: 

First time watching the theme song of "Alexander Hamilton", when they get to the refrain of saying his name over and over (which I absolutely loathed entirely for almost seven years to be exact): 

"Actually... it's not terrible! Not bad..." 

First time watching "My Shot": "Ok, that is fully awesome. I like it!" 

First time watching "The Schuyler Sisters": "The Peggy part is actually hilarious! Look at this, they're dragging her everywhere! The poor thing!" XD 

First time watching "Farmer Refuted": *does the salute that Arnold Rimmer does in the BBC sci fi comedy sitcom Red Dwarf* :P "I meant to do that!" And even better, Alexander joins me in doing so. 

:D XD 

First time watching "Right Hand Man" and later, "Helpless", just noticing the stage floor: "Son of a b*tch- The floor is moving. The FLOOR MOVES like a friggin' TURNTABLE! Like a record player! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!" 

And the first time watching "Ten Duel Commandments": "Now the floor is seriously moving like a CLOCK. There's some serious steampunk going on here..." And with "Yorktown", Alexander goes: "All right, this is historically accurate... I really like this!" Me: "Seriously? You're into this song? I used to hate it." Alexander: "Nope. I love it, they got everything right! They were all saying 'The world turned upside down' and they were singing all the time- and you remember that meme I showed you, all the American soldiers got seriously drunk." After that, I'm gone. 

First time seeing the scene after "Dear Theodosia" where Hamilton finds out about his friend John Laurens: "What the damn hell! I was not expecting that... I mean... Oh my god..." (insert frowny face) 

And "Nonstop": "Woah, the staircases move too, like in Harry Potter... The whole freaking stage MOVES! This is seriously cool!" 

Intermission: 

I give myself about a 10-15 minute break to clear my head, play my "All Things Considered Hamilton..." playlist a little bit before Act 2, and also head to the bathroom. I can't stop smiling the entire time. It's that level of euphoria that I'm actually in here. And I have no clue what I'm in for next. It's honestly weird, because I remember how the soundtrack recording ends, I've prepared myself well for Act 2... And yet.... 

"What'd I Miss" is so suave, I definitely have a strong crush on Daveed Diggs right now. 

"Cabinet Battle(s)", I'm seriously in dire straits, laughing my butt off because Jefferson is an ass, and Hamilton is fully awesome in beating him in every single debate. (Damn straight, y'all!) 

"Take A Break"- "Oh my god, Angelica's got a PARASOL! There ARE parasols in this musical, just like my crochet designs for my costume! Great! Fantastic! I got this, I can do this!" 

"Say No to This"- "Ok, a little disturbing... Kind of like Chicago, but I know this is not going to end well... Poor Eliza..." 

"The Room Where it Happened"- "YES. Aaron Burr is definitely a Dr. Facilier/ Shadow Man voice similar to that of Princess and the Frog. It's really freaking good. I can't believe Leslie Odom Jr. has that much energy and stamina. This is cool." 

"Schuyler Defeated"- "Yes! Eliza is wearing the blue and white dress I crocheted! She IS wearing Regency Era style dresses here, I love this..." :D 

I'm laughing through "Washington on Your Side", and I told Alexander that in "One Last Time", I found the EXACT paragraph from President Washington's final address that he wrote out to Alexander Hamilton- the paragraph is IN the middle of the song, Miranda transcribed the whole thing word for word in the song, which starts, "Though in view of my Administration, I am consciously in residual error..." 

"Adams Administration" has a 1776 Broadway Musical reference, too, the whole "Sit Down, John", followed by the F word. I- I- Damn. 

