Deanna Druskat

Professor Trachtenberg

Intro to Journalism and Nonfiction

March 31, 2016

The Soundtrack

I am not a musical theater person. Sure I’ve seen the Lion King on Broadway and my high school’s productions of Hairspray and Legally Blonde, other than that I never really understood the appeal. That was until recently when my roommate introduced me to the world of musical theater. There’s one musical in particular that I’ve become addicted to: Hamilton. A musical by the famous Lin-Manuel Miranda about Alexander Hamilton, a United States founding father who doesn’t receive enough recognition for his accomplishments. I’ve never actually seen the musical… tickets cost over 300 dollars. I have, however, listened to every song on the Hamilton soundtrack from beginning to end, countless times.

For most musicals, the whole story is in the music. You don’t need to see the musical to understand what’s happening, although the visuals definitely help. Ever since I started listening to the music back in January, I haven’t been able to stop. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t listen to at least one song. Most of my friends are highly irritated by my constant singing and by the amount of times I’ve requested Hamilton be played. It’s frustrating because I know that if they gave it a chance, they would love it. The Soundtrack opens with the song “Alexander

Hamilton” which is the perfect introduction to the musical. The first lines of a musical are arguably the most important (which is something you could say about most writing), Lin-Manuel sets up the musical perfectly:

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a

Scotsman, dropped in the middle of in the Caribbean by providence

Impoverished, in squalor

Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

This opening verse right away tells you that he was born into a difficult life – by stating that he was an impoverished orphan in squalor. In the same verse, you find out that he turned his life around to become a “hero and a scholar.” How inspiring.

The soundtrack is made up of 46 songs, equating to 2 hours and 22 minutes in length. It’s full of love triangles, death, drama, but most importantly it’s the story of someone who built themselves from the ground up. Hamilton is very different from most musicals. Firstly, the cast is incredibly diverse. Lin-Manuel, who plays Alexander Hamilton, is Puerto Rican, while

Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, the other lead role, Phillipa Soo is Chinese-American. The majority of the cast is black with only a few white people mixed in.

Along with being racially diverse, the musical is unique because it’s sung mostly in rap.

The song “Guns and Ships” is the fastest rap in Broadway history – not that that’s saying much, most Broadway musicals don’t include rap. This makes the musical feel more contemporary. I think Lin-Manuel wrote it this way to appeal to more audiences; people who already enjoy musicals, people who like history, and people in younger generations who listen to rap music.

One thing our history books do tell us is that Alexander Hamilton was shot before he could truly make a difference. Eliza Hamilton, Alexander’s wife, didn’t want people to forget who he was and what he did, --establishing the first national bank, writing the Federalist papers, etc.—so following his death she gathered all his journals and interviewed all the people who knew him and wrote it all down, hoping one-day people would know his story. Because of this,

Lin-Manuel Miranda put the story in her perspective. She is the narrator of the story. Sadly, this

2 doesn’t keep the musical from having sexist undertones. This could be the time period that the musical is set in, but even in the late 1700s- early 1800s I’m sure women had more to say than just “lets spend the day looking at men” or “I won’t be satisfied until I find a man.”

My favorite song in the musical right now is “Non-Stop.” In this song you learn about how hard Alexander truly worked. Throughout the musical people are constantly telling him to take a break and that he never stops writing, which you find out is totally true. In this song you learn about the writing of the Federalist Papers. The original plan was to split the essays within the book evenly among James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. They ended up writing 85 essays. Jay wrote 5, Madison wrote 29, and Hamilton wrote 51, all over a six-month period. I find this incredibly inspiring. I hope someday I acquire his work ethic.

My favorite character in the musical is George Washington. He has a remarkable voice and he reminds me of the dad of the group. He’s always there to give Hamilton advice. Not to mention I’m also related to George Washington, although I try to remain unbiased. Another character who I find surprisingly likable is King George III. Although he is a terrible human, the few songs he has in the musical are hysterical. His first song is called “You’ll be back.” It’s basically a letter to the colonies saying that they will regret their decision to fight back:

Oceans rise, empires fall

We have seen each other through it all

And when push comes to shove

I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love.

His conceited personality is strangely charming; you can’t help but laugh at his absurd statements. I’m assuming the point was to make him seem laughable and irrational, probably the same way the colonies saw him at the time.

3 I feel sorry for the people who haven’t yet given the soundtrack a try. I used to tease my roommate for her obsession with musicals. I’d ask her to turn off her music if it sounded too

“musically.” Now I can’t imagine my life without musicals or, specifically, Hamilton. Hopefully

I’ll be able to see the musical when tickets are cheaper. Until then I’ll just have to continue to listen to the soundtrack and picture what I think the musical would look like on stage, in my head.

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