when Hamilton Musical opening On Broadway in 2015, it was a game-changer. Setting the story of an American founding father to the hip-hop rhythm of the 90s era is a bold move by creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, but it’s Pay off. crowd queue A few days, I had the chance to see it. The show has amassed awards from critics and media, including one a lot of of Coverage from Vox. like,,,,, one a lot of.
The show’s body will only be released in 2015 Original Broadway actor recording and 2020 Premiere Live version of Disney+ musical. The version shot is now In the cinema The first time, stubborn Hamilton There is no doubt that fans will appear in the role-playing of the Revolutionary War era to eliminate their favorite numbers.
But ten years later, how does a progressive, flag-waving, Obama-coded hip-hop musical behave?
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner Teaching English and theatre at Portland State University is “Lin-Manuel Miranda: Artist Education. ” he told Today, I explained Co-host Sean Ramewaram explains how the legacy of the musical is associated with Obama’s legacy and how it feels to watch the show during his second Trump term.
Below are excerpts of their conversation for detailed description and clarity. There are more in the full podcast, so listen Today, I explained Wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcast,,,,, Pandoraand Spotify.
How much time have you spent in the past few years Hamilton?
God, it feels like a meme for “How often do you think about the Roman Empire”. Just like, every day.
This phenomenon has been difficult to avoid in the past decade. Now, it’s its first time in the theater, we have an excuse to talk about how this musical feels different in 2025 than in 2015. Is your idea?
so Hamilton With these two behaviors, I feel we have to live in the first act Hamilton For a time, we had the hope of a nation that hoped to immigrate into a coalition that dreamed of a better future. Over the past few years, I feel like we’ve been living in Act 2 Hamilton Which is “Everything will collapse? Will we become so polarized that we are in a state of political violence and everything that was built before the collapse is built?”
Where does this even come from before we talk about politics?
So Lin-Manuel Miranda, 28, Win the Tony Award For his first musical At height And on vacation in 2008. He was a quick reader, so he brought a real big book to keep his vacation going, and that’s it Biography of Ron Chernow Alexander Hamilton. He told me that he had these three insights as he lay in a hammock on the beach above Playa del Carmen. One is that he didn’t know that there was a founding father who was born outside the mainland of the United States In the Caribbean. Hamilton’s journey from a poor orphanage on this island to becoming an architect in the U.S. government reminds Lin Manuel His own fatherborn in Puerto Rico, he became an important political figure in New York and national politics. So he began to imagine HamiltonThe story and world he lives in.
“Hamilton shared their ultimate belief in annoying people and being shot.”
His second insight is that Hamilton’s story is Hip-hop story. The rise of a story of Smith’s humble beginnings to naming himself and turning his poverty into success is a story that reflects the 90s hip-hop artist Lin-Manuel grew up, especially Love, Biggie and Tupac, Hamilton share their ultimate belief in being angry and being shot.
The third insight is that Lin-Manuel was initially considered a concept album, just like a musical Jesus Christ Superstar or Evita That will be sung in the record. He premiered the first number of the show At the invitation of the White House In the East Room in 2009. Over the next six years, he built an arc of the entire life of Hamilton with his collaborators, which opened in 2015.
How big is this show? When is Hamilton Peak? I think it’s coming, right?
I would say that it is an elite cache phenomenon where celebrities and political leaders boast about a sum of money they can get, which is very expensive tickets. But by the fall of 2016, when the actors were released, it had become a popular phenomenon, and albums had become the top of the billboard rankings. Even in Rap chart. The show won all awards, Tonis, Grammys, Pulitzer Prizes and This becomes a conversation Apart from a Broadway freak like me, there are people who care more broadly about American culture and how we tell American stories about it.
Now, let’s talk about how we feel like we’re living in behavior for a while Hamilton. The show is directly linked to the Obama administration and the hope for America?
Sean, it’s very closely linked. Not only was the White House the first venue for the first number to be performed, but Obama’s own speech helped create a template for certain musical numbers on the show. Lin-Manuel loves Black-Eyed Peas Will.i.am, turns Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech and turns it into Music Video. Miranda thinks it’s a cool way to music George Washington’s farewell address. He even asked Obama to go Record cover George Washington left the White House for the “last time”. So it is closely related to Obama’s world, even if it has a lot of shouting and similarities to the early history and music era.
We should point out that it is not just the left who loves performances. Obama Famously said It’s one thing he and Dick Cheney agreed on how great it is Hamilton Once was.
This is true. Both Dick and Lynn Cheney Praise the show. George W. Bush compares himself to Hamilton In a great documentary about a musical Clintonian and bidens Come too. So it becomes a show to watch, and a show that many people can read about their vision of America, whether it is a traditional narrative of a country that you can pull yourself up through the guide, or that is a more radical perspective, black hip-hop artists in Quote Black Lives Matter Movement.
And what happened Hamilton During the Trump administration?
After the election, Vice-President-elect Mike Pence watches the show on Broadway. Miranda, along with his producer and director, decided to write a speech for then-played Aaron Burr actor Brandon Victor Dixon to leave the hall after what Dixon said to Mike Pence, “We have continued to have a diversity and anxiety about you, but our new administration will be in good spirits on all the lines…we.”
Even anyone thinks this will work out of date.
Correct. Maybe that’s a musical theatre fantasy, we can all get together for curtains. Pennies are good, but the next morning, Trump started tweeting on Twitter that the actors were rude to Pence, Hamilton Overrated Hamilton Need an apology. Since then, it has indeed become an anti-Trump performance.
Trump also had a hard time with Puerto Rico after the 2017 hurricane destroyed the island. Blame Puerto Ricans Because of their own pain. Lin-Manuel Tell Trump that he wants to go straight to hell Regarding his comments.
“When I saw it, I saw less of this celebration of America and more of how quickly the American Dream would crack.”
The latest chapter in the legend is Hamilton It was supposed to be a show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., but after Trump got rid of all the Democratic members of the Kennedy Center board, Miranda and his producers Pull out their performancesay they don’t want it Hamilton Appearing at Trump’s puppet venue.
Trump has seen it Hamiltondo we know?
Not I know. I think His favorite show is Evitathis performance has nothing to do with populist fascism and the rise of stars.
Have the validity of information Hamilton Reduced over time? People don’t like the concept of the potential of the US experiment in 2025, for example Hamilton Better than they were in 2015 or 2016?
Of course, this is about the show. Criticism of performance As early as 2015, 2016 was a province for left-wing scholars, my people, that is Hamilton People are not the progressive revolutionary heroes that people want to regard him as. They believe that, in fact, he is an elite who is supporting slavery and is anti-immigrant. He is not his Lin-Manuel Miranda version. I’ll say that kind of left-wing criticism Become more common 2020, after the Black Lives Matter movement.
As time goes by, there Hamilton Begin to feel cringe at people? Too hopeful and fell in love with the United States and the United States projects?
I mean, man, Sean is the most likely thing for me is that having a gender scandal will ruin your political outlook. But when I got back to the show, what really fascinated me was that it was a tragedy. This terrible thing was built from the beginning, and that was a friend and a political competitor Murdered another. This tragedy enveloped the entire performance. So when I saw it, I saw this celebration of America, and I had no idea how fast the American dream might be.
One thing I always remember is that the show starts with a question: “How do the sons of prostitutes and Scots and sons of Scots fall into trouble in a dirty place, growing into heroes and scholars in places where Providence is forgotten by Providence?” It ends with a question: “Who is alive, who dies, who tells your story?”
And I think the show provides an answer to these questions. I think this leaves these issues to empty issues, they are issues that are open to us today in the United States.
