Other filmed versions I have seen and my thoughts:
Phantom of the Opera - Weber released a recorded live performance of this free to Youtube a couple months ago. A great musical that has aged well and the performance they filmed was good. It actually isn’t the best Christine I’ve seen, but the Phantom was great and the sets were nice. Worth tracking down if still out there.
Cats - They recorded it in the 90’s and I saw it a couple years ago. It’s well filmed, but an embarrassingly terrible musical. I have zero shock the movie was a disaster.
Love Never Dies - Yes, the sequel to Phantom. A neat idea and an adequate musical, but kind of embarrassing compared to the amazing original. Performances are great, music is a let-down.
Les Miserables - There is a 10th, 25th, and very recent live show recorded. None are the straight musical, but people are in costume and pretty much performing. All are amazing and the 25th is probably the best since Alfie Boe has the best voice.
Some of these are on DVD and some are streaming I think. Worth checking out, except Cats…which is almost worth it just for the shock.
Saw it, loved it, but damnit I need captions and can’t get them. Disney+ isn’t available through Comcast, so I watched it on my computer and the web version would not let me turn subtitles on. At least no way I could figure out at the time. I may try again.
I was rather surprised at the empathic treatment of Burr and the parallels drawn between his life and Hamilton’s.
Hah! I had found the subtitles during my original watch but didn’t realize I had to select the language to have them turned on. I thought since English was apparently selected I was good to go. Now I am!
I had planned to re-watch.
Anyone remember a thread that discussed how the individual song styles were reflective of the various characters? I’d like to reread that.
Finally got everything working and saw it. Even though I was crazy thirsty I couldn’t take a break. My thoughts:
“Awesome, Wow”
Phillipa Soo has an absolutely gorgeous voice and I think she gets overlooked for Renee
It’s Quiet Uptown is a great song and also made me cry
The Room Where it Happens is still my favorite, though
Love me some Jonathan Groff
Even though I had heard most of the soundtrack and read a plot synopsis, it was different seeing the whole thing
Still love the music and I appreciate how themes recur
I feel I don’t really know more about Hamilton himself; the story is more about his effect on everyone around him
I really liked the part where Washington steps down to make sure the country can survive without him- especially since Hamilton himself was basically in favor of a monarchy
Definitely worth $6.99 plus the hour it took to figure out how to get both picture and sound from my laptop to my not so smart TV.
I was completely stoked, and I’ve watched it twice already. Spectacular.
My one slightly contrarian view: there aren’t many bigger fans of Lin-Manuel Miranda than me. He’s a genius and Hamilton is a masterwork, and I’m glad they filmed him doing the role he created. But man alive, is he ever the weak link vocally in the production. He’s not bad or anything, he just happens to be in the company of one of the most vocally talented casts ever assembled on Broadway, and he’s not quite on their level as a singer. (I imagine he’d probably be the first person to agree with me on this.)
I thought this was more evident in the filmed presentation than on the OCR, because I could hear quite a bit of wear and tear in his voice that I didn’t hear in the other performers. It probably just means I’ve listened to the OCR too much.
We saw the show in Chicago with someone else in the role–a seasoned performer chosen from what had to be hundreds of seasoned performers who auditioned–and the energy was totally different. I’m glad we have Lin’s version on record and now on film, but I’d love to have some of the other casts as well.
I somehow stayed on the outskirts of all the hype when this came out - mostly because you couldn’t hope to get a ticket to see the original cast. I love LMM and his style and figured this would be amazing, but I didn’t even try to listen to the soundtrack - it felt like it would be an incomplete experience without also seeing it. So I let it go. Until yesterday. This was like me walking into the Rogers Theater in 2016 with no knowledge except that I heard it was great and something about “my shot”… MY GOD. I was stupefied. Riveted from beginning to end (and it’s not short). I laughed, I cried, I grooved, I sang. I marveled at the choreography and staging. There were almost too many stand-out performances to count. I watched it twice in 24 hours (first time no subtitles- just the visual magic; second time with, which was useful, especially for things like Lafayette’s “victory speech”) It’s brilliant. A work of genius, truly.
