A note before reading.– this article contains lyrics and/or ideas from the Broadway sensation, Hamilton. If you’re not Broadway obsessed, like me, you might find yourself saying, whaaaa? I’m sorry if it’s confusing, but I had to write a tribute to this amazing show. The theatre inspires me. It reflects life in a way that is so lovely. Its honesty always moves me in that it doesn’t try to sugarcoat pain, but uses hurt to create something beautiful. And, I love that. Lyrics (by Lin-Manuel Miranda) or puns created from lyrics will be italicized.
Alexander Hamilton.
History had its eyes on you. The future has its eyes on you. I finally put my eyes on you.
You lived. You died. And what a story!
Played out in the greatest city in the world.
Manhattan.
A year and a half ago, when Hamilton was still playing at The Public and the world didn’t know its name, my husband discovered a few videos of the then off-Broadway sensation. Hamilton immediately hooked his heart and messed with his senses. So much so that he bought tickets from a not-so-sly stranger on Craigslist. No matter how I tried to reason with him that the tickets were definitely fake and that we shouldn’t buy them, he couldn’t hear me over his incessant chanting of “I’m not throwing away my shot!”
He was, much like Eliza Schuyler when she laid eyes on Alex, helpless, at the thought of getting his hands on those tickets.
Instead of throwing away his shot, he threw away a few hundred for the phony tickets, and we were promptly, if apologetically turned away from the Public Theatre.
Fast forward fifteen months and six weeks before Hamilton’s epic near-sweep at the Tony Awards, I bought tickets, legally, from good old Ticketmaster, and presented them to my husband for his fortieth birthday. Soon after I gave him his gift, Lin Manuel Miranda, writer and star of the show, announced that his last performance would be July 9th. Suddenly, the whole country was young, scrappy, and hungry, NO, starved, for Hamilton tickets. My tickets quadrupled in value, simply because they promised the talented wordsmith and passionate actor - Miranda as Hamilton.
Everyone said – Sell. Your. Tickets.
You can see it when it tours.
You can see it without Miranda! So what?
I thought about it, talked to my husband about it. They were his birthday gift, after all.
We decided (probably in total contradiction to what the financially genius Hamliton would have done) to keep the tickets and take our shot.
And, as the opening act boomed into the theatre like a hurricane and the rhymes stormed my senses, I bled with understanding of the personal drama that was one extraordinary man’s story at the backdrop of our great country’s birth.
I whispered to my husband – “Look around. Look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now!”
The talent astounded us as much as the story swept us back in time, and we were struck by the sameness of emotion across centuries. Passion for righteousness. Zeal for ideals. Desire for love and the simple joys of family tinged with an insatiable thirst for the things you don’t yet possess. These phenomenons that transcend eras were translated fluidly through the hip-hop-esque score of the show. We easily related to the characters of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, whose intense love story was both romantic and realistic. There’s even a shadowy resemblance between the heated political battles of the revolutionary era and those of today. I found myself imagining current political rivals as Jefferson and Hamilton, as inane as it may sound. The show reminded me that people will always disagree, and that there is never only one path to greatness. It also gave me pause to think how the details of these infamous men’s lives were whittled down over decades. Their lives have been reduced to an idea that is expressed in one of the show’s song’s telling lyrics – “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”
I found myself thinking – but the details in between times. These are the story.
These historical figures were people like us, who made mistakes and regretted them. People who needed grace and forgiveness and camaraderie and physical love. George Washington was eaten alive by his guilt over leading so many men to their deaths in battles. Hamilton’s workaholic nature drove a deep wedge between him and his wife and nearly cost him his marriage. Aaron Burr so guarded his truths so that he could swing them in any direction that fortune demanded. He was never true to himself and lost his chance at the presidency because of it. These forefathers were men with struggles that plague people today. Somehow, in the face of tremendous hardships, they built the foundation of America.
Critics might say the show is just one man’s expression of his ideas about Hamilton and the American Revolutionary Era. I’m not a history buff, so I can’t argue that. But, listen as I say it again – I am NOT a history buff, and I LOVED the show.
Because Hamilton makes history personal and timely. It speaks to every person who has struggled, and who hasn’t?
As expected, Lin Manuel Miranda portrayed an amazing Hamilton. His effervescent charisma spills from the stage, and has the audience brimming with excitement. His writing is heart-stoppingly clever and modern. I was on the edge of my seat, making sure I deciphered every lyrical lilt.
Who stole the show for me?
Daveed Diggs. Hands-down.This Broadway newbie, who won the Tony for best actor, commanded my full attention anytime he graced the scene. Diggs played both the French Marquis De Lafayette and the flamboyantly pompous Thomas Jefferson. He was funny and loveable, even as one of Hamilton’s main nemeses.
The story that was a surprising bloom at the end of the show was that of Eliza Hamilton, played by the vocally stunning Philippa Soo.
After forgiving her husband’s very public indiscretions, suffering through her son’s too-young demise and becoming a widow, she decides she’s not done living. She takes her shot and tells not only her husband’s story but that of the great George Washington. She raises funds and becomes one of the driving forces in the creation of the Washington Monument. Inspired by her husband’s orphan childhood, she establishes the first private orphanage in New York City.
And so, Hamilton, who did not live to see his glory, had his part in telling her story. Even after breaking his wife’s heart, his love is what moves her to do great things in the end.
Good comes from bad. Suffering gives birth to art.
One last thing I loved about Hamilton was that I felt deeply connected to him through writing. During his darkest times, he-
“put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain and he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain.”
Eliza says, in the script, “You write like you’re running out of time.”
Yeah, I get that.
Sometimes I feel like if I don’t get the words down RIGHT NOW, they will evaporate and all the feelings and memories that inspired them will be forgotten. Sometimes, I feel like my brain will implode if I don’t drain out the words.
I think Alexander Hamilton would relate. He wrote 52 of the 85 Federalist Papers that were written to promote the ratification of our constitution. He was emotionally devoted to his task, believed deeply in his cause.
So, if, as Hamilton sings in the next to last song of the show, “legacy is planting seeds in a garden you never get to see,” or writing “some notes at the beginning of a song that someone (else) will sing,” then America has dedicated the masterpiece that is Hamilton to the star who not only inspired the tune but also sowed the seeds of our nation, laid a strong enough foundation. He gave the world and now the world has told his story.
And it’s blown us all away.
And now, as we listen to the music over and over, we discover new nuances and deeper meanings that draw us closer to the characters and generate more connections to the themes of Hamilton’s story.
Thanks to him, the world will never be the same.
Thanks to Lin-Manuel, Broadway will never be the same.
I’m glad we didn’t sell those tickets.
I’m glad we took our shot.
