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Hamilton: the Exhibition ASHLEY ANN WOLFE

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Hamilton: the Exhibition ASHLEY ANN WOLFE EXHIBIT REVIEW Hamilton: The Exhibition ASHLEY ANN WOLFE I got to be in the room where it happens. when it comes to strategically using theatricality and metaphor to connect visitors to an exhibit Well, the room where it happened, techni- and deepen audience engagement, particularly cally. I’m speaking of Hamilton: The Exhibition, when it comes to the display of ephemeral his- the unexpected, brilliantly designed 35,000- tory and culture. square-foot cultural attraction inspired by the Some context for our non-American read- 2015 musical from Pulitzer Prize-winning cre- ers who may not be as familiar with the cultural ator Lin-Manuel Miranda that was presented phenomenon that is Hamilton: An American on Chicago’s Northerly Island from April Musical: Based on the life of Alexander Hamil- through August of 2019. I use the vague ton, one of America’s founders who played a descriptor “cultural attraction” because HamEx, central role in the revolution and, as the first as it was dubbed by fans and the smart social Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, created the media team behind the musical, is a bit of an country’s financial system, the Lin-Manuel enigma to define. It’s not a museum, though it’s Miranda musical, inspired by Ron Chernow’s large enough to be one. It’s not a performance, biography Alexander Hamilton, opened on but it certainly is theatrical. And it’s much more Broadway in 2015 to unprecedented acclaim, content-rich and substantive than those block- receiving a record sixteen nominations at the buster-type commercial exhibitions that are 2016 Tony Awards, winning eleven - including presented outside of museums (think of popular Best Musical. With a hybrid score of hip hop, installations such as Titantic: The Artifact Expe- rhythm and blues, pop, and traditional show- dition at the former Discovery Times Square in tunes and the casting of primarily non-white New York City). More like history-museum- actors, Hamilton portrays an America that is meets-immersive-theater, with a side of travel- more representative of its citizens and wel- ling circus? Miranda himself struggled with a comed a new generation of theatre-makers and definition of the exhibition: “I’m still wrestling audiences. Tapping into the popularity of the with the language to describe it... We kept musical and new found public interest in early- [coming back to], ‘Let’s do what only we can American history, members of Hamilton’s cre- do!’ Which is not put out a thing of artifacts, but ative team (led by its scenic designer David Kor- create a world that you don’t want to leave” ins and including music director Alex (Di Nunzio, 2019). And that they do. While it Lacamoire, director Thomas Kail, producer Jef- may defy traditional definition, HamEx offers frey Seller, and Lin-Manuel Miranda) part- many lessons that museums can learn from nered with scholar Joanne B. Freeman, US Ashley Ann Wolfe ([email protected]) is a theatre-artist and the Communications Manager for Slover Linett Audience Research, based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 Figure 1. Visitors observing the hanging-balance scale in the St. Croix gallery. Photo by Joan Marcus, courtesy of Hamil- ton: The Exhibition. Historian and Professor of History and Ameri- was instructed that the audio segments would can Studies at Yale University, to create Hamil- be triggered automatically as I entered different ton: The Exhibition. galleries, and to keep an eye out for areas in each I should confess that I am, by trade and pas- room that offered optional additional informa- sion, the target audience for Hamilton: The tion and backstory with the click of your remote. Exhibition. Equal parts theater kid, history (This was a nice touch, but more on that later.) nerd, and political junkie, I found this cultural In the first gallery of the exhibition, a large- mashup of mediums relevant to so many layers screen film of Miranda and his Hamilton co-star of my identity that it was unlikely I would not Phillipa Soo welcomed us and primed us for what enjoy myself. That said, my expectations were to expect ahead: a deep dive into the history of high as I entered the hangar-like event facility Alexander Hamilton, the historical figure. While that housed the exhibition. I queued with others obviously inspired by the Broadway show, today’s in my timed entry group and was given a headset experience was not going to be about the musical with a remote-control. This technology differed but rather about the namesake founding father from typical audio accessories given at muse- and the events of his time. (So perhaps this is an ums, as the earpieces did not cover my ears but Alexander Hamilton pop-up history museum, rather sat about an inch