Itâs unfortunate that this is a Disney release, but I need to ask a favor of every person who wants to watch it:
DONâT PIRATE. PAY THE TEN BUCKS.
Musical theatre aficionados have been fighting for YEARS for this to be a regular thing. As far as I know, itâs only been done a handful of times: the final performance of RENT, the 10th and 25th anniversaries of Les Mis, the 25th anniversary of Phantom of the Opera, and there are a few âon a stage but reblocked and edited for videoâ shows like Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar 2000, and Into The Woods. We have been FIGHTING for general releases of shows. This is an actual theatre industry thing.
You may notice something about the shows I listed above: only three of them arenât Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. Love him or hate him, heâs a huge advocate for the idea that theatre should be accessible and preserved for the historic record; he actually arranged for a proshot of Love Never Dies on the basis that he was pretty sure it WASNâT going to be playing for very long, and future theatre fans who wanted to see it for any reason should have access to it. Webber has been in this industry since 1969. When a man with that kind of resume says âyes, this needs to be a thing,â itâs a fair bet he knows a thing or two of what heâs talking about. Itâs one reason I love Webber: yeah, some of his shows are kind of questionable quality, but heâs on the fansâ side here.
(Also, I feel the need to defend him against the new CATS. He arranged the 1998 stage-but-edited version that was pretty good. He was PISSED about the 2019 version long before it was released.)
So basically: if youâre not a Webber fan, youâre screwed. If you ARE a Webber fan but you also want to see cool stuff like the bilingual version of West Side Story or the production of Fiddler on the Roof that was partly in Yiddish, youâre screwed. If you want to see cult classics that werenât around long, like Spring Awakening or Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark (or, for the REALLY obscure: Chess or Bat Boy), youâre screwed. If you want to see shows that were reasonably successful but require a huge budget and so donât get put on often, like Aida and Little Shop of Horrors, youâre screwed. If you want to see shows that require a budget SO huge that no community theatre no matter how well-endowed will ever be able to afford them, like Wicked? YOUâRE SCREWED.
I am begging you. BUY HAMILTON. DONâT PIRATE. This is a fight 30+ years old and buying it will help demonstrate that YES, there is an entire audience outside New York ready and willing to buy in; YES, itâs worth the outlay of cash to do these recordings and mix and edit them; and, and understand I am saying this as a Webber and Les Mis fan, RECORDINGS THAT ARE NOT LES MIS OR ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER ARE WORTH RELEASING.
Help us fight the good fight and make professional theatre available to everyone. BUY HAMILTON. DO NOT PIRATE. YES, EVEN THOUGH ITâS A DISNEY RELEASE. YES, EVEN THOUGH NON-PROFESSIONAL RECORDINGS EXIST.
This is important. As a theatre advocate I cannot stress HOW important. If you follow me, you know Iâm all in favor of things like streaming services and breaking up the Disney monopoly. But in this, my loyalty has to lie with a fight I joined in 2005 that was going on when I was still smelling markers in kindergarten.
If you have any interest in seeing Hamilton, no matter how casual, buy it. Please.
(And while youâre at it: support your local community theatre. Most community theatres put on great shows on a very tiny budget and could, I say this totally unironically, use your $5-10 donation. It adds up and it helps keep the lights on.)
