Many of you may have heard of Hamilton. For those who haven’t, it’s just possibly the biggest Broadway Show since the Lion King! If you came to this post to try to see how you could see Hamilton for $30 too, sorry, it was a VERY special circumstance that will likely not be replicated for you, but I hope you keep reading to hear my thoughts on the show.
During this past year I was blessed and cursed to be doing a one year Master’s degree program. Part of this was student teaching in a local school system. The school system partnered with the community to take over 500 students and staff to see Hamilton!!! On the day of the show, they asked if anyone was interested in picking up a leftover ticket and I jumped at the chance to go (I am not throwing away my shot!). With God’s grace and faith reinforced by my Mom, I paid for parking and went inside to see if I could get a ticket. I was number 37 on the list, but I waited patiently and prayed to get a ticket. First they ran out of tickets, but I still waited to see if they would get more, and then God showed up…
and they placed the LAST TICKET in my hand.
All in all the ticket was free, but parking was THIRTY DOLLARS! So as said in the title:
I saw Hamilton… for $30!!!
Now this is where things are going to get sticky. I loved the show. It’s not that bandwagon kind of love just because it’s Hamilton, but that kind of love where you sing the songs in your head. The kind of love where there were moments you felt like crying and moments you couldn’t help but laugh. The kind of love where you are motivated the do more research into the history and the lives of the characters. It was love. As someone with a background in dance, music, and theatre, I was most impressed by the musicality, the choreography, and the plot of it all. My only critique is the ending. The life of Alexander’s wife was definitely important and the actress playing her could probably convince North Korea to denuclearize with her singing, but the ending lacked the finality of a show with no sequel. It was not satiating and I left with a mixed feeling of wow and is that really the end?
There were times in the show where the music distinctly reminded me of the soundtrack from Moana. Afterwards, I learned that Lin-Manuel Miranda (LMM), the creative mind behind Hamilton, also wrote for Moana. Thus the remnants of Maui’s You’re Welcome and other key songs was not imagined. The music also brought up another point that started as a seed in the first song, but blossomed into the whole Garden of Eden by the end: Hamilton is a diasporic delicacy.
What do I mean by this? I mean that Hamilton had a diverse cast and by diverse I mean there were many people of color including George Washington. Yet, the cast wasn’t the most important part. The music and choreography of Hamilton was obviously influenced by hip hop, rap, and black culture. Even as a black girl in the audience, I was in a moment of shock as this audience of mostly white people saw the beauty and value of this musical that had black written ALL over it. These people paid over $230 for a ticket, $20+ for parking, and stood in line for God knows how long, to see a BLACK musical. This may not be shocking to some people, but for me it raised questions like if we can agree that this is artistry, if we can sit side by side and laugh at the same jokes and cry at the same tragedies and be in awe to the same creation, then why can’t we carry this out into the rest of the country. Hamilton didn’t pull any punches when it came to mentioning issues for immigrants or prejudice and racism. It didn’t erase the slavery of the period from history. It did mention some of these serious topics humorously enough for the audience, but only with enough truth that even though you were laughing, you still had to think about what was said. If Hamilton is an American Musical and is full of black culture, then why can’t American music and American history and American people share those properties without needs for adjective distinctions.
There’s a prince marrying a black girl. There’s a star musical full of black influences. There was a black president. There are latin@s in government. There are Native Americans with degrees. Yet something is still missing from equality and it’s missing on both sides, minority and majority. It’s not too late. In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:
“Fleecy locks and dark complexion cannot forfeit nature’s claim; Skin may differ but affection lies in black and white the same.”
(The Negro’s Complaint, William Cowper, 1788)
And in the words of LMM:
“Love doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints. It takes and it takes and it takes. And we keep living anyway. We laugh and we cry and we break and we make our mistakes.”
(Wait for It, Hamilton)
And if there’s a reason we are still alive, after so many others have tried and died. Then maybe it’s time to stop waiting for it and start doing it.
Kireon 