Over the past years, every person, regardless of their attitude to the phenomenon of musicals, has heard about Hamilton, a musical produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Although the original Broadway musical was first performed in 2015, the unprecedented recognition of the production is marked by Hamilton’s recording release on Disney+ in 2020. The stir of the premiere didn’t pass me by, especially after I realized that the leading actor playing the notorious Alexander Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, was also a producer and composer of the musical. After hearing his hit compositions in Moana (2016) and Star Wars (2019), I could not help myself but dive right into another story by the mastermind.
Yet, instead of throwing us into a world of pure imagination and tale, it brings the viewer to the genesis of the US as we know it today through the lens of Alexander Hamilton’s biography. It would be insincere of me to claim that I was gripped by the plot of another historical production at first, especially concerning the fact my knowledge of the topic was quite superficial. Thus, after a few minutes of watching, I had no choice but to do some background research on the subject, and I could not be more grateful to myself, as, from that moment on, I could not take my eyes off the performance while understanding everything taking place on stage.
Hamilton opens with a brief retrospective of Hamilton’s life narrated by his infamous frenemy Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom, Jr.), who is the first man Alexander meets when moving to New York from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Having become an orphan at a young age, a 16-year-old determined Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) enters the King’s College and makes his way to the right-hand man of George Washington and becomes the Secretary of Treasury. The character of Alexander Hamilton is central to the musical, as his narrative reveals some of the major historical events such as the battle of Yorktown, issuing Amendments to the US Constitution, and the evolvement of the Republican party.
The musical by no means omit the storyline of Hamilton’s love life, replete with passion and drama. Married to Eliza Schuyler (Philippa Soo), Alexander feels an inexplicable connection with Eliza’s older sister Angelica (Renee Elise Goldsberry) and cannot resist the seduction from his mistress. The story ends with Hamilton dying after the duel with Aaron Burr, who feels remorse for the mistake he has made, as apparently, the world could have been “wide enough for both Hamilton” and Burr (Miranda, 2020, 02:26:56).
The music is a central attribute of this historical performance, and I was taken aback by the sound of heavy hip-hop and R&B beats from the very opening scene. In the words of the producer himself, Hamilton serves as an attempt to recreate the history of America’s past through the lens of America’s present. It may also be the reason for the producer to include many ethnically diverse characters for historically white figures to reconsider the very image of founding fathers according to the American reality full of diversity and exhausted from omnipresent white privilege.
Undeniably, the sound itself is quite diverse and cannot be limited to hip-hop renditions of historical facts, yet this paradigm of the musical remains prevalent throughout the whole story.
The overall staging was nothing but magnificent for such a musical as Hamilton simply because I, for once, did not pay attention to the change of decorations happening on stage. All the change was subtle enough not to turn the scales from the action between the characters. Choreography staged by Andy Blankenbuehler is another blessing of this performance, as the synchronous movement of the ensemble present on stage at all times manages to emphasize every line sung by the performers to evoke an emotional response within the audience. My favorite moment is one with the time rewind during Angelica’s monologue about her unsatisfied feelings for Hamilton. Finally, it is of paramount importance to mention the lighting and photography, as both of them were mostly focused on the actors’ emotions and facial expressions, providing the viewer with a deeper understanding of the psychology of each of them.
When speaking of musicals, it is frequently hard to dwell on the acting part of the performance, as people cannot fully convey emotion while keeping in mind the constant fear of signing out of key. Hence, it would be reasonable to claim that in Hamilton, words do speak more than eyes as we empathize with characters by feeling their voices and listening closely to the lyrics. The overall acting is worth all the appraisal the musical received on social media. However, while everyone is talking about the acting of Leslie Odom, Jr. and Lin-Manuel Miranda, I would also like to outline the exceptional performance of Jonathan Groff, who played an episodic role of British King George III. Ridiculously infantile and arrogant, George III provides a completely new perspective of the story of British colonization, shifting the focus from a successful tactic to nothing but temper tantrums of a child whose sandcastle gets ruined by a wave.
I think the success of Hamilton was evident even before my impression of the play, as a growing public response to such a genre as musical means that the production must be a hit. However, while many people are either triggered or satisfied with Miranda’s courageous interpretation of American history by presenting it in the form of a hip-hop rendition, I would like to emphasize its relevance in terms of lyrics. Among the number of humorous moments I stumbled across in the performance, my favorite one comes from a dialogue between Marquis de Lafayette (Daveed Diggs) and Alexander Hamilton before the battle of Yorktown, where they claim: “Immigrants. We get the job done” (Miranda, 2020, 59:07). While not the funniest, this phrase provides a strong parallel between the American nation today and at its genesis stage, claiming more similarities than differences. I may also evaluate the success of the musical by the fact that throughout the performance, I had to do some thinking before realizing that at least three actors had two different roles within the musical. Proper stage make-up and the actors’ ability to come into character did the job and made the performance even more exciting.
I would recommend this musical to everyone I know who is mature enough to understand both the historical and the popular culture context behind Hamilton. Essentially, this musical is not only about rendering historical events with a free interpretation. Hamilton is a story about a person who is “not throwing away his shot,” a phrase repeatedly mentioned in the story. The image of Alexander Hamilton in the modernistic setting serves as an image of a person who, although might have been an Icarus who’s flown too close to the sun himself, still managed to bring thousands of people closer to light.
Reference
Miranda, L.-J. (2020). Hamilton [Musical, Video Recording]. The Richard Rodgers Theatre, 2hr., 40 min. Web.