Non-Stop: Hamilton: The Exhibition

I have been waiting for this Exhibition since I first heard about it last year, and after several delays to the launch date, I got to see it today. It was fun to see it on opening weekend. There were a few tech issues but overall it was wonderful.

Getting There:

1st it is way out on Northerly Island. I was planning on walking and it got to a point where I figured I must have taken a wrong turn but then I saw a shuttle bus and started to follow until the bus was nice and stopped and let me get on.

I would recommend people catch the shuttle at one of its two stops The parking lot or Soldier field.

(Accessibility note: The shuttle drops you off a distance from the entrance, it is flat, and the exhibit itself is flat or ramps but if mobility is an issue plan ahead. You will be doing a lot of walking)

The Exhibition Overview:

For the exhibit, you are given headphones with the audio tour (you choose English or Spanish). When you step into each section you get the big picture of the room and as you travel you find "for more info scan here" tags where you can learn more.

The exhibit is a combo of art gallery/sculpture gallery/and visiting a house museum with interactive bits. The exhibit is focused on the Historical Hamilton, not the musical per se (Though your narrators include Lin and Phillipa and Christopher Jackson in addition to historians). There are signs thought out the exhibit which examines what parts of Hamilton the musical were made up and some of the reasoning why.

Highlights For Me/Interesting Facts*:

• The moving sculpture representing the hurricane that hit St. Croix and which inspired Hamilton to write the letter and poem which inspired others to send him to NY. The Sculpture was powerful and moving and I spent serval minutes just watching it spin. 
• (I ended up getting a mug and magnet of the hurricane in the gift shop afterward)

• There is a neat video which brings the battle of Yorktown alive and shows how each of the armies and commanders were moving at the time.
• The infamous comma flirting was actually Angelica to Hamilton, not the reverse like in the show.
• There was a very powerful display around a random fact in the room with the duel. It turns out that after being shot Hamilton lived 32 hours and Burr lived 32 years. These two timespans are compared. And in some ways, Burr did very little with that extra 32 years. 

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• There is a section towards the end where visitors are reminded of the importance of healthy debate (like all the debate when our country was being formed) and visitors get to write a note about there hopes for America.

                                                    

• Spoiler:
• The exhibit ends with a 3d film of the opening of Hamilton staring Lin and I think the And Peggy Tour. :) :) :)  

 *Being a fan of the show and reading Chernow's Hamilton and Washington different things stood out to me than would a casual fan of the show.