If you’re that breed of Hamilton fan, you need to be at Rhythm! Discovery Center on Monday night, when drummer Andrés Forero will play selections from the Broadway phenomenon in an up-close-and-personal concert. Forero joined the show just as it was moving from off-Broadway to the Great White Way in 2015, so he even had a chance to make a few tweaks to the score. That’s him drumming on the hit cast album, and he’s still at the Richard Rodgers Theatre for eight performances a week.
“I can literally feel Andrés going to town on the drums underneath us in the orchestra pit—it’s an energy that is so fun to harness,” Miranda told Modern Drummer magazine after Hamilton had been on Broadway for nearly a year. “You can throw anything at Andrés. He’s the best in the business.”
Miranda, of course, is the celebrated creator and original star of the smash-hit musical. He and Hamilton musical director Alex Lacamoire had worked with Forero on the shows In the Heights and Bring It On, later luring him back to Broadway while he was on a national tour with The Book of Mormon.
Forero is widely considered a musical prodigy—by the time he was 12, he was playing 13 instruments. He didn’t own his own drum set until his junior year of high school, when his music teacher gave him money for one. The teacher told Forero to buy the drum set to get his career started.
Since then, he’s performed and recorded with artists like Sean Kingston, Ne-yo and Alicia Keys. On Monday night at Rhythm! Discovery Center, downtown’s drum-and-percussion museum, he’ll play music from Hamilton and chat with the audience.
That’s at 7 p.m., but get there when doors open at 6 p.m. to poke around the place, which is definitely worth looking at—and playing at. The world’s first interactive percussion museum, it’s home to historic artifacts and cool drum kits (including one made of Legos). Grab a mallet and tap on a xylophone, sip a Sun King Brewery beer, and secure a spot in the drum circle.
Tickets are $30, which includes entrance and two free brews from Sun King (the event is for ages 21-and-over only). Just buy your ticket soon—there are only about 50 left.