Hamilton

 Will Pikus

            Lin Manuel Miranda’s play “Hamilton” took Broadway by storm when it was released. Personally, I remember my parents looking into getting tickets for the show. We all realized it wasn’t worth it since tickets were over eight-hundred dollars per person. The play itself also struck me as kind of strange. I questioned why everyone was getting so excited over the ethnically swapped show. One character within the show was especially strange. King George is right where he was supposed to be the entire time. The tyrannical King is laughing maniacally after each of his songs about how “You’ll Be Back”. While this is likely an accurate depiction of King George, one big question comes to mind. Why is he still white?

            As a student brought up last class, why was Hamilton’s story choses by Miranda? It’s one of the oldest whitest stories in the books. My main question is more about why Jonathan Groff was chosen to portray King George. If King George remains white while the rest of the cast is ethnically swapped, it creates a narrative within the play that simply was not there historically. This changes the context of the entire play and villainizes the white guy for the wrong reason. 

            In “Hamilton” Jonathan Groff sings “You say our love is draining and you can’t go on. You’ll be the one complaining when I am gone… And no don’t change thee subject, Cuz your my favorite subject , My sweet, submissive subject, My loyal, royal subject, Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever” (Miranda 57). This is historically accurate since King George III purposefully interfered with the establishment of Judicial power in the colonies. This is the only good part of the character. His story hasn’t aged well, but that’s kind of the point. In this day and age, race should be cast aside when it comes to the casting of shows. Enough time has passed that no one really cares about who plays who. It should be about the best man for the job. 

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