Hamilton

Planned for release next year, the screen presentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phenomenal musical about the first Treasury Secretary has come to Disney+ in a timely manoeuvre.  The coronavirus is the reason, and the closure of theatres has deprived us of what would be incendiary live performances in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the international reaction. Statues to slave traders have been moved or taken down by force and there is a sense of change coming. And Hamilton is about a lot of things—maybe it raises a metaphorical statue to Alexander Hamilton: an immigrant who joined the American Revolution and devised the systems of government in the new United States. But he was also the corespondent in the first political sex scandal. Like everyone else, he was a complex character who has become remembered now as a symbol of hope, and specifically given hope to people who’ve been prejudiced against for centuries. Hamilton has given performers a shot at playing characters they wouldn’t normally play, and it’s as potent and fascinating a development as it must’ve been when women were first allowed to play women on stage.

This is the Broadway Production. Miranda himself plays Hamilton: his voice isn’t strong but he gives Hamilton an earnest determination, and the intensity of a man who’s landed a great opportunity to make a difference. Meeting Aaron Burr, played with awesome vocal power by Leslie Odom Jr, he is introduced by young Revolutionary men whose zeal for freedom and hope is matched by their desire to hook up. The women in this show are brought out of the historical shadows: Eliza Schuyler, who eventually marries Hamilton, is a steely and quietly powerful force in her own right—and Phillipa Soo is essentially the perfect woman. Renée Elize Goldsberry plays Anjelica—Eliza’s feisty sister whose involvement with Hamilton is as fascinating as his close friendship with John Laurents. Hamilton becomes George Washington’s ADC… Chris Jackson is a phenomenal physical presence with a tremendously strong voice. Daveed Diggs plays Lafayette in Act One: a fast-rapping, self-described “Lancelot of the Revolutionary Set” and Thomas Jefferson in Act Two: with a show-stopping swagger is just beautiful. It is the raps between Hamilton and  Jefferson that dominate the third quarter of the show, and it’s here that Hamilton steers around the fact that a lot of these guys owned slaves. But there’s no point criticising this show for taking a high-handed or high-minded attitude to slavery.  The casting and the mindset of this show is part of the appeal

The story has romance and the central rivalry between Burr and Hamilton. That and the physicality is the draw, apart from Hamilton’s well-done relationship between cast, creative team and audience. It is the ultimate modern-style engagement art-work—a conceit that was first seen in Rent. The superfans are well served but casual viewers will get to see the motion that drives the entire show. It is also a musical that you can now pause (although I didn’t) because there’s an endless sea of words crashing over the viewer, and they’re all the perfect words at the perfect pitch. The show doesn’t have a bad moment, or song. It is also unique in that there are two political debates staged as rap battles, and a show-tune about the political decision to put the capital of the USA on the Potomac River rather than in New York City. “The Room Where It Happened” is a tremendous moment in the show, and it’s such a good title that Arch Neocon Jon Bolton borrowed it for his Trump-takedown. The relationship between Hamilton and Eliza is also a big draw: their marriage goes through a lot, and the themes of love and forgiveness weave into an emotionally powerful conclusion with the story’s other big theme: legacy.

The forgiveness in Les Misérables may be easier to understand for an audience of any age; and there’s no doubt that Jesus Christ Superstar has a more wholesome hero. Both of these shows are inspirations for Hamilton, and I found JCS to be a phenomenal theatrical experience when I saw it live for the first time after Hamilton on stage. But Hamilton has the virtue of being contemporary and timeless, with intimacy and epic qualities.