Thoughts On: Hamilton

Welcome readers to my Thoughts On series, where I occasionally over analyze art in a bold attempt to explain to readers why I love the things that I do. Today we are tackling Hamilton, The musical monolith that has taken not just the art world by storm, but captured all of popular culture with its wit and charm. For a bit more context, my personal favorite musical is Rent, so I love melodrama and interpersonal conflict put to music, which turns out is 95% of Hamilton. I have been listening to and watch performances of the songs from the musical ever since being home from break, and figured I would elaborate on why I think this this musical is fantastic.

If for some reason you did not know, Hamilton is a musical that follows the life and death of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasurer, and one of this nation’s founding fathers. On paper it sounds boring, but through Lin-Manuel Miranda’s (whom I will be referring to as Lin for the sake of typing), writing technique the story of Hamilton’s rise to power gets told through of vessel of Hip-hop. I first heard about this musical while giving a tour last year. A mother mentioned to show because of my interest in Hip-Hop dance and music. While I initially let the thought slip into the back of my mind, slowly it became impossible to ignore the influence of this show. My friends had become obsessed with it, everyone wanted tickets, and a few people asked me for a write up about the show only to be disappointed by me having heard it. So one weekend after having watched snippets of the documentary about the making of Hamilton in class (which is a fantastic watch that I would recommend), I decided to go all in. I listened to the soundtrack, watched as much of the show as I could find, and absorbed every scrap of information I could about the making of this project. By the end of my weekend of Hamilton, not only could I understand the hype around such a show, but it hit me on a deeper level than I ever expected it to.

So where do we start with a musical? We start with the music of course. As mentioned earlier the story is told as a sung-through musical where most of the lines adhere to some kind of rap verse.The writing and lyrical work of this show is impeccable, fusing a variety of common rap meters and rhythms to give each character a distinct sound and feel, as well as allowing a character to grow over time as their meters change. The Hip-Hop flavor fits further more as it allows a significant amount of information to be pumped into every song, by the end of the musical you have learned dozens of new things about the American Revolution and our countries without ever having to take out a pencil and paper to write down notes. Here rap is the common tongue and the history we are sucked into revolves around ambition, remembering your roots, loyalty, and love, all dominate pillars of Hip-Hop music and culture. As with most musicals it re-uses themes and reprises melodies to form new ideas, but it does this on a much tighter basis. Almost every melody and idea you hear is a set-up for a later song and therefore connects the story across the span of the two hours it takes to finish the musical. With a track list of 46 songs it seems incredibly daunting to enjoy, but since there are only about 15 or so main ideas being twisted and turned into other forms, the music is never overwhelming, and more importantly it is seamless.

 From the pounding percussion and violin breaks that start off the musical and signify 4^th wall breaking monologues from the characters to the repetition of the phrase “I am not giving away my shot” every time Hamilton is faced with a decision that will greatly affect his future. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the rare few songs that are musical distinct and complete within themselves: “Helpless/Satisfied”, “Dear Theodosia”, and “Your Obedient Servant” to name a few are highlighted as crucial moments of characters development and given unique musical moments that stand out in the sea of already solid composition. It seems like a no brainer to craft a show so that the music feeds into each other, but the music feels intricately woven into the story and perfectly suits the historical context while still drawing on modern musical trends. There is a song called “Ten Duel Commandments,” which is about the practice of dueling, and on a surface level means that someone is about to engage in a duel and get shot. However, at a later point, a character introduced as they are learning a simple piano tune that has the exactly same melody as the Dueling theme. This character later is killed in a duel, but their death was expressly pointed out the first time they appeared on stage.

The idea for this kind of hiding in plain sight comes from the main themes conveyed in the opening number, where the character of Aaron Burr announces the he is the one who inevitably shoots and kills the main character of the musical. What this does is set up the overarching ideas of struggle (the fatal relationship between Burr and Hamilton) and time (the inevitability of death throughout the story), which every song connects to in some way or form. The first Act of the musical is about the middle and end of the American Revolution, with characters struggling to stay alive and fight for a chance to actually be free to run their own society. Here most of the music reflects a battle, either a literally one or an internal conflict as the main heroes have to find new ways to fight tyranny, fight to find love, speak out against injustice, and make a difference. Act 2 focuses on the effort and political debate that went into the foundation of the financial system as we see it today, and Hamilton’s overwhelming to desire to outrun time and create something that surpasses him. Here the main theme is time; songs about not having enough it and misusing it fill the second part and ultimately conclude the story with a reflection on how the main characters spent the bulk of their time, inspiring the audience to seize every day. It is these details, which come up on subsequent listens for me, that really brought the whole show together to me. the story begins and ends it its own bubble, a self-contained musical drama that makes its own melodies and then tucks meaning underneath those melodies to give depth to just about every track. The music is smart, which is not something that I thought I would be saying by the end, but the execution and loving touch given to the shape of the musical landscape of Hamilton makes it stand out as an amazing achievement of what you can do to give your music a life of its own.

