I still haven’t seen Gone With the Wind, but I broke down and saw Hamilton (in a good seat at a reasonable price), despite a case of something akin to cleithrophobia, the fear of being trapped, as it relates to being in the ridiculously small lobby at the CIBC Theater at the same time as more than one other person, which is likely when attending a show there, given that the theater seats 1800.

I read a detailed synopsis of the play ahead of time so that I could follow the songs and action, as there’s a lot going on, but despite all the hype about the show, there’s an absence of live farm animals, rotating disco balls, and full frontal nudity.

There is, however, a very small intentional fire on stage, which, given the lobby, seems problematic. But they did tell us twice before the show started to see where our closest exits were.

There also was a crowd-pleasing understudy, Tomarr Wilson, as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if he had friends in the audience who came because they knew he’d be on, as he seemed to milk his performance, in an entertaining way, even past what I might have expected for his rock-star character.

Everyone in the show was great, but the other real crowd favorite was Andrew Call as King George, who easily could have gotten, not just the other actors, but also the audience to sing the chorus of You’ll Be Back along with him, had he been so inclined, when he shouts out “Everybody” near the end of the song.

Finally, a shout out for Hope Endrenyi, one of the universal swings in the show, because learning a thousand parts is impressive, and because she helped clean up Washington Square Park on Earth Day, and it’s not what you know but who you know.