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‘Hamilton’ fans: Get ready to sing your heart out – Metro US

‘Hamilton’ fans: Get ready to sing your heart out

‘Hamilton’ fans: Get ready to sing your heart out
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Raising spirits after Inauguration Day may be a tough task for many — but there’s nothing like an impromptu musical to spice things up. Hamiltunes, an independent sing-a-long event squad, will host its second Boston show at Bill’s Bar on Jan. 20. The group, which organizes live crowd-sourced productions of the “Hamilton” soundtrack, for free, and for the love of the musical.
“Basically we play the music from the whole show, and you can sign up to sing on stage for specific parts, or you can hang back and belt it out from the crowd,” explains co-organizer Bibek Gurung. “We have costumes and props.”
Hamiltunes took over Bill’s Bar back in November, with nearly 200 audience members and participants — much to the surprise of Gurung. (“We were expecting about 40 people.”) While the second iteration remains 21-plus, the group is seeking additional venues for the family-friendly crowd.
But how does it work? Attendees access a Google doc via the Facebook event page to volunteer for roles for each song from the soundtrack. Once at the event, when your tune comes up — you’re on.
“The events are very raucous — everyone is 100-percent invested and there’re lots of enthusiastic people who take the stage,” Gurung adds. “But the whole venue sings along and it gets pretty high-energy.”
Gurung also notes that the Inauguration Day timing is just a coincidence (“largely a result of logistics and what days the venue was available to us”) but the organizers aren’t shying away from the positive opportunities the production could provide to the community it serves.
He notes: “There are also aspects and themes within the musical that seem like very apt responses to events in the previous and upcoming years. Ultimately, I think there will be some kind of catharsis for a lot of us, or as much as you can get out of a night of singing, anyway.”
Entry to Hamiltunes (whether you sing or not) is free, but the group is encouraging guests to donate at the door for Planned Parenthood and the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights.
“We’re just doing this for fun and a way for fans in the area to come together,” Gurung says. “But we are taking this opportunity to raise funds for causes that we think are most vulnerable in this political climate.”
If you go:
Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Bill’s Bar
5 Lansdowne St.