Hamilton: Surprisingly Not Overrated!

[rachelmanija]

Lin Manuel Miranda performing the opening number of Hamilton - his history geekiness is so endearing.

The whole thing on Spotify for free.

I am slowly listening to this. It's very dense, especially since I'm not familiar with that period of history other than reading Gore Vidal's Burr and getting briefly obsessed with the duel and the question of who shot first (Burr. Also, Hamilton's shot went wild because he'd been hit, not because he deliberately fired into the air, give me a break) and I just have the album - there doesn't seem to be a video available. It's pretty great though. If you like Sondheim, you would like this. I'd say listen to the first three tracks (through "My Shot") and see if you like it. I love the way it combines hiphop with Broadway, both lyrically and musically. It's really clever and catchy.

Comments

[mme_hardy]

That was my first reaction, too. "If everybody is all over it, it can't be that good." It is that good. I am astonished. And yes, it reminds me, in mood and execution if not in musical style, very much of Sondheim. King George III's ballad could be straight out of ASSASSINS or FOLLIES.

[laurashapiro]

Yay, welcome to the fold!

There are bits of video available, via 2 60 minutes specials that are available online, and an upcoming PBS documentary. Join the hamiltunes comm to learn more.

[heavenscalyx]

Oh dear. I can't stand Sondheim. That is, I will tolerate Sondheim for a good reason, but I don't find anything he writes to be catchy or even particularly interesting.

At some point, I'll make an attempt on Hamilton, still.

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, so far it reminds me of Assassins (my second-favorite Sondheim; first is Sweeney Todd) in its musical range, daring, and integrative approach to history: the past isn't gone, it isn't even past.

Here's some classic Broadway rhyming - this could be in Merrily We Roll Along, and I think that's probably a direct influence:

Raise a glass to the four of us
Tomorrow there'll be more of us

But this is pure hiphop:

Burr, check what we got
Mister Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot
I think your pants look hot
Laurens, I like you a lot
Let’s hatch a plot blacker than the kettle callin’ the pot...
What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot
Poppin’ a squat on conventional wisdom, like it or not
A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists?
Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is!

And this integrates both, summing up what I'm guessing is the theme of the entire thing (though I'm jus halfway through Part 1):

Hey yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot!

[rachelmanija]

I would listen to "My Shot." If you don't like that, you don't like the style and shouldn't bother with more.

[mme_hardy]

They've just announced that SF will be the first stop on the Hamilton tour; we'll miss out on the stellar Broadway cast, but at least we'll be able (maybe) to get tickets sometime during the 21-week run.

[heavenscalyx]

Okay!

[rmc28]

It is EATING MY BRAIN :-) I have been looping the album most of the time since Sunday morning.

[oracne]

I just sent you an email.

[kore]

I can't stand Sondheim either, and I love this -- I mean, just as a data point. He makes my teeth grate, I don't even know why. This musical reminded me a lot more of Dessa or Doomtree, melodic hip-hop.

[kore]

AHAHAHAHA WELCOME TO THE MADNESS

I first listened to it right after NPR took the streaming down, which I think was when a lot of people got into it, when it was on Youtube -- I think it still is. There's B-roll floating around, and 60 Minutes footage, and I think there's going to be a Pro-Shot? done pretty soon. People have been WILD to actually see it.

[ironed_orchid]

Thanks, this was the impetus I needed to actually watch/listen. I haven't played the whole soundtrack yet, but that's a great video to get people into it.

[cyphomandra]

Put me down as another can't stand Sondheim but like Hamilton data point. Musicalswise, I love Les Mis, Chess and Rent.

[rilina]

I have finally reached the point where I am listening to other music again ... but I still go into over-excited jazz hands mode when I have opportunities to burble about it!

[hederahelix]

NPR informed me this morning that LA is getting Hamilton too. My aunt got to see it in NY, and she had nothing but awesome things to say, and she has no interest in hip hop.

I

[rachelmanija]

I just figured that everyone on my list knew that Hamilton was "the rap musical" so I figured I'd try to lure people who think they don't like rap. I didn't when growing up, but that was because in that era it was generally less melodic and I actually love a lot of current rap. I still don't like most 80s rap - the lyrics are good but I don't like the sound.

[rachelmanija]

I have gotten a little obsessed with "My Shot." In fact it's hard for me to get very far into it because I keep replaying that.

[rachelmanija]

THANK YOU.

[rachelmanija]

I really would like to see it live. I think it would be worth the exorbitant price. Really great theater is an evanescent experience that stays with you forever. I can think of plays I saw 20 years ago that have moments that still take my breath away in memory. I saw The Kentucky Cycle on Broadway, with Stacy Keach, and so long as I live I will never forget the back of the stage opening up and all the ghosts of the past rising up behind him.

[rachelmanija]

Ahh! Want to go see it, if we can get tickets?

[rydra_wong]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/08/t-magazine/hamilton-lin-manuel-miranda-roots-sondheim.html

LMM is a Sondheim mentee. As well as just knowing his musicals as well as his hip-hop.

[rydra_wong]

there doesn't seem to be a video available.

Nope, but there seem to be vague plans to do a proper film record of the Broadway production, which would be awesome.

There's also video of a few songs that has been released, or news reports with assorted clips -- let me know if you'd like links.

[tibicina]

The tour is starting in SF, and then doing LA next, yeah.

revolutionary manumission abolitionists

[rmc28]

Sometimes I keep repeating a track, and "My Shot" is one of them. (Also "Right Hand Man", "Yorktown", "Non-Stop", "The Room Where It Happens", the two cabinet rap battles ...). So much going on in there. And I am nothing like either Miranda or Hamilton, but I'm putting my life back together, I've been given a new shot, and I am not throwing it away *gets all cheesily emotional*

I had some dental work today and mentioned I was listening to "a musical" and the dentist suggested I listen while she worked, which made for the least unpleasant dental work ever because so much of my attention was on the songs.

[rmc28]

I went as far as looking up the possibility of tickets (a holiday in New York would be extravagant but not impossible), and discovered there are essentially no tickets available directly from the theatre, but a lot of resales available through TicketMaster ... but the *cheapest* on my birthday (individual date picked not quite at random) was over $300.

I'm assuming at some point it will come to London, which is a lot easier for me to get to, even if not with the same cast. I would pay good money for a filmed-performance version - or something like the arrangement that the Met Opera has where it broadcasts concerts live to cinemas over here. (They always sell out.)