Hamilton

I saw the musical Hamilton last week during its swing through Texas.  Hamilton's life is faithfully told and one cannot help but be impressed at his achievements and grieve for his losses.  However, I don't care for rap and this was mostly that.  Rap battles among Washington's cabinet members - complete with mic drops - did not impress me.  There is a lot of overt politics that reference the modern day rather than the time in which the story takes place.  The most obvious was when Hamilton says to Lafayette "Immigrants getting the job done."  Sigh.  Lafayette was not an immigrant.  He was a French aristocrat who was abroad in war.  Patton would never have referred to himself as an immigrant while fighting in Africa or Europe.  Same goes for Lafayette.  As for Hamilton, he was a British subject who moved from one colony - Nevis in the Caribbean - to another - New York.  In modern terms, that's like moving from Oregon to New York.  Again, not an immigrant in the sense the play implies.

 

Some characters come off very well, reflecting modern understandings of them.  Washington is steady, humble, and wise.  Hamilton is brash, brilliant, and arrogant.  Burr is given a sympathetic portrayal.  He is seen as second best to Hamilton for decades, which is a stretch.  Burr had many acquaintances and was prone to intrigue, aspects that don't show here.  In fact, it is Jefferson who is the schemer to undermine Hamilton.  Jefferson is shown as self-absorbed and more arrogant than Hamilton, not an easy task.  Madison is relegated to Jefferson's fawning sidekick, a slap to the Father of the Constitution.  As an interesting aside, Aaron Burr introduced James Madison to his future wife, Dolley Madison.

 

The play repeatedly declares New York to be the "greatest city in the world" which certainly thrilled Broadway during its run but is again for modern audiences.  New York may have been the greatest city in the colonies but it was a shadow to the great cities of Europe.  I love New York but this again took me out of the setting and placed me in the modern day.  The casting is intentionally non-white, which made it a bit difficult to know who was who at the beginning.  Artistic license or yet another political statement?  Meh.  On the positive, if this can introduce American history to a wider audience, that is terrific.  Maybe some rap lovers will read the Federalist Papers to get the deeper story.