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13 percent of the population is foreign-born, which is near an all-time high; that one day soon, there will no longer be majority and minority races, only a vibrant mix of colors.
For all of its variety of style and subject, rap is, at bottom, the music of ambition, the soundtrack of defiance, whether the force that must be defied is poverty, cops, racism, rival rappers, or all of the above.
Consider “You’ll Be Back,” the song in which King George warns the American colonists not to rebel. It was one of the first things Lin wrote for the show, back when he was sharing most of his ideas as lyric sheets
with chords. As Lac looked for ways to lift the song off the page, he thought about using a harpsichord, which would evoke the song’s era and the royal stature of the person singing it. But the cheery music and romantic lyrics (it’s a love song, even if it does threaten mass murder) also reminded him of the other British invasion, of the late 1960s. “It just spoke to me, it was so Beatlesque,” says Alex. “If we’re gonna go there, let’s really go there.” Listen closely to it now, and you’ll hear a guitar homage to “Getting Better” and a vibraphone nod to “Penny Lane.” There’s even a synth
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Like Lin, Chris was a history buff. They were both reading Team of Rivals, about Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, around that time. (Lin was thinking of adapting the book until he heard that Steven Spielberg had gotten there first.)
as Mario Cuomo put it, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”
This used to be a really obscure Macbeth quote: “They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, but, bear-like, I must fight the course.” (It’s from a really short scene in Act Five where Macbeth kills Young Seward.) Then Oskar Eustis said, “Lin, I run the Shakespeare Festival and even I don’t get this reference.” He was correct. I was being willfully esoteric. So I went with one of the greatest hits. But I still like my Act Five reference better.
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase. It changed the meaning. Did you intend this? 6 One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days. It says: Fade up on Hamilton, reading the letter.
ANGELICA: . . .
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase.
It changed the meaning. Did you intend this? 6
One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days.
It says:
Fade up on Hamilton, reading the letter.
Footnote
6 This took weeks to figure out, but it’s based on actual correspondence between Alexander and Angelica. They’d slip commas between words and change the meaning. The passage that inspired this verse was actually in French. Comma sexting. It’s a thing. Get into it.
COMPANY: The art of the compromise—9 BURR: Hold your nose and close your eyes. COMPANY: We want our leaders to save the day— BURR: But we don’t get a say in what they trade away.
COMPANY: The art of the compromise—9
BURR: Hold your nose and close your eyes.
COMPANY: We want our leaders to save the day—
BURR: But we don’t get a say in what they trade away.
In 1790, he cited the verse in a letter to a Jewish community that had immigrated to Rhode Island to seek relief from persecution. He was stating the principle that all men and women should find a safe haven in America, no matter who they are or where they come from.
Lin and Tommy liked the personal nature of the Biblical verse: Washington wanted badly to return to Mt. Vernon, to depart what he called “the great theater of action.” But those lines from Scripture had a public meaning for him, too. In 1790, he cited the verse in a letter to a Jewish community that had immigrated to Rhode Island to seek relief from persecution. He was stating the principle that all men and women should find a safe haven in America, no matter who they are or where they come from.
Chris knows that plenty of people in America are uncomfortable with a black president.
Chris knows that plenty of people in America are uncomfortable with a black president. He also knows the symbolic power of Hamilton having three of them. As the show rehearsed that summer, the aftermath of the Charleston shootings demonstrated how real symbolic power can be. Activists renewed their efforts to remove Confederate flags from statehouses, stores, and everywhere else.
Groff would be returning to Broadway as Hamilton’s King George III,
The announcement that Groff would be returning to Broadway as Hamilton’s King George III, the charming sociopath who threatens and taunts the Americans, constituted big news. Many more than dozens were excited about it.
On the day before Groff ’s first performance at the Public, the cast held a coronation ceremony onstage.
On the day before Groff ’s first performance at the Public, the cast held a coronation ceremony onstage. It was Brian’s idea—a generous gesture from one well-liked actor to another, both silly and heartfelt. (A garter was involved.) That likability, Tommy says, is the key to both actors’ ability to bring the role to life. “How much more interesting is it to have a king who’s going to do the most horrible things, and is The Other, and yet we love him?” When Groff was in Spring Awakening, he won Broadway.com’s Audience Choice award—three of them, actually.
