Hamilton Play Review Essay

Every narrative has an ideal medium, a method of storytelling that suits it best; not exactly a controversial premise but one that never quite gets the press it deserves. Some stories ought to be written down, some are meant for the silver screen, some work best at a crowded party, over the blare of music and under the influence of alcohol. Understanding any medium completely, its strengths and limitations, its culture and context is a genius in itself; recognizing stories for the mediums they deserve is a talent too often forgotten and one that will only grow in distinction as access to a wider variety of media increases for the general populace, as has been the trend in recent history.

With regard to this type of genius, no one has proved himself more than Lin Manuel Miranda, specifically in his magnus opus Hamilton.

Hamilton is a Broadway musical concerning the life of the founding father of the same name. A musical might seem like an off-color choice of medium for the story of the life of Alexander Hamilton, perhaps even appearing as a deliberate and pointless subversion of expectation- rebellion for the sake of rebellion, that go-to strategy for annoying 14 year old's that makes authoritarians of us all- but this could not be further from the truth.

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In reality, musicals are a rare breed- an almost exclusively American Art form. Deviating from the European operatic tradition about halfway through the 20th century, musicals are as American as jazz, and while their popularity has spread incrementally across globe, Broadway has always been the indisputable center of the musical world.

Beyond being an excellent medium for American history in general, Broadway likely owes a fraction of its existence to Alexander Hamilton himself, as he was partly responsible for the cementing of New York City as the financial hub of the Americas. In a way, musicals owed this show to Hamilton.

The truest virtue of musical theater is obvious enough- the marriage of music and narrative- but a vast proportion of the potential in this union has long been wasted due to a lack of diversity among those doing the composing. Stylistically speaking, musical theater has remained remarkably stagnant compared to the immense assortment of genres that have evolved with few exception, especially in the mainstream, leaving possible avenues of storytelling vacant. Miranda corrects this colossal oversight in Hamilton.

The show uses an array of different styles, most of which fall under the category of hip-hop. The typical musical soundtrack of tap numbers and somber ballads is remaindered in favor of Beyoncé-esque R&B love songs ("Helpless"), Public Enemy style 80's production ("The Schyler Sisters"), rap battles more at home on the subways beneath Broadway than on stage there ("Cabinet Battles 1&2"), and even direct allusions to artists from hip-hop history (Jefferson quips "If you don't know then now you know, Mr. President"). Miranda did not write this way in order to cause an explosion of both racial and musical diversity on Broadway, this was a side effect. No, hip-hop was his voice of choice because Hamilton the man embodies the spirit and culture of hip-hop.

Alexander Hamilton started from the bottom, an orphan immigrant from the relative backwoods of St. Croix and was persecuted for his less than privileged upbringing throughout his life (John Adams once called him a “creole bastard”). Throughout his life, he bore a large chip on his shoulder and was forced to take charge of his own destiny and fight his way to the top (“I don’t have a gun to brandish/I walk these streets famished”). He was a staunch abolitionist and a notorious womanizer (Martha Washington named her feral cat after him), and his beefs with his fellow founding fathers were as public and vicious as Biggie/Tupac. Not only was the choice to tell Hamilton’s story through rap and R&B a creative and intelligent decision, given the circumstances of his life and times, a hip-hop musical was the only conclusion at which to arrive.

In 1994 Lin-Manuel Miranda was 14 years old and lived in the Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan where he was exposed to musical theater through his parental predilections and the hip-hop of the 80’s & 90’s by his bus driver; the alchemy of these influences would lead to implausible but necessary creation of a composer with the skill set to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton the way it was meant to be told. It was also at this young age that he meant the most profound genius in musical theater, Stephen Sondheim, when he visited Miranda’s high school. Sondheim was the indisputable patron saint of musical theater composers, whose influence was unmatched, until perhaps Miranda and Hamilton. The two now correspond regularly.