Miranda is a genius. That he conceived, wrote, and composed a show this good is awe-inspiring. However, as a Broadway vocalist, he’s subpar.
Since the start of the Broadway run, he’s only done about half the performances; an understudy fills in on a regular schedule. We saw the understudy. We were disappointed upon receiving the news, but stopped caring once the show started. After listening to the cast album (with Miranda, not the understudy (whose name I really wish I knew)), I’m glad we saw who we did.
When I first saw a scene from this as performed on some talk show I thought it was a joke scene put together to parody what a wasteland Broadway had become.
It took someone quite a while to convince me that this tripe was actually being performed in a real theater.
I have seen other bits and pieces of it since and have become convinced it is a joke. But the joke is on the theater going public. This just goes to show that the car crash theory of attracting an audience is now the mainstay of American entertainment.
Remember back when Jerry Springer was an outlier? When real housewives were the bedrock of America and not “Real Housewives” TM? I guess the Jersey shore always was a bit or a wasteland but at least it wasn’t on television.
And now the founding fathers are reduced to a bunch of idiots jumping around the stage shouting.
Did you miss the recent appearance of the Hamilton cast at the White House, to perform highlights from the musical for students, the President & the First Lady? Did you heave President Obama joke that the play was the only thing he & Dick Cheney agreed upon? (Cheney saw the play some time ago.)
Have you seen or read any of the interviews with Ron Chernow, Pulitzer winning author of the biography that inspired the play. By age & background, he was not a fan of rap or hip-hop–but was converted. (Other musical styles appear in the lay–classic Broadway show-stoppers, Brit-Pop (for George III), jazzy blues & a bit of harpsichord.)
No, the Founding Fathers did not sing & dance all day. Did you object to 1776? Playbill just publisheda phone conversationbetween William Daniels (John Adams in that play & the movie) & Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton. (Daniels hasn’t seen the play yet–it’s exceedingly sold out; Miranda said he knew a guy.)
Have you actually listened to the songs? They are not stupid, even though they are mostly sung by non-whites.
Can you be more specific?Is your issue the subject matter not being handled in a sufficiently serious way or do you just not like the particular music genre, or perhaps not musical theatre in general?Not saying you must defend your opininion, not am I defending the play, since I’ve not even seen it, but since your opinion is in the minority and it’s a pretty strong one, I was just wondering.
It is the ridiculous over the top nature of the production. I take one look at any of the performances available via video and all I can think is, you’ve got to be kidding.
I would feel the same way about a bluegrass version of Madam Butterfly or a Zydeco version of The Godfather. The gimmick is so silly and over the top that the substance is completely lost on me.
I haven’t seen the entire show either, just the numbers performed for video, but I always find that I can judge a work better after I have actually seen it.
Instead of watching the video, go pull up an audio recording of Cabinet Battle #1, and listen to it. Read along with the lyrics on genius.com (maybe pausing every now and then to read the annotations), then come back and tell us what you think.
There was a horrible, random, thumping electronic drum machine in the background of the recording that made it almost impossible to understand the words and very unpleasant to listen to. When I turned it up enough so i could understand the actors my fillings were vibrating from the poorly done drum track. I did read the lyrics through though and it seemed that they could have actually acted the scene with something approaching the original language and the scene would be clearer, more relatable and most likely more powerful.
What is it about putting unnatural language in the character’s mouths and adding an overpowering fake drum loop that you think improves the piece?
I’m not suggesting the libretto is bad. I am sure this is based on good history. My question is why spoil the good history by hiding it behind a silly conceit.
What really does the anachronistic mode that this is presented in bring to the table except as a marketing ploy.
Hey, if you can’t get it, you can’t get it. Many people do–quite sincerely.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has said: “This is a story about America then, told by America now." I suppose so many non-white performers using some definitely non-white musical styles could make certain folks nervous. I’m from the older, paler demographic but enjoyed the music the first time I heard it. (Most of us have just heard the cast recording, especially here in flyover country.)
1776 was anachronistic, too. What did you think about that musical? (If I want The Real Thing, I’ll read a book.)
I haven’t heard the music, but this sounds like more a problem with the settings on your audio system or computer. You may have your bass cranked up to the max, without realizing it.
Or at least, I doubt that everyone else is having to turn up the volume of their music so loud that it’s uncomfortable to be able to hear the performers.
I understand different strokes for different folks but your opinion boggles my mind. I literally haven’t stopped listening to this soundtrack since I first heard it in January. It is amazing.
The music they chose is not random. Their point is to connect the history of rap and black culture with the history of America. That is one of the subtexts of the show. Many of the songs in Hamilton are call backs to famous hip hop music. But even putting that aside, the music is catchy as hell and the story of the birth of our nation is intriguing.
It is fair to say “This music just isn’t for me”. That is your opinion and your right but to call it technically sloppy and badly done is just wrong.
I have performed in the chorus of a traditional production of Madam Butterfly, and I love and admire that work without limit, but I would stand in line for two hours in the rain to watch an intelligently, imaginatively constructed bluegrass version of it.
Genre-bending is not necessarily a “gimmick”. Many people were similarly put off by the Gershwin and Heyward morphing of traditional musical theater into “folk opera” in Porgy and Bess, but that wasn’t a “gimmick” either.
I finally got around to listening to this last weekend (I had been putting it off in hopes that I’d maybe get to see it before listening to it).
It is, indeed, a pretty great freaking musical (I know, the world has been waiting for me to weigh in on this topic ). I was in the car with someone else, and we didn’t say a word for the two and a half hours it was on. Great performances, great writing (musical and lyrical) and great production.
I am far from an expert on Hip Hop (but am a semi-expert on Broadway), but calling this a ‘silly conceit’ or ‘marketing ploy’ shows a lack of understanding of the material.
[ul]
[li]The art of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, has been drenched in hip hop elements his whole life. It’s not a conceit, it’s the palate he uses. You wouldn’t accuse Billy Joel, for example, or hiding his music behind the silly conceit of rock and roll, would you?[/li][li]Even knowing nothing about hip hop, it’s obvious that Hamilton is truly authentic. It’s not a gimmick conceived of by suits sitting upstairs at the Richard Rodgers theatre, but is in fact a true piece of art in the hip hop milieu. [/li]
There is a lot of material from Broadway that is a pale imitation of some ‘ethnic’ musical trope, or cool hip contemporary style of which the composer has only a vague understanding, having heard an example once in an ethno-musicology class, or playing in the bodega where he occasionally buys his cigarettes. Like this show or don’t like this show, but the accusation of it being a gimmick is demonstrably false; it’s the real deal.[/ul]
(One of my favorite lyrical motifs in the show was the counting to 9 and not 10. After I mentioned how much I loved it, my friend played me ‘The 10 Crack Commandments,’ which Miranda was referencing.)
Pábitel, I’m also curious how you feel about 1776 and Jesus Christ Superstar.
For that matter, how about Rent? It’s a shameless steal from La Bohème: Mark the aspiring artistic filmaker is Marcello the struggling painter; Roger the songwriter is Rodolfo the poet; Tom Collins the philosophical anarchist is Colline the philosopher; Angel Schunard the street musician is Schaunard the musician; and shockingly, Mimi the exotic dancer suffering from AIDS is Mimi the seamstress suffering from consumption.
). I was in the car with someone else, and we didn’t say a word for the two and a half hours it was on. Great performances, great writing (musical and lyrical) and great production.