Hamilton: An Underground Review

Prior to the writing of this blog post, I had never seen the musical phenomenon known as “Hamilton.” Barely knew anything about it. Never heard any of the songs. Honestly, never really cared to see it. But then Disney+ put it online for the world’s viewing pleasure and, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly come across somebody raving about it like a lunatic. At long last, I reluctantly decided to give it a shot (unintentional "Hamilton" pun), and these are my definitive thoughts on the matter:

Pre-viewing Thoughts and Initial Assumptions

First and foremost, let me explain something: I'm not generally one for Broadway shows. I've seen a handful of them, including "The Lion King" on Broadway in New York City, and I've played in the orchestra for a few of them ("Guys and Dolls," "Les Miserables," "Into the Woods"). You can never go wrong with “The Music Man.” I’ve seen a couple of others, too, including a few of them in person, but I'm no snob when it comes to musical theater. I'm not opposed to these shows, either, mind you, but from what I see on social media, I've got several dozen friends who would probably classify themselves as "experts" of the genre. I am not one of those people. I’m just a normal dude who played the trumpet for like 12 years and watches a lot of movies and TV, so take my opinion on this matter with an appropriately sized grain of salt. I don’t mean to offend any of you by critiquing this supposed tour de force of musicality.

For not ever seeing any clips of the show or listening to any of the music, I have heard A LOT about "Hamilton." Too much, probably. As far as I'm aware, this show is God's gift to humanity, and the greatest thing since the iPod Touch. Here’s what I knew before watching:

• I’ve gathered that the show prides itself on the diversity of its cast, which I believe traditionally consists of as few White people as possible (if any), which seems a little odd, considering the real-life ethnicity of the subjects in question, but whatever, I guess. (Note: Let me stress - I am not necessarily opposed to such diverse casting - it's just the same sort of eyebrow-raising reaction I'd have if they wrote a play about Rosa Parks and it starred a 12-year-old Asian girl. Not historically accurate, but show me what you've got, right?)
• I know that this musical is extremely popular, extremely expensive, and that it sold out within minutes when it came to Utah last year. I saw a couple social media posts from acquaintances that rang to the tune of, “Well, I couldn’t get tickets in Utah, so I guess third-row seats in Chicago will have to do,” and that annoyed me to no end. I hate “humble brags.”
• I've also been advised to watch with subtitles on. I appreciate a good rhyme, and I hope to be entertained by the lyrics, if nothing else.
• I know that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the musical, and that he gave himself the starring role.

Speaking of Lin-Manuel Miranda, I'm vaguely familiar with his work, despite limited exposure. I know he did a lot of writing for the music in "Mary Poppins Returns," which was an ok movie – but not one that I ever feel compelled to see again in my life. I know that he super-hates Donald Trump, to the extent that I blocked him on Twitter (something that I have also done to Mark Hamill and should probably do to Chris Evans – I love those guys, and our current President does some things that I don't like, too, but when celebrities constantly tweet out a barrage of angry political posts, every single day, it is sometimes a bit too much for me). I also get the feeling that Lin-Manuel Miranda believes himself to be a generational talent and the current God of Broadway. This is simply an observation and not a critique of his skill; he is undisputedly a talented musician and a very clever man, and for that I congratulate him. I know that tons of people flat-out worship this dude, but, personally, LMM rubs me the wrong way. Nevertheless, I'd like to think that I can recognize good music and talented writing when I come across it, so I will try not to let that opinion affect my viewing of “Hamilton.”

Regarding Alexander Hamilton, himself, I remember next-to-nothing about the guy from my time in school, other than that he was shot by Aaron Burr (thanks, "Got Milk" commercial). (Editor’s note: Having now watched the show, this parody commercial is also worthwhile.) I suspect that watching the musical will teach me a lot about the history of it all. I don't know why Burr shot him, and, quite frankly, I don't really know whether Hamilton is a "good guy" in the end. I actually had to ask a co-worker the other day whether "Hamilton" was pro-American history because, the way politics are in today’s world, I simply didn't know.

I have not noticed such a buzz about a musical since it was announced that "Les Mis" was being made into a PG-13 movie in 2012. My Facebook friends didn't shut up about that for weeks, and the revelation that Disney was putting this thing online for the Fourth of July was not much different. With all of that being said, my overall, initial feeling about watching "Hamilton" tonight on Disney+ was not an overwhelmingly favorable one, yet I felt it my obligation and civic duty to do so as a quarantined American citizen. I tried my best to watch with an open mind, and my thoughts upon finishing it may surprise you.

Let’s break it down.