In addition to great music, the main draw of Hamilton is its characters and the stellar cast that gave them a voice. The best way to experience history is through the eyes of those who went through whatever event you are trying to understand. Lin brings to life historical titans of American history and somehow does a good job of making them into human characters. They are animated and act much less like trained singers and more like up and coming rappers  .The main characters of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are both given equal spotlight as the show portrays their meeting all the way up until their fatal duel. Burr is an intelligent yet reserved gentleman, who aspires for great things but chooses to wait for them to come to him due to his passive nature. Hamilton, a likewise great intellectual, grew up poor around slaves in the Caribbean, and wishes to make a mark and become as revered as possible through any means necessary in his newfound home of America. This starts off as a simple rivalry and turns to ruin as Hamilton refuses to let anyone or anything stop him from putting his plans into action, whilst Burr is lapped by his colleague time and time again. The relationship and methodology between these two is the main character conflict of the show. On top of that there are the female leads Angelica and Eliza Schulyer, the former being the first woman who understand Hamilton and the latter becoming his wife, who show different sides to our stubborn hero and eventually become the bearers of his legacy. George Washington plays a major role as he is historically the man who enables Hamilton to rise to power in the way that he did, and serves as the level headed straight man to Hamilton’s often impulsive behavior. Then there are the minor roles of Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, and John Laurens/ Phillip Hamilton. I doubled up the names like that because the three actors played both the first and second character in Acts 1 and 2 respectfully. I wanted to shine a light especially on Daveed Diggs, who played Lafayette/Jefferson and had my favorite performance of the show. Watching him go between a giddy yet serious military commander and the overly charismatic yet politically cutthroat Jefferson was a highlight of the show.  The switching out of characters mid show is a bit jarring, but it only serves to reinforce the relationships between the stationary characters, and build tension up until the closing moments of the show.

A final angle of Hamilton I want to approach is the cultural impact I believe it has and should continue to have. A lot of people like Hamilton because it is easy to parse rap that is well-written and different than what people would expect. This novelty skyrocketed it to success and fandom as people fought to wrap their heads around so a weird idea. However at the end of the day, Hamilton is story about America, not just a history story, but a thematic representation of the dreams and struggles still running rampant in the country. Slavery is something that is brought up a lot in Hamilton, and the show doesn’t shy away from its existence and the hypocrisy of “Freedom” when people in the colonies owned slaves. This was something that bothered not only me, but the members of the cast (most of which were people of color) who had to portray these historical figures, never being able to come to terms with what their historical personas did. The founding fathers are often treated as godly figures that built the country with their bare hands and were untouchable. The reality is the founding fathers were people, and while you can defiantly argue that the show does not intentionally vilify them, it does not redeem them either. Characters are portrayed as flawed stubborn humans who stumble their way through a revolution and establish a country all on the idea that they want to be in charge of their own lives. This musical gives you a chance to remember that the very wrong doings and mistakes that plague us as a country now existed/ may have started back when the country is founded. It bridges the gap between then and now and gives us a reason to try and change the fate of our nation. Things like Racism being built into the backbone of our society started with the founding of our country, and I applaud Hamilton for not denying that or shying away from that. A true American history tale deserves to be equal parts tragic and uplifting, as the background to our nation has never been an easy story to tell. Hamilton can make you feel proud to be an American, but it can also make you ashamed of how much hasn’t changed, both of which are important feelings to internalize and feed off of. This is home to many different people and many different stories. Seeing a story the fuses Hip-Hop, Jazz, Neo-Soul, and classic Showtune vibes together with an American struggle about death and the importance of time is weird, but it is also our story. The most important thing Hamilton does to me is serve as a reminder of the diversity and conflict of our American culture, as what started out as an experiment has somehow survived and become the flawed titan we all know today.

Lin has stated that he wrote Hamilton because Hip-Hop songs just started bouncing off the pages of a book he read about the founding father. Alexander Hamilton’s struggle and ambition still exist today. The desire to be a fighter mixed with frustration about the race based societal system you grew up in still exists today. The power for a person to come from nothing and gain the respect and power needed to change a country for the better still exist today. Hamilton is a reminder to us that there is nothing wrong with being a dreamer and nothing wrong with wanted to make a difference, and instead encourages you to learn from your  countries mistakes as trudge headfirst into the pursuit of a better life.