"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Hamilton (2015)

Okay, so Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a new show, and it’s amazing.  Bar none.  Sooooo good.  And I got to see it!  Yep, just got back from NYC.  More reviews to come, but know that I went for the express purpose of seeing Hamilton.  Basically… (Homer Simpson salivation noise.)

Alexander Hamilton, one of the OGs of the American Revolution, accomplishes the incredible due to his skill with the written word.  Born poor and illegitimate in the Caribbean, he makes it to New York and hits the ground running.  Hamilton is armed with his passion, persistence, and clever/audacious verbosity, and he soon finds friends (like the Marquis de Lafayette,) mentors (George Washington,) rivals (Aaron Burr,) and opponents (like Thomas Jefferson.)  He throws himself into the revolution, and later, the forging of a new nation, with unquenchable tenacity.

The show is often described as a hip-hop musical, which is and isn’t true.  There’s lots of hip-hop, and more than that, hip-hop swagger – Hamilton’s verve and way with words earn him a spot as Washington’s right-hand man, but they also get him in tight spots with resentful rivals, especially when he can’t help speaking his mind.  That said, there are many genres here, such as R & B, jazz, and (care of King George III) the best song the Beatles never wrote.  And of course, it’s all knit together by Miranda’s phenomenal talent for Broadway composition.  It doesn’t sound like a Broadway person trying to imitate mainstream music or a mainstream-music person trying to mold Broadway around their songs.  It sounds like someone who loves and understands both worlds equally, and in his capable hands, it absolutely, no-question works on every level.

I love how the show’s blending of the periods – 18th-century sets and costumes, 21st-century music and choreography, vernacular from both – makes this history feel immediate and relevant.  Party conflicts in American politics haven’t changed much in 200+ years, the founding fathers were no strangers to smack talk or power plays, and the present day didn’t invent xenophobia.  When Hamilton and Jefferson debate economic policy via rap battle, it just fits.  I also love that the show is cast almost entirely with actors of color.  There’s something thrilling about seeing young Black, Latino, and Asian performers portray these old, dead, white giants of American history.  In a way, it’s about reclaiming that history (and really, the adjective “American”) for everyone:  “We’re all American; it’s our story, too.”  I think it’s fantastic that theatre allows for less skittishness on this front – yes, Broadway still has a depressingly long way to go with racial diversity, but how often can you see a Black man in Hollywood playing George Washington?

The cast, by the way, is tremendous.  Lin-Miranda was unfortunately out sick when I saw it onstage (his understudy is great, though,) but on the CD, he makes a stellar Hamilton – blunt, brilliant, and enthusiastic to a fault.  Christopher Jackson (Benny from In the Heights) is effortlessly dignified to Washington, Smash’s Leslie Odom Jr. is engrossing as Burr, and Jonathan Groff is a stitch as token-white-guy King George III.  For the actors I wasn’t familiar with, I’ll single out Renée Elise Goldsberry as Hamilton’s sister-in-law Angelica and Daveed Diggs pulling double duty as Lafayette and Jefferson, but really, everyone is excellent.

Warnings

Swearing, sexual content, violence, drinking, and thematic elements.

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