Welcome to another journey through the sights and smells of the Great White Way—better known to the rest of humankind as Broadway! I hope to share my passion for musical theatre with everyone in Engineering, especially some lesser known shows, or better yet, get you hooked on the catchiness of showtunes or obsessed with their reflection of certain parts of reality. Last issue, I took you through the world of Jekyll and Hyde in honour of Halloween, and this week, we’ll be revisiting Hamilton: An American Musical to honour the premiere of Hamilton’s America, a PBS documentary that took Hamilton fans from all around the world through the making of this musical that has taken the entire world by storm and has “blown us all away”.
Since I watched this documentary, I have gained a clearer understanding of the history behind one of America’s Founding Fathers and the American Revolution. In addition, I have sought deeper meaning in the libretti of Hamilton and gained further respect for composer and lyricist Lin-Manuel America.
The first is how Alexander Hamilton managed to immigrate to America—specifically, New York. We learn the basics of his story in “Hurricane”, where Hamilton proclaims his humble beginnings to the world:
“When I was seventeen, a hurricane
Destroyed my town.
I didn’t drown;
I couldn’t seem to die.”
His solution?
“I wrote my way out,
Wrote everything down far as I could see.
I wrote my way out.
I looked up and the town had its eyes on me.”
The full story is that Hamilton wrote a letter to his father about the hurricane that destroyed St. Croix. Minister and journalist Hugh Knox published his letter in the Royal Danish-American Gazette. When his townspeople read it, they were in awe that a seventeen-year-old had written such an eloquent and beautiful letter. After Hamilton’s America was over, I read his letter online, and tears welled up in my eyes. Not only did Hamilton use imagery to perfectly capture the mighty hurricane, but he is also resolute in his faith in God—he would live to see another day, and he would still have the opportunity to leave his mark.
Composers love to reuse themes in large scale works, and Miranda is no different. Even though this number was cut from the show, “One Last Ride” is the full version of “One Last Time”. Besides Washington telling Hamilton that he would be stepping down as President after his term, and Hamilton dissuading him, Miranda brings back the theme from “Right Hand Man”. Instead of the chorus chanting “Here comes the General [Washington during the war]!”, they chant “”Here comes the President!”
To be historically accurate, there is also mention of the Whiskey Revolution. During Washington’s reign, Hamilton, as the United States’ first treasury secretary, introduced this tax—the first tax imposed by the newly-formed government—to help reduce national debt that was incurred during the American Revolutionary War.
There is also a hilarious interjection from Hamilton, “Pay your f**king taxes!” What more to expect from the father of the United States’ modern model of economy?
“Congratulations” is embedded in the musical number “The Reynolds Pamphlet”, which highlights how stupid Hamilton was for publishing his affair. In the show’s current incarnation, “The Reynolds Pamphlet” has a line about Hamilton—literally—ruining his own life:
“Have you read this?
You ever see somebody ruin their own life?”
“Burn” also has numerous lines about the trade-off that he had made in publicizing his affair —
Angelica reminds her younger sister Eliza,
“Be careful with that one [Hamilton], love. He will do what it takes to survive.”
However, “Congratulations” really hits home. In Hamilton’s America, Miranda stated that Angelica was the only person who could match wits with Hamilton—probably even surpass him.
“Dear Theodosia” also has its reprise in the off-Broadway run of Hamilton, in between “Burn” and “Blow Us All Away”; however, it was cut from the official production since Burr’s wife and daughter shared the same name. Here, Burr tells his daughter that her mother has passed away from stomach cancer, rather than implying the same thing in “The World Was Wide Enough”, where Burr exclaims,
“This man [Hamilton] will not make an orphan of my daughter!”
Burr breaks the tragic news to his daughter in the reprise of “Dear Theodosia”.
In fact, the reprise of “Dear Theodosia” has the complete opposite mood to Hamilton’s current incarnation of the same number. Even though it is a tear-jerker, it is a beautiful one.
One of my favourite numbers that was unfortunately removed from the Broadway production is “Ten Things One Thing”. It provides additional information to the number “The World Was Wide Enough”, and it epitomizes an interesting point that Manuel brought up in his discussion with Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman (the composer and the librettist of Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Road Show, respectively): Miranda admitted that he “was drowning in research [while writing Hamilton]” and the best piece of advice that he got from the two Broadway greats was to “just write the parts that you think are a musical”.
Miranda did the only thing that he could really do as an artist: he synthesized all of what he knew about Hamilton and imagined what this great man was thinking about from the moment he woke up to the moment where his pistol went off towards the sky.
Most importantly, we learn more about the pivotal relationship in the musical—the relationship that Miranda constantly revisited while revising the production—Hamilton and Burr’s. They are polar opposites: Burr was born into aristocracy, while Hamilton was born into poverty and had to earn everything for himself. They were both revolutionaries during the American Revolution, and became lawyers in the state of New York at basically the same time. However, Hamilton is extremely opinionated and can never resist the urge of voicing his beliefs, while Burr prefers to “Wait for It”—wait for the perfect moment to make a move.
Hamilton resonates with audiences because of its honesty: Miranda did nothing to hide the flaws of these “deeply flawed people” in our history. But they made contributions that have been passed down for generations, contributions that still affect their modern descendants—such as the US Constitution, the New York Stock Exchange, and the architecture of the American economic structure—among many others.
We may no longer be able to be “in the room where [this all] happened”, but Hamilton sets the stage to take us back into the era of the Founding Fathers, and Hamilton’s America delves deeper into the history.
If you have listened to the musical, I highly recommend this documentary to you. It reinforces and expands on the themes in Miranda’s creation, and it further closes the distance between the audience and these significant historical figures and events.
Personally, it has also inspired me to read the Federalist Papers, which are interesting reads to say the least—especially in a modern era of disheartening politics, where it seems to me that many have forgotten the initial inspiration for uniting the States of America and ratifying a Constitution for the new nation.
Hamilton and Hamilton’s American have also inspired me to purchase Ron Chenow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, which catalyzed Miranda’s inspiration for writing this Broadway hit. The musical’s coverage of Hamilton’s achievements and personal life is only the tip of the iceberg—there is so much more to learn, so many more personal connections to make to history!
Not only do Hamilton and Hamilton’s America serve to remind people of how modern society came to be, they also remind us of how modern issues today have existed since the time of a nation’s creation. It will do us well to move forth with our lives with the resilience and passion that historical figures, such as Hamilton, invested in the ideal of a perfect nation to ensure the continuous progress of our communities and our country.
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