Work Text:
# # #
When Peggy goes to see the musical, she doesn’t expect a lot. Maybe one or two good songs, maybe a hot actor, but nothing more. When she leaves the theatre, she is googling song lyrics so she can learn some of them and print the others, she is texting her friends and almost begging them to listen to it, and then she buys a gallon of ice cream, locks herself in her room and listens to “Schuyler Sisters” on repeat, trying to pretend she isn’t sobbing under her breath. It’s pretty pathetic.
# # #
When Maria goes to see the musical, she doesn’t actually expect to be in it. Mentioned, perhaps, but not appear on stage. She also doesn’t anticipate neither gasping and muttering words simultaneously with her counterpart in a (gorgeous) red dress during “Say No to This”, nor feeling a single tear roll down her cheek during “The Reynolds Pamphlet”, nor – and this comes off as the biggest surprise – digging her nails into her palms when Miss Soo performs “Burn”. When she leaves the theatre, she thinks she manages to shake the overwhelming feeling of emptiness off and go her way.
# # #
When Angelica goes to see the musical, she expects it to be some form of mockery. To be a joke, a bark of an angry dog at the previous generations. She doesn’t expect sobbing her way through “Satisfied”, or biting right through her lip during “Take a Break”, or her own clenched fists during “The Reynolds Pamphlet”. She doesn’t expect looking up lyrics to the songs as soon as she leaves the performance hall and then re-listening to the cast recordings for the rest of the night just to catch any that she missed. Most of all, she doesn’t expect the show to be accurate in the slightest. She doesn’t expect anything right up until the moment when the music starts.
# # #
When Thomas goes to see the musical, he isn’t actually sure why is he doing it – Hamilton is Hamilton after all, and despite all the years past he still hates him. And then he finds himself muttering along to “My Shot”, shifting in his seat nervously during “Yorktown” and yelling “No!” with the ensemble during “Say No to This”. More importantly, he finds himself staring at his own counterpart – black, in a ridiculously-bright magenta suit, with a walking cane – and seeing himself on the stage with him. He vows to himself that if by some (unlucky) turn of events he’ll get to meet Hamilton in this life, too, he is going to make the man perform both Cabinet Battles with him, and leaves the theatre thinking whether he can actually pull off magenta.
# # #
When Gilbert and James go to see the musical, they go together, because it’s better than going alone. And when they leave, they leave together too, but not looking at one another coldly, rather almost hugging. Gilbert is all but sobbing, his hair in a messy bun, as he’s swinging his hands in a frenzy, vowing to learn all the lyrics to that one rap in the middle of the show and complaining about how perfectly everyone’s character was captured; how much it messes with his brain right now. James is quieter, he looks where he is walking and smiles slightly under his breath, remembering Thomas’ portrayal and silently agreeing with his companion’s complaints. Gilbert wipes away his tears vigorously, addressing the level of detail in the thing, addressing the actors and the repeating melody patterns, and James chuckles at his own thoughts, “Washington on Your Side” almost on repeat in his brain. It’s late and it’s cold and it’s raining, and they are walking side by side, yelling at each other jokingly and throwing quotes in each other’s faces.
# # #
When Hercules goes to see the musical, he sees enough historical inaccuracies, alright, but he can hardly bring himself to care about them. He cares more about imagining his friends up there, on the stage, performing the revolution as some sort of a complicated dance, he cares about how the cast manages to pull off “Yorktown” without dropping the suspense once and about how peculiarly-interlinked they make Alexander’s and Burr’s fates seem. He cares about how amazing are the songs and how great are the lyrics, and when he leaves the theatre, he probably cares more about his thoughts than his surroundings because he almost knocks someone off their feet. They don’t seem to particularly mind, lost in their own world, yelling at the person next to them about something they probably find just as important.
# # #
When George goes to see the musical, he knows from the first song it is going to be amazing, but he doesn’t realise just how good until it gets to his own introduction. He chuckles softly at the portrayal of Alexander, then laughs out loud as he hears his own counterpart politely ordering Burr to get out of the tent. And then he chokes on his own laughter when Mr Miranda yells “Call me son one more time!” and it’s directed at the man on stage, but George sees Hamilton in front of himself, furious, enthusiastic, ready to fight, a man who will stop at nothing to create a legacy. And that’s exactly when he really knows that the musical isn’t gonna be just amazing – it’s gonna be legendary.
