Yeah, I know this isn't really a SF/F post but hey, I'm the one in charge here. I'll write about what I want to write about, because I can! And what I want to write about is Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece Hamilton. And yes, I did say masterpiece, because it is one, in the modern sense. Nobody remembers when a masterpiece was literally a project you had to build yourself in order to achieve Master rank in a trade guild.
*SIGH*
Great. It's the first paragraph and I'm already off-topic.
Welcome to Jimbo's! I'm so glad you could come!
I originally heard about Hamilton from my theater addicted girlfriend (Wuvs you Honey!) but it was my theater crazed daughters who actually forced me to listen to the music and learn the words to most of it. They're the ones who assigned me the role of Peggy in The Schuyler Sisters. I don't really have the voice for it, but hey it's car karaoke, right?
So it was a really cool experience for me, especially since I got my ticket by winning the ticket lottery. I paid twenty dollars for two tickets in the second row (no, none of that is a typo) when the person four seats over from me in the same row paid five hundred dollars for theirs. It was a great time. I was so close I could see the spit flying from the actors' mouths while they were rapping. I kid you not.
First off, I want to talk about the acting. The part of Alexander Hamilton was played by Edred Utomi. This guy sold his part so well it hurt. I could literally see tears in his eyes at some points. Don't ask me how he did it. I'm not an actor. I just know he did. Chaundre Hall-Broomfield played both Hercules Mulligan and James Madison. Mulligan is my favorite character in the show and he rocked it. He just had the attitude that the character required. Peter Matthew Smith played King George III and he was a creep. That's exactly what was needed. Now that I've seen the play, he just might be my favorite character. I've never seen such a psycho stalker ex-boyfriend type in my life. The cast was amazeballs. The others were awesome as well. Those are just my favorites.
Of course I loved the music. It was that as much as anything (other than possibly my daughter and my Stephanie) that inspired me to see the play to begin with. It's an awesome mix of a classic show-tunes sound and some awesome hip-hop. I can't tell you every rapper or rap group that Lin-Manuel Miranda ever listened to, but I will guarantee you that he likes at least the Notorious BIG and Bone. If you love old school hip hop and you haven't at least listened to this soundtrack (and it's available for free on both Youtube and Spotify) you are DEAD WRONG. Seriously. Take a couple hours and listen through it. You'll love what you hear. Guns and Ships has some of the fastest rapping known to man. Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) has some parts that are better lyrically than anything being made currently. If you like Biggie Smalls and you can listen to Ten Duel Commandments (or if you can even see the title) and not know what it was inspired by, then you're not really a fan. The cabinet battles are written in the style of classic battle raps, although they're obviously not true freestyles. Miranda has a future in hip hop if he ever decides he's made too much money from the theater and needs something else to occupy his time.
If, on the other hand, you're more of the show tunes, there's plenty here for you too. All of King George III's songs have a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend feel to them that made my skin crawl. The Schuler Sisters and Helpless are as good as anything I've heard from a womens' ensemble. The only thing that the show is missing is a true aria, but it's not like it needs it. There is plenty here to keep your mind occupied and music lovers will be amazed regardless.
My daughters have both been involved in dance for several years and would be much better placed to give a detailed breakdown of the dancing. Suffice it to say that it looked good to me. There was always someone doing something and it looked amazeballs. I just admitted that I don't know much about dance, but I was in marching band once upon a time and I know intricate choreography when I see it. This was it. The amount of work that it took to get that all blocked in (if that's what dancers call it. It's the marching band term.) and movement coordinated must have been grueling, but these were some true professionals that did it. I find myself in awe.
Of course, a good musical is more than the sum of its parts and that's where Hamilton truly excelled. I was enthralled from the moment the lights dimmed until the curtain call. I couldn't have gotten out of my chair and walked away even if I tried. Well, except for the intermission. Getting up then was good. After the lights came on I noticed that I had to pee and I was thirsty, but here's the thing: I hadn't realized that five seconds before they came on. I was that into the show. My daughter (it was her second time seeing it) had informed me that the second act was a little slower than the first but if it was, I didn't notice.
I'm a big, proud, strong, smart, rough, tough dude. I don't ever cry at movies or plays. Miranda wanted to change that fact, but I'm strong than that. Also, if my daughter had seen me cry I would've heard about it till my dying day. I therefore held it together. Barely. Listen folks, if you can follow a man like Hamilton through an entire show and watch him get married, fight a war, almost destroy his marriage, lose his son and negotiate the beginnings of the American Republic and not be effected by his death at the end of the show, you're not human. If you can watch Alexander and Eliza lose their son and not feel something, you're not a parent for sure and probably not a human being. My heart bled for these characters.
But there was humor too. Whether it was Thomas Jefferson hamming it up for the cheers or anything George III did, there was plenty of laughter. The look on Washington's face at the begging of Cabinet Battle #2 is classic and I'll never forget it. It's not all doom and gloom. There's plenty of fun here as well.
And that's what I think makes Hamilton so special. I mean, I love the music and yes, it's the first major musical to feature hip hop. That alone would not have made it this popular. What makes it so awesome is Miranda's ability to tell a story. Hamilton is the story of a life, with it's good and it's bad. Our hero goes through ups and downs. He makes some major mistakes and has to recover from them, at least until he catches a musket ball to the chest and loses his ability to do so permanently. Seriously. I know tickets to this thing are hard to get. I failed to get them twice and had to rely on winning the lottery on the last day the thing was in town to be able to go. The fact remains that thousands of people did get tickets. If you get a chance, go. There is a reason that this play won eleven Tonys.
Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Betsy Ross's Flags
Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda
2015
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