Hamilton and Time

     Hamilton's impact has created a ripple effect throughout theatre and pop culture. Lin Manuel-Miranda became an overnight sensation for his electric, fast-paced, and enchanting musical. Miranda is a confident and talented director who captured a spark of inspiration and changed theatre history as we know it.

    Hamilton is unique in many ways. It is a musical about a founding father and the beginning of American history. Miranda captures a perspective and a time that has been forgotten by history. He is creating a new narrative, one that hasn't been seen before, and bringing it to the public and social eye. We talked about in class how new information recontextualizes our past and can change the history that we are familiar with. Hamilton does exactly that. The musical not only recontextualizes our understanding of Alexander Hamilton himself, but also of everyone who was affected by his life, and our early American history. Yes, there are inaccuracies and creative liberties that Lin Manuel-Miranda must have taken, but the assumptions are all mostly based on facts and primary source documents. Additionally, Hamilton changed the future. Hamilton was revolutionary for its cast. There's a method in theatre casting protocols called color-blind casting. Where actors are cast into the roles regardless of their race. Simply the best performer for the role gets it. This seems good in theory, yet it often silences the experiences of marginalized people. The audience will perceive race on stage, it is inevitable, so it is important for a director and producer to understand what casting a person of color in a show may do for the show. Hamilton does this. Miranda created a cast that was diverse, talented, and beautiful. He gave people on stage what normally would be silence. Much like how we silence stories of our past, the cast of Hamilton reminds us that marginalized voices existed back then, and will continue to exist. And it is our responsibility as a society to listen to the stories of those groups who are silenced. Hamilton's popularity skyrocketed when those marginalized people were seen as a part of American history, of our history, and their voices were finally heard. And the theatre world paid attention to this. They finally listened and saw stories of POC and marginalized people finally expressing themselves on stage in roles that weren't about suffering or sadness. Theatre will never take that for granted again. 

I may not have had a Hamilton phase like many theatre kids did, but I appreciate how the show changed our history and our future with voices and people that deserved to be heard on stage.