My Love Affair with Lin-Manuel Miranda and ‘Hamilton, the Musical’
My winning story for the Coffee Times Challenge #4
Not a literal love affair, but a musical one.
Given how some of us can’t get enough of it. While others find it jarring when characters break out in song whenever they feel something, let me pose this question:
How does a white girl, elder, privileged, from suburbia, dropped in the middle of a hip-hop musical, making history less of a mystery, and more accessible, fall in love with Hamilton, and become one of its biggest fans?
In a way, my question answers itself.
But I’ll tell the story anyway.
Before Hamilton even opened on Broadway in 2015, it was already a big deal. Perhaps because its creator, Lin Manuel Miranda accepted an invitation to share his concept with Barack and Michelle Obama in the early days of its inception. The days when the vision was for a mix-tape.
Music. Songs. Hip-hop. Rap.
All based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, who spoke to Miranda across the centuries through biographer, Ron Chernow who brought him to life in his acclaimed biography by the same name.
Miranda read it on a vacation in Mexico. You could say, the rest is history. But it’s all history, right.
But it wouldn’t have happened if something about Alexander Hamilton’s story resonated with Miranda. That something that whispered to this modern musical genius some 250 years later may have had something to do with the impulse that created the famous line in the musical–Immigrants, we get the job done!
Hamilton’s White House Debut
Actually, Miranda was invited to close the White House’s “Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word” with a song from his then current-running, Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights.
But the ‘wunderkind’ had a different idea that night. He would share a rap based on someone he felt embodied the spirit of hip hop–Alexander Hamilton. Sounded rather strange at first. You had to be there. If you were, you would have joined the Obamas in the first of many standing ovations.
As Jeremy McCarter wrote in Hamilton, the Revolution, sometimes the right person tells the right story at the right moment, and through a combination of luck and design, a creative expression gains new force, Spark, tinder, breeze.
Such was the start of this story of operatic proportions, told entirely in music, that would take Broadway and the nation by storm.
A story that took six years of incubation and many creative souls adding their particular flavor of genius to it to make it the breath-taking show stopper it is today.
When you strip away the costumes and the scenery and the choreography, you’re left with the story of a poor immigrant kid from the Caribbean coming to these shores to build a life for himself and ending up helping to build a nation.
Reminding us, that except for First Nation peoples, we are an entire nation of immigrants. Not all here voluntarily. But making significant contributions nonetheless.
Doing My Homework
When I got invited to see Hamilton with the first touring cast in San Francisco, I leaped at the chance. I was not about to throw away my shot at imbibing in this form of theatrical magic.
I was determined to soak up every single moment.
So I did my homework.
Not being all that familiar with hip hop, I worried that the words would go by so fast I would miss half of them. So I studied the lyrics. I read them while listening to the songs on Genius.com.
I also read the accompanying notes.
Each song has notes about the particular rhythm of that song and its origins. Could be rap, new or old school. But just as likely, Funk, R & B, soul or reggae. King George, the one white character in the show,’s songs sound like the Beatles in their heyday. A musical pun referring to the British invasion of the 60s, not with guns but with music.
My favorite song is ‘Wait for it.’
In the song, Aaron Burr’s patience starkly contrasts with Hamilton’s ambition. It’s an especially melodic number where Burr sings about loving through tears and laughter and not giving up.
One of the two best songs Lin-Manuel Miranda has written, according to him. He laments giving them to Hamilton’s nemesis. But in many ways, Hamilton is just as much Burr’s story as Hamilton’s.
One is not a hero and the other a villain.
They were both flawed, as well as ambitious men. Rivals might be a more apt description. And the back and forth between them through the staged events is quite the dramatic dance, culminating in–wait for it–spoiler alert–a fatal duel.
The Big Night
Seeing Hamilton at the Orpheum was an experience unlike any other.
The entire place was on fire with electric energy that bounded off the walls and ceiling. We were all on the edges of our seats the entire night. You could feel it.
My FOMO fears were completely unfounded. I understood every word. The story was clear. The actors blew me away with their performances. Did not matter that they were not Leslie Odom or Daveed Diggs or Lin Manuel–though I would have been thrilled.
We bought merch.
I bought the companion book, Hamilton, the Revolution, which I read over and over, rekindling the magic each time. Besides containing amazing photos of the production and the entire libretto, it tells the musical’s story layer by layer.
With chapters covering Alex Lacamoire’s musical direction, Andy Blankenbuelher’s brilliant choreography, Paul Tazewell’s dazzling costumes, David Korin’s evocative and versatile set design, to name just a few. Not to mention the story of each of the principal players and the chorus of singers and dancers supporting the production and making it pop.
It also tells the story of the amazing collaboration between Hamilton and the Public Theater which gave the world a production Lin-Manual considers one of Hamilton’s inspirations, A Chorus Line.
Both productions revolutionized musical theater.
In different, but no less substantial ways. A Chorus Line made the background the foreground by showcasing the members of a chorus and each one of their moving stories.
‘Hamilton’ did something similar with casting.
Using people of color for all but King George, and using the rhythms and rhymes of hip-hop and R & B. This made history accessible to people usually on the outside looking in.
Including, and especially immigrants.
The initial spark caught fire. And, with time off for COVID, has been burning up Broadway ever since.
As for me, I’ve seen it twice. So far.
Now the fun shifts to who I can invite who will most appreciate the gift. I have just the young enthusiast in mind!
Marilyn Flower writes humor to laugh the changes she wants to see and make. She’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Stay in touch!