What do the Clintons, the Obamas, Lupita Nyong’o, Wayne Brady, Sarah Jessica Parker and Denzel Washington have in common? They’ve all seen the hit new musical on Broadway, Hamilton! Those are just a few of the celebrities and political figures that have seen this musical that is taking the WORLD by storm.
Hamilton is about the life of Alexander Hamilton (lead by Lin-Manuel Miranda), the “orphan, bastard, son of a whore and a Scotsman,” founding father of our nation. Based off the biography Alexander Hamilton by Rob Chernow, that Miranda picked up while on vacation from his first Tony Award winning musical, In the Heights, he realized that Alexander Hamilton was a man that “embodied hip-hop.”
The concept of Hamilton first started as the “Hamilton Mixtapes,” which Miranda first performed at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and Spoken Word in 2009. It received such a great response that he kept on writing and researching about the American Revolution and the historical figures surrounding Hamilton like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Marquis de Lafayette and of course Aaron Burr.
With controversy arising with Hollywood’s whitewashing of biopics, Hamilton does the opposite by making it known that immigrants will always have a hold of this country’s history. After all, Viola Davis stated that “the only thing that separates women of color from anything else, is opportunity.”
The Schuyler sisters played by Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler (and has the sickest and fastest verses in the show), Phillipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler (sweetest little cinnamon roll in the show) and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler/ Maria Reynolds (cutest muffin that will seduce your pants off), are all played by women of color. They are all strong, educated and well-developed characters throughout the show. After all, Angelica’s verse in “The Schuyler Sisters” is:
“I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Payne
Some men say that I’m intense or I’m insane
You want a revolution? I want a revelation
So listen to my declaration
’We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal’
And when I meet Thomas Jefferson
I’mma compel him to include women in the sequel
WERK!”
Left, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Schuyler; Middle, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Right, Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler
Yes, Lin seriously did write “werk” into a historical musical and it is glorious.
Leslie Odom Jr. is the antagonist of the show as Aaron Burr, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton, Daveed Diggs as Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Jackson as George Washington and Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison. All of these roles are played by men of color as well.
From left to right: Daveed Diggs as Lafayette, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan, Anthony Ramos as John Laurens, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton
The only role that has been kept true to history is of King George which is played by Jonathan Groff, aka the most sassy and passive aggressive King George around.
This is really important to remember during the upcoming elections because there are some candidates (looking at you Donald Trump) that believe that immigrants are hurting this nation when in fact they are helping it. They have always helped this nation and are still fighting to keep this nation alive and well. Our first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, a man from the Caribbean, one of the most influential military officers was French and our top spy for the Battle of Yorktown, which marked the end of the Revolutionary War, was an Irish tailor apprentice. After the war, Hamilton practiced law, was chosen for the Constitutional Convention, proposed for a new form of government (The Federalist Party) and wrote 51 pages of the 85 essays of The Federalist Papers that led to our U.S Constitution. He was “nonstop” and “wrote like he was running out of time.”
What is also important is that what Lin-Manuel Miranda is doing here is very revolutionary itself. He mixes Hip-hop, Rap, British Pop, R&B, Jazz, and Musical Theatre all together which is innovative in itself for live theatre. The song “The Schuyler Sisters” is influenced by Destiny’s Child, while “Ten Duel Commandments” is influenced by “Ten Crack Commandments” by The Notorious B.I.G. With those mixes he also pushes gender barriers in a very Shakespearean manner. Hamilton uses the entire vocal range of their ensemble. Whether it’s men or women, they all have the ability to use their talents throughout the show. Many are understudies for the main cast and still do the show justice whenever they get to perform as the lead role. What is so great about the casting is that it is based on their talent and abilities, not what they look like. Miranda is breaking barriers that have taken way too long in the theatre world to break.
Hamilton ensemble surrounding Daveed Diggs as Thomas Jefferson
It’s amazing that Miranda is representing the voice of many Hispanics and Latinos alike. To all the African-American, Latino, and Asian actors that are often type-cast as the gang members, the troubled ones, the one’s no one can understand because of the accents; the acting world is becoming a little more open because of people like Lin-Manuel.
Do not throw away your shot, keep working harder and harder every day, never settle and above all – keep dreaming. After all “immigrants, we get the job done.”