Way back in the dim dark ages of COVID-19 lockdown: 2020, I bought two tickets to Hamilton the Musical. I did it pretty much in defiance of the universe because at that point it seemed the pandemic would last forever. And I was not wrong, it definitely isn’t over, but we have had periods of being able to travel freely in 2021. One of those periods happened to overlap with the June 2021 long weekend and I went in a plane! To Sydney! With my friend!
It was way more thrilling than it should have been to rock up at Adelaide airport, carry-on luggage in one hand, mask in the other. Aw, the check-in counters, remember them! Ah, security line, good old 1km of zig zagging tape. M and I headed straight for the bar and toasted our freedom with a glass of sparkling white. Having not had to wear masks in SA for a long time, it was a bit of an adjustment to suddenly wear one in the terminal and on the plane. I kept forgetting people couldn’t see my smile, the eyebrows suddenly need to work double time for non-verbal communication.
We took the train to Town Hall in Sydney, walked down a couple of streets to the Crowne Plaza in Darling Harbour. From this base, we explored Darling Harbour on Friday night and M enjoyed a waterfront lobster. We went to bed early and slept 12 hours. Clearly we both needed a rest!
On Saturday, after dropping by the NSW Art Gallery and realising we should have booked to see Archibald Prize, we caught the ferry from Circular Quay to Watsons Bay. Not much sexier than Sydney Harbour when the sun is shining. We were starved when we arrived Watsons Bay but the waterfront restaurant was packed to the gills so we walked up to the road and ordered a late lunch from an empty cafe. Not sure what the game was, but we waited easily 45 minutes for a simple wrap and tacos. No one else there. Blood sugars were so low that we had thoroughly slandered Sydney and its service offering by the time the food finally arrived. Luckily, it was excellent, which was the only way anyone avoided a slapping.
Then we hopped a bus to Bondi, another recommendation of my FB group. Unfortunately Bondi was a bit of a bust. It was cold and windy, the foreshore was covered in building works, and there wasn’t anywhere appealing to sit and enjoy a beverage. So we passed straight through, going to Bondi junction train station. For a moment we considered going into the Westfield, and thankfully we didn’t! A few days after we returned to Adelaide a COVID-19 case was identified and he’d been to a few shops in that very place. This kicked off the current Sydney lockdown, still in place six weeks later.
Sunday was Hamilton Day! We had brunch at a lovely cafe in Pyrmont. I got bailed up by an old gentleman who thought he’d gift me with his secret to becoming a millionaire, and how to take a photo (sir, please). M did nothing to save me from him, so the friendship is now under review.
I’d been told that the Black bar was a good place for a pre-show drink, but it turned out the place didn’t open until 12 when we were supposed to head in and be seated at 12.20. So, the Hamilton-themed cocktails didn’t happen. Instead we sat in a food court and drank Chandon, surrounded by screaming kids and people eating plates piled alarmingly high with shiny buffet Chinese food.
The venue for Hamilton is the Sydney Lyric theatre. We were in the first row of the grand circle, up the tippity top of many flights of stairs. M had never heard of Hamilton when she agreed to come with me, and hadn’t done any research so I was a bit nervous about her reaction. What if she hated it? Well, I needn’t have worried. After what felt like hours of nervous anticipation, not helped by an unexplained delay to curtain time, the opening beats thumped out and it was away.
The Australian cast, to my untrained ears, did a fabulous job. I was in tears for the first three songs, just so happy for them. And then we were all in tears later owing to certain plot points that I won’t give away (but it’s a ~250-year-old story so we know they’re all dead). You can watch the original cast recording on Disney+. Lin Manuel, as he would admit himself, is the least strong singer out of the original cast, so hearing Australia’s Jason Arrow in the titular role was wonderful, he brought Alexander to life. I was most impressed with Lyndon Watts as Aaron Burr, who brought a whole new interpretation to Burr’s character. A bit more peevish, and funny. Jonathon Groff’s King George was always going to be hard to follow, but Brent Hill managed to make it his own and still hilarious.
M was delighted with it, not knowing what it was all about worked in her favour as she was blown away by the songs, feeling and comedy of it all. Makes me think we just need artists to write musicals for all historical events and personalities. Never known more about US history as I’ve been looking up all the ‘founding fathers’ and learning what they did after the story ends.
On Monday we went back to the art gallery first thing and got in to see the Archibald candidates. I’m no art critic, but I occasionally I see something I like. We stopped in the gallery gift shop to get presents for the kids, some oil pastels to add to Bitti’s burgeoning art materials inventory. We flew home in the afternoon, feeling like we’d had a good break from the non-stop pace of the working parent routine, a moment in the eye of the hurricane …
Two Little Travellers 