It’s easy to feel pride in “Hamilton’s” vision of America, along with sadness at the divided state we’re in today. One mentioned “the intense pride you feel on an evening such as this, when America’s story is retold with such style, verve and imagination.” Other writers have noted that “Hamilton” shows America at its best, an America whose spirit we wish we could recapture, an America that might be sliding from our grasp. John Adams, with Aaron Burr as Jefferson’s running mate – one man says of Burr, “He seems approachable …?” Another answers, “Like you could grab a beer with him!” Discussing the year’s presidential tickets – Thomas Jefferson vs. It’s sung nearly a dozen times, which seems like nothing among 20,000-plus words, but each utterance rings like a bell.Ī brief exchange between two voters in “The Election of 1800” is wince-worthy. This was before the 2016 presidential election, before the current administration began spreading anti-immigrant rhetoric and separating children from their parents, but the word “immigrant” is woven throughout. Shoba Narayan, Ta'Rea Campbell and Nyla Sostre as the Schuyler Sisters.“Hamilton” opened off-Broadway at the Public Theater in February 2015. It’s exhilarating and bittersweet at the same time to hear Hamilton and Lafayette sing, “Immigrants: We get the job done.” And Angelica Schuyler’s “We hold these truths to be self-evident/That all men are created equal/And when I meet Thomas Jefferson/I’m ’a compel him to include women in the sequel!” And Hamilton’s “America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me/You let me make a difference/A place where even orphan immigrants/can leave their fingerprints and rise up.” Especially now, in our wounded times, you want to be part of the promise of the new country taking shape, based on revolutionary ideals and filled with hope. It’s dense with names, dates, events and ideas, and while the language is contemporary and vernacular, there’s no dumbing down.īut instead of pushing you away with its broad scope and gale force, “Hamilton” pulls you in. “Hamilton” comes at you with thousands of words, beat-heavy music (that 10-person orchestra in the pit!), a large cast always in motion (that cast!) and loads of content. If you check your phone or make a quick comment to your companion, you’ll miss something. Miranda nods to “Pirates” when he has George Washington sing, “Now I’m the model of a modern major general.” That’s one of many delightful moments that zoom by. It’s just under 6,000 at a comparatively snoozy 58 wpm. And if you think “Pirates of Penzance” is a fast-paced show with a lot of words, sorry. Someone did the math with the soundtrack recording and came up with 144 words per minute, more than twice as many as “Spring Awakening,” the runner-up, which has 77 wpm. (Miranda is a 2015 MacArthur “genius” grant winner, btw.) Making use of rapid-fire rap, he crammed more than 20,000 words into the telling. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical – he had the idea after buying a copy of Ron Chernow’s erudite “Alexander Hamilton” at an airport book shop, then wrote the book, music and lyrics – is almost entirely sung. It’s not, even when some are titled “The Adams Administration,” “The Reynolds Pamphlet” and “The Election of 1800.” Two-and-a-half hours might seem like a long time. There were many moments at the Orpheum last Friday when we wished we could hit pause, rewind, and hear that line or song again, or see that gesture or dance move, or freeze everything and savor the gorgeous tableau on stage.
They own this show, and they’re here for five weeks. secretary of the treasury and interpreter of the Constitution, shot to death more than 200 years ago – “Hamilton” is fascinating, foot-tapping and rapturous. It was worth the almost two-year wait.īased on a 900-page, heavily footnoted biography of the face on our $10 bill – a Founding Father, first U.S.
We first heard that “Hamilton” was coming to Minneapolis in Dec. Nearly every moment of the 2½-hour show is absolutely riveting.
#A dance of fire and ice cracked cracked
Can a musical – even a smash hit Broadway musical that won 11 Tony awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama – be as good as “Hamilton” is cracked up to be?
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