The Music

When I was playing in the orchestra for the Taylorsville Orchestra’s production of “Into the Woods” – a musical with which I had practically no prior familiarity – I had a difficult time getting to know and love the music. It’s a really weird show, and I felt like there were a few songs where the musicality of it all didn’t make much sense; it seemed, at times, like the lyricist was just throwing in as many words as they could, simply for the sake of telling a story. I did feel a little bit the same during some parts of “Hamilton.” Some songs were catchier than others, and I’m not sure I would hop right onto Spotify to stream the whole thing over again. However, the rhyming was largely impeccable and it is truly a feat to be able to string together true events in a rhyming format. (As someone who once strung together what I thought was a fairly clever 1,400-word rhyming recap of an entire school year of Doctrine and Covenants for Bingham High School seminary students, I’ve got to give it to Lin-Manuel – the lyrics in “Hamilton” were superb. The wordplay is masterful. To do it consistently for over two and a half hours is borderline insanity.)

One thing that I really loved about the show… Wait, did I just say “loved”?? Anyway, the mark of a great musical, for me, is the ability to reference previous songs (musically or lyrically) later on in the show. I appreciated how often songs would call back to something that happened earlier on. That was great.

As a soon-to-be father, myself, the stuff with Hamilton and Burr singing about becoming parents and their hopes for their children got to me. I've got a little boy on the way in October, and that stuff has been hitting pretty close to home lately.

Somewhat ironically, after that last paragraph, I had seen some comments saying that this is a musical best watched without children, and I can now agree to that for several reasons: first, there's a lot going on and the words are coming a mile a minute, so it's best to pay full attention to the screen whenever possible; and secondly, there's a moderate amount of profanity, including (as you all likely know by now) about half a dozen censored uses of the F-word. On multiple occasions, they basically spell it out for you, so even without saying the actual word, it's impossible not to know what letters they're leaving out. It's probably best not to subject your young ones to that at a young age. This is definitely a musical for grown-ups.

For the most part, the songs did a really good job of telling the story – occasionally giving a too much information a little too quickly – but they presented a ton of content from start to finish, and anything that makes me want to hop on Google and learn more about something has done its job well.

I still stand by my opinion that Lin-Manuel Miranda is an arrogant son of a gun, but I kind of don’t blame him for taking the lead role in the play. He put a heck of a lot of effort into writing that thing, and he deserves a ton of credit for how well it all came together.

After one viewing, off the top of my head (and I may be wrong), here are my top five songs from “Hamilton,” probably in order:

• Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story
• My Shot
• The Room Where It Happens
• What'd I Miss
• Dear Theodosia

Also, can I just say that "Talk less, smile more" is great advice for American citizens in today's day and age? For real.

The Story, the History and the Politics

As I said, I barely remembered anything about Alexander Hamilton. Heck, I’m pretty sure I had him confused with Andrew Jackson, who I’m sure Lin-Manuel Miranda probably would have hated, before I saw this show. Clearly, I had a lot to learn.

Alexander Hamilton did a lot of great stuff for our country. His story gets overshadowed by his premature death at the hands of Aaron Burr, which is exactly what the final 20 minutes or so of the musical explain. All of the other Founding Fathers got to live out the rest of their lives. I know their stories. These three hours were very educational for me, concerning the life of the first Secretary of the Treasury. What’s perhaps even more impressive was the list of accolades rattled off by his wife, Elizabeth, in the show’s closing moments. Wow. What a lady she was! And what a sad life they lived! From his less-than-ideal upbringing to his scandalous affair (and that weird stuff with the sister-in-law…), from the tragic death of their son to the marvelous tale of forgiveness. Pretty crazy, fascinating, powerful stuff. I’m glad that somebody took the time to do the research and give us a way to celebrate Hamilton’s accomplishments. I wish more stuff like this could be done for other famous historical figures.

Watching “Hamilton” during the pandemic and quarantine of 2020 was… Well, it’s quite a strange time that we’re living in. Within the past two months, the United States has faced the horrible beast of systemic racism. It shocks me and disgusts me to know that there are actually people out there who say, do and believe the things that we have been witnessing. Protests and riots have run rampant in the streets, demanding change, social reform and equality for African-Americans. Unfortunately, those protests have often not been peaceful nor productive, resulting, in several instances of vandalism and anarchy, not limited to the dumping of red paint on one statue of George Washington and the attempted destruction of another. (I’m not going to link to those news stories because I don’t want to have to look them up, but they really happened.)

