Hamilton: The romance of history, rendered in hip-hop

The Binge
Jessica Zafra

WHAT A COMFORT it is after an intense and contentious election to hear a musical that makes you want to give standing ovations to the idea of nationhood. The hairs on my arms rose, there were icy sparks down my backbone, and an irresistible force propelled me out of my seat to applaud this work. And I was all alone in my room.

Good luck getting tickets to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, which apart from earning a MacArthur genius grant for its author has won a Pulitzer, a Grammy, Obie, and Drama Desk Awards, and is poised to win a truckload of Tonys. Hamilton has united two often opposing camps, the critics and the audience, with its rousing hip-hop treatment of American history. Until you manage to book your tickets, you’ll have to content yourself with listening to the original Broadway cast recording.

The subject of the play is Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who established the American financial system and is best known today as the face on the ten dollar bill. As a line from the show says: He doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit that he gave (them). I know little about American history, but I know who Hamilton is because I read a Justice League comic book in which he and his adversary Aaron Burr traveled through time and met Superman and company.

Hamilton the musical is sung-through, and features a multi-ethnic cast playing key figures in the American revolution. Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is Puerto Rican-American, also plays the lead; all the founding fathers are played by people of color and in future productions, some of them will be portrayed by women. At a time when the US is riven by racial discrimination, this casting decision reminds us that this is how America looks today, and that American history is the history of all Americans, not just the whites.

Obviously I can’t appreciate the staging with just a cast recording, but the choice of musical genres drives home this point as well. Hip-hop, rap, R&B, hints of jazz, songs so fresh and ebullient they should be on the pop charts. Let me state right here that I am not into musicals. I’ve never sat through The Sound of Music or Rent, and with the exception of Sondheim shows I am likely to fall asleep when people are bursting into song at regular intervals. It’s not them, it’s me. Hamilton has an implacable sense of urgency that overcomes the artificiality of the form. It’s a stage musical that doesn’t feel stagey.

The first bars we hear sound like evening news theme music, and then Leslie Odom, Jr. as the antagonist Aaron Burr launches into a summary of Hamilton’s early life. “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?” This is the question the next three hours attempt to answer. “The ten-dollar founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder, by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter,” sings Anthony Ramos as John Laurens, and then presidents Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs) and James Madison (Okieriete Onaodowan) weigh in before Burr asks that classic rap question, “What’s your name?”

“Alexander Hamilton,” comes the reply in the sudden silence, “My name is Alexander Hamilton.” And if you don’t know, now you know. Bits of music by Alicia Keys, Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Beastie Boys, Mary J. Blige, and especially Biggie Smalls wander into the songs, and one of the delights of listening to the album is identifying the sources.

Armed with nothing but his drive and ambition this “nobody” rises in society, in a journey that parallels that of Jay-Z and other kings of hip-hop. “I am not throwing away my shot!,” the 19-year-old Hamilton declares. “Hey yo, I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry.” Unpolished, abrasive, too talkative, he makes friends like Laurens and the Frenchman Lafayette (Diggs, again), who believe in fighting for independence, and enemies like Burr, who don’t believe in anything. “Let me offer you some free advice,” Burr says, “Talk less, smile more… Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.” (Miranda has been criticized for vilifying Burr, Jefferson, and Madison.)

The rousing Act I sees our hero making his reputation in the Revolutionary War as a fighter, a thinker, and as secretary to George Washington. He meets the wealthy Schuyler sisters, two of whom fall in love with him and one he marries. Philippa Soo as Eliza Schuyler gets a lovely romantic ballad, “Helpless,” which would not be out of place in a Beyoncé album. Her sister Angelica, played by Renee Elise Goldsberry, follows it with “Satisfied,” which takes a more realistic view of marriage: “I’m a girl in a world in which my only job is to marry rich. My father has no sons so I’m the one who has to social-climb for one.” Hamilton’s popularity with the ladies will cause him a world of trouble.

Act II gets darker as our hero leaves the trenches of the war for the minefield of politics. He makes another powerful adversary over his plan to assume state debt and create a national bank. “In Virginia, we plant seeds in the ground,” says Thomas Jefferson, back from Paris. “We create. You just wanna move our money around.”

“A civics lesson from a slaver,” Hamilton retorts. “Hey neighbor, your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor.” In a second Cabinet battle, Jefferson insists that the US get involved in the French Revolution and calls Hamilton a disloyal parvenu desperate to rise above his station. “And if ya don’t know, now ya know, Mr. President,” he says, and if you know Biggie, that line doesn’t end with “Mr. President.”

Accusations of embezzling public funds lead to the admission of an extramarital affair — “Well he’s never gon’ be president now.” A series of misfortunes followed by a private tragedy end Hamilton’s brilliant career, and the song “It’s Quiet Uptown” is as close as popular music gets to the sound of a heart cracking into bits. Exuberant and dynamic, Hamilton the musical doesn’t throw away its shot at immortality.

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