Lin is unleashing the energy of crossing boundaries. He is saying, ‘I can tell American history using popular song, I can mix Broadway and hip-hop. I can fly high and fly low.’
a man: He seems approachable? another male voter: Like you could grab a beer with him! 3
two women: I like that Aaron Burr!
a woman: I can’t believe we’re here with him!
a man: He seems approachable?
another male voter: Like you could grab a beer with him! 3
Footnote
3 For a bizarre period in our contemporary history, this actually mattered to voters.
“I feel like I have been Burr in my life as many times as I have been Hamilton.
“I feel like I have been Burr in my life as many times as I have been Hamilton. I think we’ve all had moments where we’ve seen friends and colleagues zoom past us, either to success, or to marriage, or to home-ownership, while we lingered where we were—broke, single, jobless. And you tell yourself, ‘Wait for it.’”
HAMILTON: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. 3
The consensus was that Hamilton had grown more polished and more powerful in its uptown incarnation, that it was “radical,” “stunning in its audaciousness,” “vibrantly democratic,” and “audaciously ambitious.” Somehow it really did live up to its mountainous hype.
ELIZA: I put myself back in the narrative.
Eliza enters.
women: Eliza.1
ELIZA: I put myself back in the narrative.
women: Eliza.
ELIZA: I stop wasting time on tears.
I live another fifty years.
It’s not enough.
COMPANY: Eliza.
ELIZA: I interview every soldier who fought by your side.
MULLIGAN, LAFAYETTE, LAURENS: She tells our story.
ELIZA: I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings.2
You really do write like you’re running out of—eliza,
COMPANY: Time.
ELIZA: I rely on—
ELIZA, ANGELICA: Angelica.
ELIZA: While she’s alive—
ELIZA: I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings.2 You really do write like you’re running out of— eliza, COMPANY: Time.
ELIZA: I try to make sense of your thousands of pages of writings.2
You really do write like you’re running out of—eliza,
COMPANY: Time.
Footnote
2 The heartbreaking truth is that she did not live to see her husband’s biography published. One of her sons finally completed the work, but not until she had passed away.
ELIZA: She is buried in Trinity Church, 3
ELIZA: She is buried in Trinity Church, 3
Footnote
3 This fact kills me. It’s the line that made me cry the hardest in the writing of it—Angelica, near Alexander but not with him, for eternity.
ELIZA: I establish the first private orphanage in New York City.4
ELIZA: I establish the first private orphanage in New York City.4
Footnote
4 If this were a work of fiction, any screenwriting teacher would say, “Take it out, it’s too on the nose.” But Eliza’s true legacy is in the futures of those children. She was the director of this orphanage for 27 years. The orphanage still exists in the form of the Graham Windham organization.
full COMPANY: Who tells your story?
Eliza sees Hamilton. He takes her hand and leads her to the edge of the stage.
company: company:
Will they tell your story?
Time...
Who lives, who dies,
who tells your story? 5
Time...
Will they tell your story?
Time...
Who lives, who dies—
full COMPANY: Who tells your story?
The End.
Footnote
5 Again, I’m so grateful that these words showed up for Washington to say way back in Act One. I knew they’d come in handy when we needed them.
The most important affinity that Hamilton will carry into its future isn’t a specific message, though, political or otherwise: It’s an underlying belief in stories, and their power to change the world.
At the Rodgers that night, the president all but anointed Hamilton as a keeper of the flame. His “primary message,” he said, was to remind people of the need to keep hoping and to work together, but “this performance undoubtedly described it better than I ever could.” The most important affinity that Hamilton will carry into its future isn’t a specific message, though, political or otherwise: It’s an underlying belief in stories, and their power to change the world.
“I can do that,” they’ll say. And if they’re like Alexander Hamilton, they’ll add, “And I can do it better.”
Good community organizer that he is, the president knows that stories can be an engine for empathy, and a way to show people what they share. It’s why he introduced himself, in that first big speech in 2004, by telling his own story. In the years to come, some of the many, many kids who are going to see and even perform Hamilton will be newly inspired to tell their stories too. Every time they do, the newly kaleidoscopic America will understand itself a little more.
“I can do that,” they’ll say. And if they’re like Alexander Hamilton, they’ll add, “And I can do it better.”
