Additionally, during the performance of “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down),” the characters of Hamilton and Lafayette both proclaim, “Immigrants: We get the job done.” Each song reinforces the concept of an “American dream” where anyone, including immigrants, can aspire to climb the social ladder as long as they remained dedicated and determined to accomplish their goals.
Furthermore, Miranda takes considerable effort to promote equality and inclusion in his production via hiring a racially and culturally diverse ensemble of actors and actresses (See Figure 6). Notably, Miranda casts many minority actors in the roles of several Founding Fathers who were, in reality, white men. Along with his efforts to diversify the cast, Lin-Manuel Miranda additionally opts to use hip-hop as his genre of choice for the music within the play. According to historian Billy Smith, “The brilliant multiracial, multicultural casting of the play in a hip-hop musical style has reverberated intensely among Americans, akin to how the democratic, egalitarian spirit resonated during the American Revolution.” Nevertheless, while Miranda employs minority actors to assume the role of the white historical figures on stage, he elects to pass on the opportunity to incorporate any minority figures from the actual period into his play. However, the impact the production has had on Alexander Hamilton’s place in American popular culture is substantial.
While Hamilton: an American Musical has garnered
As history is commonly viewed as dull and boring, Miranda changes this perception through the integration of popular music styles, rap and hip-hop, into the musical. While all of the facts are historically accurate, the audience is exposed to the debates through articulated rap battles and charged emotions are expressed through songs. The songs are also accompanied by choreography, which is a writing idea that is taken and exaggerated to an emotional state that is physicalized. Through these methods, the public gets an easier understanding of motives behind certain actions, such as Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton at a duel, as well as an clearer comprehension on what happened in history. Through rap and the hip hop style, music is used to keep history current, and provide stories the audience hasn’t heard before. In effect, Hamilton has inspired kids who weren’t good at history to look at a different perspective of the characters. In the musical there is no protagonist nor antagonist. Instead, all of the characters are portrayed as flawed, especially Hamilton, as he not only owned slaves, but was the center of the first political sex scandal in the United States. This allows the audience to know the characters on a realistic level, and acknowledge the fact that although Hamilton is one of the nation’s greatest founding fathers, he is also a man capable of
Alexander Hamilton, recognized as one of the Founding Fathers of our country, had a great impact on the wars and political issues of his time. He presented himself as a well respected man and proved himself worthy of the tasks he was given. He impressed many people and played a substantial part in influencing where America stands today. Although his early childhood circumstances were difficult, putting him at a disadvantage, Alexander proved himself capable of achieving success all on his own, without the need of others’ assistance or provision. His efforts ultimately played a significant role in the founding of America.
Throughout time, art has changed the way people perceive history. Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Hamilton has had a strong influence how people view one of the Founding Fathers and the era he lived in. Before Lin Manuel-Miranda took on the task of producing a musical for Hamilton, people had an idea of who the Founding Fathers were and what they stood for. However, Manuel’s take on Hamilton wanted to present American history in which people of diverse cultures and women share the same spotlight with the Founding Fathers. In the musical, Manuel thought it was important for Hispanics and African-Americans to play as the Founding Fathers, so it reminds the audience American history is not composed of one race. Although critics, like Nichols, believe "superficial diversity” of the play’s casting results in a failure to
Oftentimes people have a difficult time connecting with history. They do not see the relevance between something hundreds of years ago and today’s issues. The Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda does a great job of bridging that gap. Many of the issues that were faced in the time period of Alexander Hamilton are also faced in the world today. An example of this is politicians riding the fence on important issues. A main character in the play is criticized greatly for doing this just as people are currently. In Miranda’s Hamilton, characters are faced with issues and are asked to take a stand just as political leaders are today.
The musical “Hamilton” is the most sought after musical in years. It is the first seen rap musical and it has received the most ‘Tony’ awards and nominations in Broadway history. Hamilton premiered off Broadway in 2015 and soon moved to Broadway to stun the world with it’s incredible everything, from plot to casting. For best albums, Hamilton was second ranked in Billboard magazine and has got endless supply of recognition for the ingenious play written by the phenomenal Lin Manual Miranda. Hamilton is currently the most popular sensation on Broadway because of the music with its creative lyrics and hidden messages, it’s stellar performance and the perspectives it gives us on the people that founded our county. (on the people that shaped our past and developed our future).
Easily one of the most sought after artists of this age, Lin-Manuel Miranda has made a name out of himself as a creative genius. After already writing In the Heights, Miranda’s first musical to win the Tony of Best Musical, and cowriting music for another Broadway musical, Bring it On!, he shook the world by writing the hit musical Hamilton: book, music and lyrics by Mr. Miranda, in addition to him originating the role of Alexander Hamilton. From that point on, Miranda’s career skyrocketed. Coming from humble backgrounds, Miranda uses his platform on social media to discuss topics like racial and gender inequality, as well for fighting for help for his family’s home of Puerto Rico in financial and physical distress after Hurricane Maria.
