#hamilton thoughts

[moonlight-lunna]

I barely identify with Alexander, except for this line here:

"I have some friends, Laurens, Mulligan

Marquis de Lafayette, okay, what else?"

He's like "I have three friends, and that's enough"

[a-dreamingflower]

My Favorite Hamilton Lines

“Ay, yo yo yo, what time is it?!” “sHOW TIME!!!” “Onarchy! onarchy? onarchy.... how you say..? Ah! ANARCHY” “anD pEGGY” “my dog speaks more eloquently~” “sILenCe!” “i will send a fully armed battalion to remind me of your love~! <3″ “im just saying if you really loved me you would share him~” “hA!” “‘cause if the tOMcaT can get mARRieD~! therE’S hOPe foR oUr asS aFtEr aLL!” “death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes, and we keep living anyway, we rise and we fall and we break and we make our mistakes. and if there’s a reason im still alive when everyone who loves me has died, then im willing to wait for it” “im a general! whEeeEEEeEEEeE!” “duel before the sun is in the sky, pick a place to die where its high and dry~” “oh, let me be a part of the narrative, of the story they will right someday. let this moment be the first chapter where you decide to stay~.” “IMTAKINGTHISHORSEBYTHEREINSMAKINGREDCOATSREDDERWITHBLOODSTAINS. LAFAYETTE!” “Immigrants, we get the job done!” “awEsoME! wOW!” “look at my SON!” “I wAs cHoSen fOr thE coNsTituTionaL ConvEnTioN~!” “Bright young man.” “Yo, who the f is this?!” “What’d i miss? Virginia my home sweet home I wanna give you a kiss!” (muah) “with a comma after Dearest, you’ve written My Dearest, Angelica~” “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-” “Madison and Jefferson are merciless” “well, ain’t the sin love the sinner?” “im erasing myself from the narrative, let future historians wonder how eliza reacted when you broke her heart.” “Everything is legal in New Jersey!“ “sept huit neuf....” “... its quiet uptown..” “FORGIVENESS~” “can i show you what im proudest of~” “The Orphanage” “I establish the first private orphanage in New York City” “The Orphange” “I help raise hundreds of children, i get to see them growing up!” “The Orphanage” “In their eyes I see you Alexander~ I see you everytime~”

[safflowerseason]

The OG Hamilton thoughts: young vs. “old” Hamiltons, the unsung greatness of Daveed Diggs, King George’s spittle, and what is up with that final moment?!

- It was really wonderful watching a filmed performance--or, to be more specific, three performances spliced together--but I definitely missed the electricity of being in the same room as live performers. At the same time, the original cast is so strong as an ensemble, there was a particular kind of joy in watching them--there was a sense of a collective kind of intimacy binding this particular cast, from having created this piece of art together, that you don’t necessarily get while watching a touring cast. 

- both Hamiltons I’ve seen live were significantly younger than Lin-Manuel Miranda was when he performed in this show, and I wonder how that affects the performance. Miranda obviously has a distinctly “boyish” kind of energy, but he looks almost haggard in comparison to the two twenty-year olds I’ve seen perform the role. He’s no great singer, but the deep emotion he brought to the role was highlighted in a different way by his age...and I do think the songs resonate a bit differently when the person singing them actually looks exhausted and old in a way that a twenty-year old does not. They filmed this in June 2016, near the end of Miranda’s run on the show, and I can’t help but wonder at just *how* burned out he must have been near the end. At times I felt that some of his emotion was actually stemming from that. 

- Leslie Odom Jr. was obviously fantastic, a performance and a role for the ages, and seeing his expressions up close was such a window into how he conceived of the character. 

- Having now seen two Jeffersons and been satisfied (*heh*) with neither of them, I am increasingly convinced that Daveed Diggs did something really special with the role. He has this incredible stage presence that allows him to infuse even the smallest gesture with such specific significance, and he leaned into the flamboyance of Jefferson without overplaying it. He deserved the Tony for that performance in my opinion. He was great. Same with Anthony Ramos--his performance made me even more excited to watch In the Heights next year. 

- Obviously having listened to the original cast recording approximately a thousand times before watching the filmed production, I was surprised at how cool and understated Philippa’s Soo’s performance as Eliza was. Her stunning voice is really doing the bulk of the acting for her. Meanwhile, Renée-Elise Goldsberry should be nominated for theatrical sainthood. Look, the show tries, but it’s obviously not a great piece of feminist art...the women anchor the show emotionally in a way that is deeply “traditional” in terms of gender roles. But with Angelica, the show at least demonstrates her interior complexity with a song for the fucking ages. 

- Lin Manuel Miranda and Chris Jackson have famously been friends for years, since In the Heights, and it showed in their performance. Miranda’s best moments, in my opinion, were nearly all during scenes with Jackson, and you could tell they were really drawing on their real-life intimacy with one another to infuse the relationship with depth. Also, CHRIS JACKSON!!! Damn. That performance of One Last Time...I really got the sense that the song was written specifically for his particular voice. 