Regarding the equality of race – a topic which I am truly unqualified to discuss at length – the diversity of the cast bothered me a little bit to begin with, and I did roll my eyes slightly when the only two White men that I noticed in the production were featured as two of the four main antagonists in the first act. However, as I began to see the significance of casting minorities in most of the roles, including all but one of the prominent ones – that is, that Hamilton fought tirelessly for anti-slavery and racial equality, which is a great thing – decisions like inaccurately casting George Washington (an old, White man with a powdered wig) as a bald Black man in the musical faded into obscurity and I just sat back and enjoyed the performances for what they were, regardless of the color of the actors’ skin. Plus, once we got the twinkle-toed Thomas Jefferson after the intermission, I was totally digging it.

As far as Alexander Hamilton’s reputation is concerned, this musical helped me remember that there weren’t really “good guys” and “bad guys” in the early days of American history. The men we revere as the “Founding Fathers” were all good, in many ways. Conversely, many of those same figures did things that, today, would qualify them as “bad guys.” Hamilton bribed a guy to turn a blind eye to the affair that was going on with his wife. He ticked off a lot of people and he made a ton of mistakes. Everybody did back then. They all fought each other and talked crap in the press (as the musical mentions) – something that is not uncommon today, unfortunately. I remember studying an era of American history that give birth to many “great debators.” No one was without flaws and nobody lived a perfect life – not even Washington, Jefferson or any of our other American heroes. Sadly, for most of these guys, their entire lives were being documented, blemishes and all. If only we, as Americans today, could be as forgiving and understanding as Elizabeth Hamilton was of her imperfect husband. Man, that would be nice.

The Performances

Shoutout number one goes to Daveed Diggs, who played Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, was exceptional. Additionally, he bears a striking resemblance to WWE superstar Xavier Woods, in both appearance and mannerisms, and that just made me like him even more. His Act One rap as Lafayette was the first time I was genuinely grateful that I had closed captioning on, because he was firing off those words like a Gatling gun operator on Red Bull. His Act Two performance as the slightly salty Jefferson was equally grand.

Lin-Manuel was great, too. I admit it. He’s an unequivocal wordsmith and a pro on the stage. Doesn’t mean I have to unblock him on Twitter, though.

Christopher Jackson’s take on George Washington was also very good. He reminded me how incredible of a man and leader Washington was. There’s no way we could have survived as a nation without him.

I didn’t cry during “Hamilton,” but if I would have, it would have been because of Phillipa Soo’s performance in the final song. Dang. That was good stuff.

Leslie Odom Jr. was solid as Aaron Burr. He brought the house down with "The Room Where It Happens." He had some killer dance moves scattered in there, too. Props, brother. I'll probably never watch "Murder on the Orient Express" the same way ever again. Plus, after watching it once, I already know whodunnit, anyway.

And can we just give it up for King George (Jonathan Groff)? That dude was freaking hilarious, saliva spitting and all. For as despicable as he actually was, historically, his character sure added some comic relief to “Hamilton.”

The Final Verdict

“Hamilton” did not cure world hunger. It didn’t solve the question of widespread poverty. Realistically, in order for “Hamilton” to have lived up to all of the hype I'd heard, Lin-Manuel Miranda would have had to come down from heaven, where he allegedly resides, to sing me an encore. There was no way on earth that this show could possibly have been as incredible as everyone told me it was.

But was it enjoyable? Yes. Did I have fun watching it? Yes.

Would I ever watch it again? If I can find time to carve out another three hours, maybe! Am I just singing and dancing my way to sleep tonight? No, I can’t remember any of the words, except “Al-ex-an-der Ham-il-ton” and "I am not throwing away my... shot."

Am I glad that I watched it? Sure. I liked it more than I thought I was going to.

More than anything, it was refreshing to spend some time watching something that celebrates our American heritage, for a change. These days, in the midst of people reportedly campaigning to tear down Mt. Rushmore, it was nice not to have to worry about that negativity for a couple hours and remember that, despite our flaws - some of them more evident now than ever - this is still the greatest country in the world.

Finally, you might ask if I will remember Alexander Hamilton’s name. Yes, I will, and I now know that it is not “Andrew Jackson.”

***

All right. How’d I do? Go ahead and fact-check me or correct me and tell me I’m wrong. While you’re at it, let me know if there was anything that I got right. I know the world is buzzing about “Hamilton” right now, and I’d love to hear what you have to say. Feel free to leave a comment below, reach out to me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter (here and here).

Oh, and if you’re still reading, feel free to poke around the blog to see what else I’ve been talking about. There’s a good chance you had no idea all this stuff existed.

Until next time,

Move It! Sell It! And Leave the Door Open!