Over the past two weeks, we had the opportunity to sell merchandise for the touring production of Hamilton, and we both loved it. It all started when I received an email asking if we wanted to help with the show heading to Spokane. My first thought was how they even knew who I was. And the second thought was YES! I asked Castor if he wanted to do it, and he was all in, so I emailed the group back, coordinated with work, and waited to find out if they needed us.

A week or so later, we received an email that we were set from shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the two-week run of the show. We work until 5:00 at our regular job, so we would leave right after work and head downtown to make the 5:45 start time.

On the first day, we had an orientation to get the flow of things, how to fold, when we restock, handle customer issues, and most of all, slow down and have fun. Our leaders were a married couple, Libba and Henry, who had been on the road with the show for eight years and had this setup down. We also met Lisa, the show veteran who has worked many shows around the area, and Travis, the newbie. The four of us made up the team, and all clicked together. We knew what had to be done and stayed busy folding and restocking. When the fans came, we made them feel special and gave them our complete attention.

Our first night was the opening night of the show, and we were packed, it was great. Fan came dressed as their favorite characters and the bought lots of shirts and souvenirs. After the show started we restocked and had time for a little break before our intermission rush. After intermission we again restocked, and had a break until the show was over, then we had another rush until the last customer left. We made it home around 11:30 pm and headed to bed as we needed to be up at 6:00 am to get ready for work.

The following two shifts were not as busy, so we had a little more downtime, which was good because after the adrenaline rush of the first day, getting only six hours started to hit us, but we pushed on. Lisa asked how we connected to the show; I explained that I had no idea but thought a friend from my days on the road with The Blue Devils had passed my name along. I explained he also worked as the merchandise manager for the Lion King Tour; she said, Jon? Yes! How did you know him? Turns out she worked with him on the Lion King tour. Castor really enjoyed selling to the fans and really got into offering items to every customer. I told him this is what it felt like being on the road with The Blue Devils each summer, and he knew why I loved volunteering for all those years.

When we hit the final shifts, we had our routine down. We had a peanut butter sandwich as we headed to the show, a snack during the first break, a cheese platter for the last break, then home and right to bed. On Tuesday, Libba received an email that they had comp tickets available if we wanted them. We said Friday would be great, as our last shift was on Thursday, but then she read more, and they were only available for Wednesday, Thursday, and Easter Sunday. We said, that’s ok then. A little bit later, she returned to us and said that the group that works Friday to Sunday could pick up the Thursday shift so we could see the show, and we said that would be great.

We have watched the show countless times on Disney+, listened to the soundtrack on car rides, and watched the show live in 2022. During our shift, we could hear and see the show as it was live-streamed in the lobby. Certain parts of the show sounded different to us; honestly, we were unsure if we would like this version. Thursday came, and we headed downtown like the other five shifts, parked in our usual spot, and picked up our tickets from Will Call. As we walked away, I looked inside to find two orchestra seats in the thirteenth row. We laughed because we had just bought tickets for the Michael Jackson Musical and thought that orchestra seats would be too close to enjoy the show, but we said this could be fun because our 2022 Hamilton tickets were on the terrace level.

We got to our seats and were blown away at the stage’s proximity. This is going to be a fantastic night, and we could not wait. Then the show starts:

“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten 
spot in the Caribbean by Providence impoverished in squalor
grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

We both got goosies and were all in on the show. At the intermission, we talked about how we could see the actors’ lips move as they sang, which made the night truly unforgettable. We laughed, we cried, and we had a fantastic audience right there with us. It was a magical evening, and as we drove home talking about the show, we had the soundtrack on in the background and sang along to our favorite parts. What a fantastic two weeks we had! Although it was tiring because of the lack of sleep, we made wonderful new friends. We look forward to meeting up in the future and hanging out and talking life of a souvie person