# # #
When Eliza and John go to see the musical, they don’t know what to expect, but they know there will be Alexander and it is enough to keep them intrigued. They hold hands and lace their fingers. John sings along to “My Shot”, laughs almost hysterically at King George the Third, and then John on stage gets killed and John in the audience feels his chest, expecting to find a wound. They can’t look away the entire First Act, and when it’s time for the intermission they don’t dare move a muscle, the world around them falling apart like a house of cards, concentrating on a single point, a stage in front of them. And then Eliza on stage is burning letters from a small torch and Eliza in the audience doesn’t try wiping her tears off throughout three more songs after that. And then it’s “The World Was Wide Enough” and they both cry, they both look at Mr Miranda, letting themselves pretend that it is actually Alexander over there, chanting his final words, letting the world go and himself – move on. And his performance is so flawless, they can almost believe it. When they leave the theatre, they don’t talk, but they hold each other’s hand and it is enough.
# # #
When Aaron goes to see the musical, the only reason he doesn’t leave before it ends is that tickets are actually incredibly hard to get. That, however, doesn’t stop him from missing half the songs because the stage blurs in front of him and words can barely reach him through a muffled wall of his own sobs. “Aaron Burr, Sir” he finds almost funny, “Wait for it” – too accurate for his own good, during “Your Obedient Servant” he bites his lip until it starts bleeding and during “The World Was Wide Enough” he hides his face in his palms, his heart pounding. That, of course, doesn’t stop him from yelling “Wait!” together with his on-stage counterpart. It doesn’t stop him from seeing loss at Mr Odom Jr’s face and doesn’t stop the same loss resonating in his own heart. The moment the show is done and the lights are back on, Aaron is out of the door, running through the streets of New York City having left his coat behind in the theatre. When he gets home that day, he slowly slides down the wooden door of his apartment, hugs his knees and cries through the night.
# # #
When Alexander goes to see the musical… He doesn’t, actually. He could give every excuse, it’s expensive, the tickets are hard to get, he doesn’t actually has time, but no one asks him for excuses. People seem to have come to their own conclusions, and the easiest one to explain it would be that Alexander is busy. Performing. In a musical. In the musical. No wonder, really, he has never gotten the chance to see it live – you usually don’t manage to when you perform the lead. However, Alexander can’t help but wonder whether at least one of the people he knew before decided to show up to the performance one night. He hopes he managed to impress them.
# # #
“You absolute egocentric fucking dick. You wrote a show about yourself and then played the lead.”
“Yeah. Like you have any rights to complain about egocentricity, Mr I’ll-Be-Fine-In-South-Carolina-Stop-Worrying-So-Much-Alex!”
“I apologised!”
“You fucking died!”
“Calm the hell down both of you! I still want explanations, Alexander!”
“About what? Can’t a man write a musical about himself? It’s a free country, that’s how we created it, right, Your Excellency?”
“I’ll have to say, I have never anticipated you being reincarnated and deeming your life worthy enough to be made into a musical.”
“But you liked it!”
“We all did, Hamilton, but it’s not the reason for me to slap you right now!”
“Angelica, please don’t kill my husband again.”
“Which reminds me of. Hey, Burr, I didn’t exaggerate your character too much, did I?”
“I wish you did, at least then I’d have something to justify me crying the whole night after seeing the damn thing.”
“Oh, it impressed you? That’s a quality seal right there!”
“You wrote a literal musical where I am second lead! Of course it has impressed me, did you expect otherwise?”
“Still a quality seal.”
“Personally I have so much complaints about my portrayal!”
“Jefferson, you are wearing a magenta jumper, you have no complaints, shut the fuck up!”
“Actually, if I may intervene, it was all too accurate.”
“You traitor.”
“Oh, oui, Alexander has got your character down cold there! Also, more importantly, he gave me an awesome rap, so I have nothing to be angry about.”
“Last time you sung a different tune.”
“Well, we’re all together here now, so there isn’t a point to complain about the characters making me feel too nostalgic.”
“That was one of your complaints? Wow. Actually I can relate, I almost knocked someone over when I first watched the thing because my mind wasn’t about to process it easily.”
“Someone almost knocked me over the night when we saw it! I was complaining to Jemmy about the characters and – wait, when was it for you?..”
“I am just impressed at Alexander’s audacity. Can you imagine all the mess if people ever find out?”
“Oh, I’m planning to tell them, Peggy dearest. Just waiting for the right moment.”
“Ah, so you have learned a valuable skill of waiting!”
“I had to try to understand your character.”
“I am honestly just waiting for you to reveal it. Wanna see the mess.”
“Wait a couple more years, this kind of news get better with time, almost like wine.”
“Au fait, I brought actual wine! Do you have glasses backstage?”
“Jesus fucking Christ, what even is this day?..”
“Are you complaining?”
“Never.”