This year marks ten years of the Broadway musical smash hit, "Hamilton". As someone who has seen it live a couple times, watched the Disney Plus filmed live on stage version as well, listened to the music, the Hamildrops, and the Mixtape, it is easy to say that I'm a fan. It is in my top 3 favorite musicals of all time, and has inspired me through the music all these years, pumping me up, helping me unwind and have fun, with friends, with family, or listening on my own. Long time readers of this blog already know this as I have covered the show, the songs, the remixes and so much over countless times over the years. But for the 10th anniversary, I want to not only look into it again, look at the show, some of the songs, but also look into the themes as well as the impact made by this pop culture phenomenon. So once a month until July of 2025, the month of the actual tenth anniversary, in which that will be the grand finale to this series, I will be diving into Hamilton, as well as some of the works of Lin Manuel Miranda that do not star any founding fathers. But where to begin, how about with a question.
The show as mentioned by plenty of analysts, writers, and cast members themselves, the show begins with a question. "How?". Asking how someone who bounced from struggle to struggle, losing any semblance of family, losing his home to a hurricane, still became a founding father. From the second the curtain rises, the show begins with asking a legitimate question, in the face of someone who should of not made it to where they were standing, but did. But then a phrase is repeated "just you wait".
Telling not just the world around him who is "Waiting in the wings" for him, but the audience to sit back, wait and see how he gets so far. Instead of questioning how, the show answers it with for every time the question is raised, it's answered. Answered with working hard, studying, and taking a new chance at a new life in a land far from home. Alexander's ambition is seen from the second he steps on stage, not only telling us to wait and see but how "There's a million things I haven't done". Not just a clever rhyme for his last name to fit the bar, but also showing how much he wants to do. Wanting to fill every second of every day with taking shot after shot with the hope of one landing and getting ahead. Before we even meet the cast the stage is set, relationships are stated, and the world already knows the lead is not sitting idly by.
Before the first song finishes we are shown the relationships he has, from love, to friends, enemies, mentors, all down to the one who would end his life. Telling the audience to just wait, asking who's story is about to unfold one more time. Starting completely unknown, but by the time the curtains fall those who seen, or listened will.
This opening reminds me plenty of Lin Manuel's first and also amazing musical "In The Heights", in which the ensemble gathers, the stage is set, and you meet the cast while their place in this world is established. This opening carries so much weight, using a solid beat, great lyrics with fantastic flow, to take us back in time. Unlike the first which brings us to fictional characters in a real place, with hopes and dreams that make them feel real, this is real history and real events. Following a real historical figure could always bring speculation, but this opening packs in so many facts that illustrate our leads humble beginnings, while still being a great song to listen to.
Giving us a lead who we want to see succeed, who is relentless. Refusing to give up in the face of trail after trial, tribulation after tribulation. Pushing forward, as those who will play a part in his story recount, soon these players will fill the stage and the pieces will come together, sometimes the same actor doing two different roles. The "We Fought With Him", "Me I Died For Him", being played by people who echo those phrases but in two different ways depending on the context of who they are in Act One and Act Two. The whole cast stating their ties to the lead, we know they will appear, now much like for Alexander's rise, we must wait to see how. This song is a brilliant start.
As someone who has seen it, the only thing the audience, watcher on Disney plus, or listener of the album can do, is sit back and wait, thankful the wait to see where this musical leads us, is only a song, or a few seconds away. Starting off on an incredibly strong note, asking questions that the night spends answering so the audience leaves asking none of their own.
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