On an emotional Sunday afternoon, capped by an on-stage tribute from “Hamilton” superfan Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the most successful Broadway musical in Chicago history said goodbye to the city as well as to a cast that has performed the show at the CIBC Theatre for 171 weeks.
At the end of the final matinee of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical, which was interrupted several times by standing ovations for every principal actor, most of the performers were in tears. Lightfoot brought her whole family to this last performance and told the Tribune at intermission that she had seen the show “at least five times.” She took the stage at the curtain call to thank the company and praise a score that she said “had resonated in living rooms, kitchens and cars,” presumably including her own.
Speaking for the cast, lead actor Miguel Cervantes said the performers were “eternally grateful to the city of Chicago.”
Cervantes’ star is set to rise further.
In an exclusive pre-show interview with the Tribune, “Hamilton” lead producer Jeffrey Seller said that Cervantes was soon to take over the role of Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway production, beginning in about two months. He likely will be in that marquee role for at least a year, if not more.
“Miguel will be our new leader and standard-bearer,” Seller said, as he stood grinning in the lobby. “Who better?”
Certainly, everyone at the CIBC Theatre on Sunday seemed to agree. The audience gave the actor, who has played the role here since the opening in the fall of 2016, a prolonged ovation at his first entrance and throughout the show. It surely was deserved. Even though he came from New Jersey, Cervantes had a clear relish for the quirks of Chicago, even celebrating the 2016 World Series victory of the Chicago Cubs by pulling a “W” flag from the pit and leading the cast in a chorus of “Go Cubs Go.”
Cervantes persisted in the role even through the tragedy of losing his young daughter, 3-year-old Adelaide, who had childhood epilepsy. Cervantes and his wife, Kelly, both residents of Bucktown, went public with their struggles with their daughter’s health and constantly praised the medical care she had received in Chicago. In previous interviews with the Tribune, Cervantes has said that he felt the city buoyed his family through their pain.
Seen in the context of a closing (albeit in just one city), “Hamilton” already feels like a product of a different America. Developed in part at the Obama White House, the musical was embraced and promoted by the 44th president of the United States and imparts mostly centrist values very much consistent with the values of that administration: diversity, unity, tolerance, an embrace of complex thinking and an optimistic point of view about American democracy and its ability to push past its own failings for the eventual betterment of all citizens.
In the years that have followed, the discourse in the country has coarsened, with extremist silos formed on the right and the left and with both sides rendering harsh verdicts on fellow Americans and, indeed, the country itself. In its embrace of immigrants, its sympathy for faith-based ideas and personal failings and redemption, its lack of judgment, and also its implicit understanding that most Americans are trying to do their best for their families, “Hamilton” now feels almost quaint.
Such is the speed with which the cultural discourse now moves. But the abiding affection for the show on display Sunday in Chicago served as a reminder that “Hamilton” became a phenomenon because of its artistic excellence, for sure, but also as a consequence of its kindness and its prescient understanding that progress in this nation has historically been messy and complicated, but real.
Lightfoot pointed out that “31,000 students from the Chicago Public Schools saw ‘Hamilton,'” a formidable and unparalleled educational achievement from a for-profit entity that also saw $400 million come through its box office. By any measure — money, attendees, educational impact, artistic force, popular appeal — “Hamilton” turned out to be a remarkable gift for Chicago.
“There will be a void,” Lightfoot said.
And she was right.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