away, allowing me to but at an unusually major scale?) move seamlessly between conversations with Lin and company weren’t lying. I turned other visitors and listening to the narration. I the corner to enter the St. Croix gallery and was 2 Exhibit Review: Hamilton: The Exhibition Figure 2. Barrels, clothing, and furniture fly through the air as visitors pass through the Hurricane gallery. Photo courtesy of the author. immersed in the life of young Hamilton. My orchestra performing a symphonic rearrange- attention was caught by a giant replica of a ment of the musical’s score, created exclusively hanging-balance scale, calling to mind the tools for HamEx. This ambitious decision paid divi- Hamilton used as a young barterer in the Carib- dends: the music evoked the emotions and bean, and more metaphorically the scales of jus- urgency of the Broadway show without hitting tice he would so frequently consider during the us over the head with the connection between early years of our new nation. On closer exami- those numbers and the themes of each gallery. nation, I discovered that the scales hovered over The underscoring had no lyrics, since those a pool of water, wherein old oak barrels would would’ve conflicted with the narration and with light up with facts of the time period; for exam- reading the wall-texts. This subtle use of music ple: “The unpaid labor of millions of slaves cre- got me thinking about how museums can do a ated the Caribbean economic powerhouse of better job tapping into the emotional aspects of the 1700s" (Figure 1). their content, rather than simply the intellectual. In this gallery and throughout the exhibi- This first gallery also set a precedent that tion, we heard ambient underscoring which, I would be followed throughout the exhibition: it later learned, was recorded by a forty-piece shed light on the liberties that were taken in the Ashley Ann Wolfe 3 Figure 3. Visitors walk in Hamilton’s footsteps as they descend the ramp into the New York gallery. Photo by David Kor- ins, courtesy of Hamilton: The Exhibition. musical’s script, adding detail and nuance and The hurricane gallery is where museums correcting the facts where necessary. For exam- can take a valuable lesson from HamEx: The ple, those familiar with the show may assume theatrical, visual, and musical elements aided that Hamilton was an abolitionist. A framed the forward momentum of the intellectual and label on the wood-paneled walls informs us that emotional narrative in ways that simply display- this isn’t the case, but that “he did oppose slav- ing artifacts behind glass cannot. This is not to ery.” (Quite the important distinction, and typi- confuse theatricality with spectacle, which may be cal of the trust the HamEx creators place in the lavish yet lacking in ideas, creativity, and depth. intelligence of their visitors.) A major distinction between Hamilton: The Leaving St. Croix, I found myself in the Exhibition and other major commercial exhibi- midst of the hurricane that Hamilton survived tions was its ability to educate through the his- before writing his way out of the Caribbean. torical information delivered via text panels and This design element was particularly dramatic, narration while also inspiring complex feelings with exquisite lighting effects as barrels, desks, and even wonder through theatrical story- and gowns slowly twisted past me, evoking the telling. natural disaster that took the lives of so many. I turned a corner to enter the next gallery (Many, but not Hamilton.) What could easily and found myself “on the bow of a ship heading have been a simple hallway to the next gallery for a new land.” A wooden ramp led me down instead continued the story of Hamilton’s sur- into Hamilton’s New York. Of this gallery, vival. Fans of the musical will be reminded of an Lin-Manuel Miranda has said that “[w]e emotional number from the second act and feel wanted to recreate what it was like for me in the as if they’ve been sucked into its epicenter show, walking down the gangplank from the (Figure 2). ship into New York City for the first time” 4 Exhibit Review: Hamilton: The Exhibition Figure 4. Statues of the players in Hamilton’s life await visitors in the Schuyler Mansion gallery. Photo by David Korins, courtesy of Hamilton: The Exhibition. (Playbill, 2019). Dramatic entrance aside, this theme (“Why do you write like you’re running out gallery was probably the most comparable to a of time?”), but the beautiful weaving of language traditional history museum experience. Large and text in the exhibition will also resonate with paintings, documents, and maps hung on the those unfamiliar with the show. We observe walls, interspersed with touchscreens that replicas of the workspaces Washington and allowed visitors to dive deeper into many facets Hamilton would have used, with illuminated, of this period of Hamilton’s life.
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