“Hamilton” is a musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda that tells the life story of Alexander Hamilton through hip-hop music.
It’s a two-and-a-half-hour show told entirely through song. It was nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11. Since it’s been on Broadway it has grossed more than $75 million.
A partial tribute to the play’s wild success is the racial diversity among the cast. Those familiar with the humble beginnings of our country know that minorities weren’t afforded freedom in the new world. The roles of all the founding fathers were played by African Americans, giving the historical tale a unique and fresh take.
From the moment King George III opened the show, it was a rollercoaster of hilarious explanations of history through hip-hop to sweet and thoughtful more classic musical numbers depicting love, longing, King Georges disdain for American independence.
As a huge fan of east coast hip hop since childhood (Wu-Tang is for the children, after all) I could immediately see the influences that New York hip hop had on the music in the play. The most obvious would be Notorious B.I.G.’s “The 10 Crack Commandments” which triggered the song “The 10 Duel Commandments.” The hip-hop inspired songs have heavy pronounced beats with clear, biting, and witty lyrics.
Most of the songs that the female leads sang heavily resembled Beyoncé (Queen Beyoncé, apologies Beyhive). Her song “Countdown”, with the orchestral beats and her rich voice, was a big influence on the music for “Hamilton”. The first time I heard “Helpless” from ‘Hamilton’ was while I was doing my homework before seeing the show. I was positive it was the unreleased track from Beyoncé’s “4” that I’ve been waiting for my whole life.
The best parts of the show were when King George III would grace the audience with his presence. He would complain about Americans breaking their arrangement when they left. Rory O’ Malley’s performance as King George was brilliant. His most recent role before King George was Elder McKinley in “The Book of Mormon.” His numbers were so catchy I still can’t get them out of my head. If you hear loud, off-key whistling on campus it’s probably me whistling along with the King.
Anyone aware of the show would understand how incredibly lucky I was to be able to go and see Hamilton, so I won’t end by saying “go see it if you can!” because unfortunately it’s not as simple as that. But if you are a hip-hop head like myself I would highly recommend listening to the soundtrack, specifically “Right Hand Man.”