I’m not a broadway nerd, so any lack of chops on LMM’s vocal performance did not take anything away from the overall show for me- I felt the eager writerly-ness of the character in him (although admittedly he was more nerd than tomcat). But I will give that a huge pass because what LMM himself brought to the full cast performance is I’m sure a large part of what helped make it so magical. If he’d been on the sidelines as only an advisor of sorts I think it could have been lesser in magnitude. In my estimation, he did not throw away his shot.
I had the same reaction, indeed. On reflection I actually felt it worked to expand the anti-hero vibe about our main hero. The vocal heroics of those around him point up the less obvious nature of Alexander’s achievements, and remind us of his flaws in every song. Casting himself may yet have been part of the original genius. I’ve never seen or heard it with other performers, are other Alexanders more conventionally polished and powerful singers?
I came into the movie/play completely blind. I knew it was a big deal, but I hadn’t heard any songs or even really knew anything of the plot. I thought it was pretty good on first watch, and the further I am away from watching it, the more I think I like it. Good music, a good way of storytelling. I think that’s the strength of the whole production, LMM did a great way of telling the stories in song and drama.
I’m a bit glad someone else mentioned it, but I couldn’t help thinking the entire time “Wow, LMM is not a very good actor.” I’m sure he’s actually pretty good, but I, too, think he “suffered” because his cast was absolutely amazing. LMM can’t cry for shit though.
Does anyone know about LMM enough to know what he primarily fancies himself? This was a play he wrote the story to, wrote the music, wrote the dialogue and acted in…but does he consider himself more of a writer? a musician? actor? producer?
I agree with this. I am no fan of hip-hop but it works here, and there is so much more to the performance. For example, there is a turntable in the set, and it’s used quite effectively to bring characters together and apart. And there really aren’t many props; just a few chairs and that ladder thing they move around but the story is accessible nonetheless. (So when the school edition is inevitably published, set design won’t be a barrier to kids performing the show, although getting the language and rhythm right probably will be.)
I’d heard the the cast recording, but not recently, and I couldn’t get tickets when it came to town and I wasn’t going to NY, so this was my first chance to see it.
I loved it. I even thought they filmed it really, really well (filmed stage plays are often hit or miss).
One thing that struck me (especially after reading this thread) was how little rap/hip-hop it was. It’s there - but most of the music was straight musical theater, an occasional rap break, and some things that would have been called “patter songs” 35 years ago.
I’ll add my voice to the chorus of those who saw it blind (after failing to get tickets when it was in town) and absolutely loved it. I know very little of Broadway, but I was enamored with this from beginning to end. As someone who does listen to a great deal of hip hop, I still found the lyrics challenging to follow at points, and I was grateful for the subtitles.
I do remember thinking at one point that LMM isn’t as strong vocally as the other actors, but as has already been said here, I don’t think it distracted or detracted from the story, and may have actually been a plus.
Also, with apologies to my wife, Daveed Diggs may now be my favorite person on the planet.
If you like Daveed Diggs, check out clipping. The period and lowercase c are part of the band name. He has one song called The Deep that is a whole story on its own and is nerd-friendly and not-into-hip-hop-but-I-like-Hamilton friendly. Then the whole album Splendor and Misery is a sci-fi story, but it’s slightly more… artistically challenging, I guess. Not one to listen to around small children. I really loved it, though.
I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever seeing this until they came out with a movie version, which I assumed would not be for a while and would probably a bastardized version of the stage play. So I decided to spring for Disney + (I figure if there isn’t anything else on the channel I’m interested in I could always cancel later), loaded the app on my TV, and just finished watching it.
I’m impressed. Not being a fan of rap/hip-hop I wasn’t sure if I’d actually like it, but I did. I’ll probably even watch it again.
I am not good with musicals, but this one was good enough to watch the first half of it. When I say I’m not good with musicals I mean that I hate them and would rather step in a bear trap and gnaw off my leg to free myself instead of seeing (and listening) to a musical, so it is a great compliment to say it was good enough for me to sit through half of it.
I would suggest giving rap another chance. Hamilton can be your “gateway drug” ;). There are plenty of artists who have just as much erudition of language and create poetry from their works.