"Burn" hits home, and I'm stoic throughout. Poor Eliza. Then my first burst into sadness happened TWICE in the second act- Right at the tail end of "Stay Alive Reprise", where Philip Hamilton dies, which is an actual historical fact that both Philip and Alexander Hamilton die by gun duels on the same grounds in New Jersey, coming full circle for father and son- 

When Eliza screams when she realizes her son is dead- I burst into heavy sobs. Alexander is holding me and crying with me. I recover in "It's Quiet Uptown" while I also tell Alexander that Hamilton did reconcile with Eliza when George Washington gave them a letter along with a package of silver place settings as a gift, telling them both to recover their marriage. And that's how Eliza forgave Hamilton, and they saved their marriage, long before their eldest son Philip died on the dueling ground. 

By the time of "Election of 1800", I'm actually laughing again when I find that James Madison is crying into his handkerchief, and Jefferson breaks the fourth wall, saying, "Can we get back to politics! Yo..." Classic. 

And I am seriously laughing my butt off when I see the ensemble moving the plot along with the letters between Hamilton and Aaron Burr before the big duel. The whole, "30 items of disagreements" and Burr going, "Sweet Jesus!" followed by one of the ensemble members flying like a ballerina to give him the last two papers and playing around, messing with Burr- PRICELESS LAUGHTER. I'm gone. That woman has sass, I love her!!! And as for Aaron Burr, he's more than pissed off. Loving it. 

-This girl right here, she takes the cake! I love her!!!! 

By this point, I've been keeping my eye on the bullet the entire time, there is literally a woman in the ensemble cast who's known as simply "The Bullet". She's all over the final battle of the Revolutionary War, she's in the first duel with John Laurens and Charles Lee, then she's back when Philip dies, and finally, the final duel between Hamilton and Burr. She's also the leading lady telling Philip Hamilton where he can find George Eacker, who is the man who kills him. The ensemble really is a moving piece to the show, and they don't have to have lines, they are essentially cast members where they all have to develop their own characters the entire time. Principle roles are not always important, even though they are essential, the ensemble is narrating the story too. Imagine how I felt in high school having little to zero lines in every show I've been in until college- versus the time I saw Hamilton for the first time. 

Totally. New. Concept. 

The ensemble is actually my favorite part for the first time in my life! Sadly, I wish I could have been able to think of that in high school, and it still makes me very, very upset. 

And finally, the final time I cried was when Alexander Hamilton dies on screen and on stage. Both times where Philip and Alexander Hamilton are shot and killed, it seriously caught me off guard. I prepared for this months and months ahead of time, but the first time I watched it, I went to pieces and I was in complete misery. 

By the time Eliza gives her final epilogue of how she lived 50 more years and told her husband's story for him, I can finally breathe easy. And in place of Alexander Hamilton, I can actually see Lin-Manuel Miranda breaking character, plain as day. He's not laughing as he breaks character there, he's actually smiling and waving at Eliza, and he takes her hand, and then Eliza, the character, not the actress Philippa Soo, Eliza is breaking the fourth wall here- she sees the audience for the first time. She's stunned. The whole theatre is a sold out crowd too. That means, Eliza finally knows what it means to have her husband's story told to an audience of 10,000 people in New York, and she is flabbergasted. 

I think I have my work cut out for me and I have a lot of work to do over the next several weeks. 

I think I love the show.... 

(Hamilton fans: What did you say?) 

Am... Am I a fan right now? Do I just come out and say it in front of my closest friends and everyone in public? 

(Hamilton fans: Say it! SAY IT!) :D 

And just like poor Steve Trevor, under the power of the Lasso of Truth- 

OK! I'M A HAMILTON FAN!!! I'm sorry! 

I'm a Hamilton fan... I'm a Hamilton fan... 

Oh crap. 

I mean, even King George III is funny as hell! He reminds me so much of Arnold Rimmer, and I had no idea Johnathan Groff could be such a loser on the stage! Damn! 

What is the matter with me? Even my boyfriend likes this show, and he's gotten into the obsession with the same musical... 

What have I done? 

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE CONCLUSION OF LONG LIVE THE KING OF BROADWAY... 

-From my favorite Nickelodeon show Barbarian and the Troll, where we witness who Alvin the Demon is. This is pretty cool for a red herring at the end of a two part episode.