‘Hamilton’ stream hits its mark in Las Vegas

“Hamilton,” a hit on Broadway, is reeling in fans online, including one who had booked the musical in Las Vegas.

Smith Center President Myron Martin watched the Disney+ broadcast at the earliest opportunity — midnight Thursday. He also watched with his daughter, Molly.

None of this would surprise anyone who knows Martin. The venerable Las Vegas arts proponent has seen “Hamilton” in the double digits, and he has watched dozens of Broadway shows with his daughter, who also is the reigning Miss Nevada Outstanding Teen.

“Hamilton,” of course, was due to play Reynolds Hall this September-October in the 2020-21 Broadway Las Vegas Series. The hit musical is now on indefinite hold, same as every other performance on The Smith Center’s schedule.

Thus, Martin was hit with mixed feelings — all of them powerful — when watching the original “Hamilton” cast, with Lin-Manuel Miranda in the lead role.

“The whole experience was very emotional to me, because it is so, so perfect, in every way,” Martin said Saturday in a phone chat. “The way they shot it, the way it’s lit, the costumes, the angles with the overhead shots and close-ups, it’s really just glorious.”

The new movie is generating high viewership on the Disney+ app. Though the company has not released formal viewership figures, the analytic firm Apptopia reports that between Friday and Sunday the release was downloaded more than 500,000 times on the Disney+ app, including 266,000 times in the United States.

That’s a 72 percent increase in the U.S. over the previous four weekends in June 2020 over comparable time periods (Friday through Sunday). It’s also a 46 percent increase in the Disney+ downloads around the world.

But Martin said watching the TV/stream version reminded him how much he misses the warmth of live musical theater.

“Even as spectacular as it was, nothing takes the place of live performance,” he said. “I kept thinking about the beauty of the art, and the fact that The Smith Center is dark and everyone on our staff is furloughed, and how sad that is.”

Martin posed for a photo of the “ghost light” at Reynolds Hall, the light that traditionally remains illuminated after productions go dark.

“I wanted to show people what the theater looks like right now,” said Martin, who posted the shot in black and white. “I can’t wait to get out of this coronavirus to reschedule and announce the return of ‘Hamilton,’ and of all of our shows.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats! podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.