- Jonathan Groff as King George III was perfectly deranged. Seriously considering changing the name of this blog to “kinggeorgespittle” (not really, but kinda). 

- If you don’t cry when Philip dies, you are quite possibly a sociopath. 

- Nonstop is still my favorite song, followed by The Room Where It Happens, probably followed by Dear Theodosia. One thing I did miss, though, in the filmed version, is having the full view of the stage in order to grasp the full scope of the choreography. 

- what is UP with the final moment of the play?!?!?! I have now seen three versions:

        - the London production, in which the actress let out this fluttery little delicate gasp that completely took me out of the moment.          - the SF production, in which the actress played the moment much more understated--she smiled this lovely little sweet smile at the audience. In my opinion, it worked very well.          - the original production, with Philippa’s Soo deeply emotional, almost-crying exclamation. The contrast between that moment and her otherwise subtle performance threw me off a bit--I was genuinely surprised at how open she played it, and it once again put me off the ending, which is still the weakest moment of the show by far but it’s not like I wanted to be reminded of that fact while watching. 

After I saw the London production and was discussing it with a friend (over tea and scones, very British), she told me that her boyfriend thought the Eliza’s final gasp is supposed to indicate her “discovery” of the audience and that her work to secure Alexander’s legacy has been successful in the form of Hamilton-the-musical. I immediately vetoed this idea, because I thought the meta implications of it were just too corny. I said I thought Eliza is supposed to have crossed over into death, and we’re seeing her reaction to the infinity of heaven, her reunion with Hamilton, etc, etc, etc. Then I saw the SF production, with the understated ending, and felt vindicated that my interpretation was the correct one. Then I watched the original production, where the sheer over-the-top drama of Soo’s final moment makes me think that, indeed, it is supposed to be this meta moment we’re watching and Eliza has discovered a theater full of people watching a globally popular musical about Hamilton, as opposed to her simply passing into death and peace with Hamilton. This annoys me and feels very unnecessary and also borderline self-congratulatory. Maybe there’s not supposed to be one interpretation of the final moment, but I know which one I prefer, at any rate. 

[obsessed-tyrant]

You Wanna Read Some Heartbreaking Hamilton Theories?

Remember when Angelica sings “I’ll leave you to it!” in both Helpless and Satisfied?

Well, think about how differently they are said each time.

She sounds so confident and cunning when she says it during Satisfied, but so heartbroken and longing for something she can’t have in Helpless. The change is drastically different!

I think that she must have heard herself as being so confident and brave, as we can hear as listeners from her prospective, in Satisfied, but during Helpless she must have really sounded hurt and betrayed to everyone else.

Well played, Manuel. Well played.

[rockysmodernlife]

Company: Hamilton!

Lafayette: Sir, you're gonna have to use him eventually. What's he gonna do on the bench? I mean—let's be real...that boy gon' get antsy.

[thefederalistblog]

unpopular post, probably:

I’ve been a theater lover my entire life (I saw Mamma Mia when I was 7, did improv acting from 8-16, musical theater from 9-20) and i’ve seen around 30 shows on broadway not including tours. I’ve never seen a popular OBC recording of a show, bootleg or official. WHY ON EARTH do people think Lin is going to release a DVD copy of Hamilton?! He’s released a making of documentary, a tell all book, a cast album with the entire show on it, (soon to be) 2 mixtapes, and multiple interviews and clips of the show. NO playwright has ever done that. Damn i’m still waiting on In The Heights and Wicked. 

People who need instant gratification aren’t understanding that they don’t need to do anything to please them. They know you still want to see the show. They sped up the tours, going to multiple cities within 2 years of the release. THAT’S NUTS. It usually takes YEARS for that to happen. I know Newsies did their video and Falsettos did too, but they aren’t even near the caliber of Hamilton. (And Newsies is Disney, so that’s a whole other beast of a show)

I just don’t get it. And i’ve been fighting the fight to see my favorites for years, and sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I just wish people understood that the DVD is a time capsule that won’t be released until every avenue is explored

[the-other-fifty-one]

What she says: I'm fine.

What she means: Do you ever just forget how much you love Hamilton? Like you've listened to it so many times that you just kind of take it as a standard in your life until you really sit down to listen to it again one day and you just refall in love with it every single time. You forget how beautiful the lyrics are, and the meaning behind them, and everything that went into making them and then you listen to it again and it's just like hOW COULD I EVER FORGET HOW GOOD THIS IS LIKE WOW.

[happydragonblue-blog]

Hamilton Realizations

What I say: I'm fine.

What I mean: In 'Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story' Eliza said that she saw Alexander in the eyes of the children at the orphanage. What about Angelica, the girl she grew up with and had childhood memories with? What about Phillip her SON? What about her mother and father, wouldn't children remind her of her own childhood? What about Peggy, whatever happened to Peggy? Why wouldn't they include her more in Hamilton? Why??? Why????????