It’s Friday, July 3 at 3 AM, but I’m anything but tired; “Hamilton” has just been released. My Disney+ account is my ticket into the Richard Rodgers Theatre, and my living room couch becomes a front row seat. The lights dim and I hold my breath as Aaron Burr steps onto the stage. I haven’t gotten the chance to watch “Hamilton” live on Broadway, so this is a moment I’ve been dreaming of for years.
The film version of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” lives simultaneously in two different time periods. The characters, dressed in brass-buttoned coats and boots, belong to the New York of 1776. That’s when Alexander Hamilton — played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the musical — arrived in the United States from the small Caribbean island of Nevis. After pursuing an education at King’s College, he would go on to serve as our nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury and earn a place on the $10 bill.
But the actors, with their modern humor and allusions to hip-hop’s own forefathers, also belong to the New York of 2016. Many centuries after Hamilton’s lifetime, they were telling his story in the Richard Rodgers Theatre — the audience’s own “Room Where It Happened,” if you will — where the film was shot over a three-day period. (A whopping six cameras were used, and it was totally worth it; the close-ups and changing angles capture the charisma and nuances of the performers, compensating for the lost thrill of seeing a live production.) As people laughed loudly during Cabinet Battles and cheered for the masterful rapping of the performers, one thing was clear: history can be cool.
As much as “Hamilton” mirrors history, it also rewrites history. Instead of featuring white men in powdered wigs, the musical’s cast is filled with young people of color — Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler, among many others. (King George III is the outlier; his patronizing, sassy nature is embraced and executed by Jonathan Groff.) “It is quite literally taking the history that someone has tried to exclude us from and reclaiming it,” says Leslie Odom Jr., who does a phenomenal job as Hamilton’s frenemy, Burr, and has a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as evidence. “We are saying we have the right to tell it too.” Ultimately, the show argues that history belongs to everyone. We should all be able to write ourselves into the narrative.
Miranda believes that Alexander Hamilton is the perfect embodiment of this message. In the opening number, “Alexander Hamilton,” rapping and storytelling merge into a single art as the performers seamlessly string their rhymes into a narrative about Hamilton’s difficult childhood; a bright but poor immigrant and orphan who was self-educated until college, he had to work harder for everything he achieved. Aaron Burr says it best, in the very first lines of the musical: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”
Communicating through Eminem-esque raps and soulful ballads alike, Act 1 addresses Burr’s question. “My Shot” brims with youthful fervor to reveal Hamilton’s unwavering determination to make a mark on the world. Hamilton demonstrates his ambition firsthand in “Right Hand Man,” when he eagerly aids George Washington in battle and enlists his friends — Lafayette, John Laurens (Anthony Ramos), and Hercules Mulligan (Okieriete Onaodowan) — for help.
This tale of Hamilton’s rise to the top is woven with vivid portraits of his personal life. Some of the musical’s most vibrant and catchy numbers can be accredited to the iconic Schuyler sisters. Angelica Schuyler (Renée Elise Goldsberry), the oldest of the three sisters, is a well-read feminist, caged by the oppressive societal expectations of women at the time. Her sister Eliza, who marries Hamilton, is rescued from belittlement to a shallow, hurt character by the emotional depth — sometimes out of love, other times out of anger, always out of passion — of her songs.
There’s also Aaron Burr, with whom Hamilton perhaps has the most complex relationship of all. They are in constant limbo between friendship, mutual respect, and mutual hatred. In the end, however, they’re just too different to coexist. They can’t agree on much, other than their unconditional love for their children. (This does make for a beautiful duet, “Dear Theodosia,” in which the two sing in harmony but are staged to be sitting in their own separate houses, unaware that the other is experiencing feelings similar to his own.) To Hamilton, his self-culture is a means of the more-important art of change-making. Despite his ego (Burr once asks him, “Why do you assume you’re the smartest in the room?”), he doesn’t equate personal victories to true success. Meanwhile, that’s exactly where Burr falls short: he chases power and prestige, but won’t take risks to get there. He won’t commit to a belief and put his neck on the line for it.
Of course, the Burr of 1776 doesn’t realize this. Instead, he grows increasingly more frustrated as Hamilton surpasses him in reputation during Act II. When Hamilton votes against him in “The Election of 1800,” which is jaunty and even festive, it’s the final straw. The two bros-turned-enemies face off in a duel, which ends with Burr tragically killing Hamilton. (Obviously, getting rid of Hamilton does nothing whatsoever to help boost Burr’s career; it only leaves him with remorse and a bad reputation in our history books.)
As a whole, Act II of “Hamilton” depicts life for the Founding Fathers post-Revolutionary War. Its brilliance lies in its dense yet story-like recount of true politics from the time: cabinet arguments and a sex scandal, grand style and backroom deals, the rewards and infinite trials of running a new nation. Miranda allows himself a little artistic license — Hamilton slams Jefferson for being a slave owner in “Cabinet Battle #1,” yet Washington’s 123 slaves at Mount Vernon go ignored — however he keeps historical accuracy largely preserved. How Miranda did this while writing rap songs that demand rhyme and rhythm, I’ll never know. His historical references are always intelligent, but never nerdy. Like Hamilton’s Financial Plan, his lyrics are “a work of genius.”
The vibrancy of Act II’s political atmosphere is incredible, but that’s not to say that the personal aspect of “Hamilton” falters — at all. Hamilton’s scandalous, ultimately tragic personal life is certainly done justice, largely thanks to the vivid performances given by Maria Reynolds (Jasmine Cephas Jones), Eliza, and Hamilton himself in “Say No to This,” “Burn,” and “It’s Quiet Uptown,” respectively.
Still, after a brief hiatus from politics due to a particularly rough patch in Hamilton’s family life, Jefferson interjects, “Can we get back to politics?” As viewers, it’s hard not to share his sentiment. A complete understanding of Hamilton’s life certainly requires the personal, but this second act is largely driven by the fast-paced, ferocious energy of the political. It’s what ultimately sets “Hamilton” apart from all other musicals.
In an interview, Miranda said that “the fights we had at the [country’s] origin are the fights we’re still having.” He’s not wrong. There are no good old days to which we can return to escape the failures of our current society. The harsh truth is that 2020, 2016, and 1776 are more similar than they are different.
But that only makes “Hamilton” feel all the more significant. This musical, above all, is grounded in a faith in self-improvement — a faith that, from the fundamental injustices and flaws of our past, we can rise up and learn to build a better future. The optimism of this perspective, captured perfectly through the Hamilton that Miranda so artfully portrays, is inspiring.
At one point or another, nearly every song from “Hamilton” has gotten stuck in my head. For now, though, I’m content to bear in mind these lines from “Non-Stop”:
“We studied and we fought and we killed
For the notion of a nation we now get to build
For once in your life, take a stand with pride
I don’t understand how you stand to the side.”
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