With the release of “Hamilton: An American Musical” on Disney Plus, it’s no wonder that hundreds upon thousands of theatre kids, and perhaps history buffs, have flocked to purchase a subscription to watch the musical that captured the minds of the 44th president of the United States and dozens of other high-profile figures. This music is brought to all of us by the creative mind of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man who read an 818-page biography about an almost-forgotten Founding Father and thought, “Rap music, that’s what I hear.”
Having read the Ron Chernow biography, I have to say: very informative, and a fantastic amount of information, but not really something I’d recommend for a quick and easy read. It was formed almost like a novel but was really just a massive information dump.
The musical, on the other hand, I fully recommend.
Give it a listen, watch the movie, fall in love with the cast, the choreography, the symbolism, approach it like someone analyzing a film or like someone who's never heard a musical before, but whatever you do, give yourself the chance to appreciate it as more than just rap music with a historical message.
The show brought dozens of people together that usually wouldn’t have been cast in roles like these. Consider the original cast of the musical “1776,” a show that takes place during the same time period as “Hamilton,” with a cast entirely composed of White people and sorely lacking in diversity. When casting the show “Hamilton” both Lin-Manuel Miranda and the director Thomas Kail didn’t pick out specific ethnicities, but rather they had a feel for each of the characters. Basically each character in the show had the same feel as another Broadway character and a famous rapper or R&D musician.
“Hamilton,” as a whole, put dozens of stars to the front of casting lists, including Leslie Odom Jr., who starred in “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017); Daveed Diggs, who is currently the new TV show “Snowpiercer;” and Christopher Jackson, who has a recurring role in “Bull.” The first played the show's villain, Aaron Burr, the second played the French hero Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson and the third played George Washington.
Not only did Miranda introduce me and thousands of others to dozens of our new favorite musicians, he also put a lot of people on stage in roles that they originally, and, honestly, probably would have not been under a different casting director. The reason they were cast for these roles in the first place is that the casting director specifically asked for people of all races, genders, and ethnicities to audition.
It was, and in some ways still is, practically unheard of for a show set during that era to be so diverse, and yet look at how it turned out: Odom, Diggs, Jackson, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Okierrette Onawadon, and Anthony Ramos--the list goes on. All of them are people of color, all acting in roles they were beautifully suited for. The show prioritizes people of color in roles that many casting directors wouldn’t have thought about casting people of color in.
On top of that, the music is mostly rap music with an R&B feel to it, creating a wonderful and engaging show that helps many students to learn about the Founding Fathers in an environment that actually inspires them.
I can fully acknowledge that the show does avoid specific topics (like the Founding Fathers’ approach to slavery), but at the same time, it is a Broadway show that uses singing and rap as the main form of media. If you’d like something 100% accurate, then I recommend reading Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton” biography; otherwise, “Hamilton: An American Musical” is an engaging and innovative show that I fully recommend watching.