Your Obedient Servant is one of the last songs in the musical Hamilton: An American Story. This song is based off a set of interactions between the title character, Alexander Hamilton, and his antagonist, Aaron Burr. It follows the Song, Election of 1800, in which Hamilton openly supports Thomas Jefferson to become president instead of Burr after the electoral tie between the two candidates. The tension that has been growing throughout the entire musical has climaxed at that point and then the infamous duel is set. All the letters that are written to each other during the song are ended with, “your Obedient Servant,” to add humor and also a reference to the actual series of five letters sent in 1804. While this makes for fantastic theatre, it is not completely accurate. Part of what makes Lin Manuel Miranda’s writing so compelling is that he takes Aaron Burr and makes him more dimensional than the man who killed Alexander Hamilton. However, the actual exchanged letters that the song is based off of show the tension breaking by a small incident, not directly relating to the presidential race, and do not actually set the terms of the duel.
Alexander Hamilton was most likely born on January 11, 1757, although the exact year of his birth is unknown. Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis or St. Kitts to Rachel Fawcett and James Hamilton, but he spent the majority of his youth on the island of St. Croix. His formal education as a child was minimal. When his mother died in 1768, Hamilton took his
According to Scott (2008), the Constitution of America has undergone several translations within the history of America because they found it to be unclear. Whereas it appears discrepant that the unclear Constitution could be useful, the disagreement is the case (Robertson, 2005). Americans regard the Constitution to be helpful for the reason that it allows for diverseness of views. In the history of America, a variety of thoughts would develop with alarming and formidable support through various factions (Robertson, 2005). Today, the main political arguments are presented from the Republican group or Democratic group. During the early periods of the American government, arguments on politics were made by Thomas Jefferson
The play “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda brings the founding fathers back to life-with a lot of hip-hop. It all started when Miranda, a writer, composer, and performer, was asked to perform at the White House centered on “the American experience.” The White House expected him to perform something based on his own Latin- American experience, but Miranda had something else in mind. Few months’ prior, Miranda was on vacation with his girlfriend when he started to read a biography on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Miranda was seized by the story of Hamilton. He was instantly inspired to create a work chronicling Hamilton’s life. He started to see Hamilton’s relentlessness, ambition, intelligence, and stubbornness through his own
Legacy is the story you leave behind that future generations will know about. Hamilton: An American Musical was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and performed on Broadway. This musical is a modern interpretation of the life of one of the founding fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda expresses the theme of having to work hard to build your legacy, so your story is told throughout the performance. This Broadway show uses the literary devices of tone, allusion, and repetition to execute the theme of legacy.
The typical musical crowd is one filled with middle aged adults who are more affluent. Rarely will a young adult be seen at a show at their own volition. The shows are full of long, complicated story lines and old fashion beliefs, which do not really appeal to the younger crowd. While this is true for most traditional musicals, many break the mold. These radical musicals break the rules and attract different crowds of people. They reveal that there is no set way for a musical. The only requirement all musicals must have are characters who sing a good portion of the show. One musical that shocked everyone from traditional theater goers to the average high school student was Hamilton. It is the story of the founding father Alexander Hamilton from birth to his early death. It is narrated by his murderer and includes other influential figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It is told exclusively in song and introduces the element of Broadway rap. Is Hamilton really that radical though? It has many of the same elements as a traditional musical. What makes a genuinely revolutionary musical? Generally, Hamilton can be compared to the musical Les Miserables. They both feature characters that are disenfranchised, and show how with hard work anyone can be a success. Both are done almost exclusively in song without much dialog and both end in the death of the protagonist. They are also both based on a book. Four elements make a musical different from the average
People worldwide are praising a man who doesn’t deserve it. Despite being considered one of America’s most influential founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton’s character could never compete with his political status. Alexander Hamilton has been made into an inspiration that he doesn’t deserve to be, being portrayed as the exact opposite of what he stood for in a recent resurgence of praise for him sparked in particular by the world-renowned musical Hamilton. Although he may be receiving this praise, his character is undeniably horrid due to many flaws in his character including the encouragement of anti-immigration laws and his desire for powerful landowners to get complete power in government over the
Hamilton: An American Musical twists the truth of Hamilton’s story as the portrayals of the characters are superficially inaccurate to their true resemblance. The events of this musical take place throughout the late 18th century to the early 19th century. At this time, minorities – specifically African Americans – were involved in slave labour and those in political and societal power were Caucasian (Chernow, 2004). Several characters featured in this show with such power include George Washington, Thomas
There are many characteristics that could impact one’s life in a negative way causing them to lose everything in life such as selfishness, messiness, untrustworthiness, self-righteousness, or ego. In the award-winning musical, Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel-Miranda, the character of protagonist, Alexander Hamilton may be described in many ways. However, one character trait stands out among the rest. The main character trait of Alexander Hamilton, self-righteousness, shaped everything about his life: how he grew up, how he dominated in debates, and even how he fell from grace. Hamilton always stuck by his ideals, not caring whether it affected other people. These traits led him to lose and gain