Hamilton, San Francisco, May 15, 2019
May. 18th, 2019 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleSo here's the thing about Hamilton: I didn't listen to it when it first became big, and then I had that "well now it's popular and I don't want to listen to it" resistance to it. Last year, one of the local dance studios did their recital around a traveling through history theme, and their piece for the Revolutionary War was set to the "Here comes the General" bit from "Right Hand Man." It was incredible, and my mom turned to me between that and the next piece and said, "See? That's why I want to go see Hamilton." She waited in digital line for many hours when tickets went on sale, and we went to see it on Wednesday.
We both loved it. It has so much energy! The stagecraft is possibly the best I've ever seen. We were in the very last row of the balcony, which was a good angle to see that. The stage has a pair of concentric circles that both move, sometimes together as a unit, sometimes at different speeds. The choreography, both using that space and in general is so wonderful. There's a point near the beginning where everyone on stage is moving around, and they slowly come to a line at the front of the stage. It's done so naturally that you don't see it happening until it's almost done. (We see a lot of really interesting local choreography here, and transitions are something people really struggle with.) Instead of stagehands, the chorus brings furniture on and off and moves the movable staircases. The lighting is also phenomenal. They use the light to make patterns on the floor. I can't say enough good about the stagecraft.
While I hadn't listened to Hamilton before this, I had, of course, heard things about it. I'm going to embrace the paradox: I thought that having men of color play the Founding Fathers makes the values of freedom and revolution urgent and alive in a way that having white men in those roles wouldn't. I also thought that you can see the way that having men of color play those parts obscures the fact that the real Founding Fathers were white men whose value of freedom applied only to other white men. Both of those things are super interesting!
The part where the Founding Fathers only believed in rights and freedom for (some) men, and not for women was also interesting. There's a lyric where Angelica sings, "So listen to my declaration: / 'We hold these truths to be self-evident / That all men are created equal' / And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, / I'mma compel him to include women in the sequel!" Aside from that, though, the exclusion of women from revolutionary values is more implied than stated, and if you're not used to asking and thinking about the question of "What about women?" you might miss it.
I listened to the music only after we saw the show, and I think it loses a lot without the energy of the live performance and the physicality of the stage show. During the show, I thought, "This is so great!" Listening to the soundtrack, I kept thinking, "This is really long." In the soundtrack, you hear the women clearly in the songs they're in - which is less than half of them. In the stage show, half the chorus is women, and they and some of our main character women hang around the stage during various parts of the show, so you're seeing women for much of the show. You lose that in the soundtrack.
One of the most emotionally effective moments in the show is also something that doesn't come through in the soundtrack. When Phillip, Alexander and Eliza's son, is dying, he's on a table in the center of the stage. Alexander and Eliza stand behind the table, facing the audience. Eliza has her arm stretched across him, holding his arm. Alexander goes to put his hand over hers, and she moves it down Phillip's arm, away from him. It's a small moment, but so beautifully effective.
Another interesting aspect of the show is how much I disagree with Alexander's values. I mean, yeah, freedom, revolution, all that. But his personal values are very much not mine. One of the key songs is "My Shot," where he sings, "Hey yo, I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy and hungry / And I’m not throwing away my shot." His whole personal achievement arc is about being successful in a traditional fame, fortune, and power way. The way he treats women leaves a lot to be desired. One of the central pieces of the second act is the Hamilton-Reynolds affair, where his narration is, "That's when I began to pray: / Lord, show me how to / Say no to this / I don't know how to / Say no to this." I'm deeply unsympathetic to this line of reasoning. Even before that, there's this: "But what do we have in common / We’re reliable with the / Ladies / There are so many to deflower / Ladies / Looks / Proximity to power / Ladies / They delighted and distracted him / Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after him." Yikes. There's also the part where his concept of honor leads to both his son's and his own death: "Ladies, I'm looking for a Mr. George Eacker / Made a speech last week, our Fourth of July speaker / He disparaged my father's legacy in front of a crowd / I can't have that, I'm making my father proud." I think it's possible to see in the show how badly that goes for both of them, but I don't think the show itself is critical of it. It made me shake my head at how damaging those traditional masculine values are.
The counterpoint to all of that is Eliza. Alexander and Eliza get married in the first act, and she's the one I'm much more sympathetic to. When she's pregnant with their first child, she sings "That Would Be Enough," where she says that having him home with them would be enough. When the Hamilton-Reynolds affair comes to light via Hamilton publishing The Reynolds Pamphlet, where he fully admits to the affair to prove himself innocent of financial crimes, she sings "Burn," which is a phenomenal piece on stage as she burns all the letters he wrote to her: "I'm erasing myself from the narrative / Let future historians wonder / how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart / You have torn it all apart / I'm watching it burn / Watching it burn." They reconcile after Phillip dies.
The most wrenching song is the last one, which is called "Finale" in the program and "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" on the soundtrack. The answer to the question of "Who tells your story?" when it comes to women has so often been: "No one." The chorus sings, "Who tells your story?" again and again, and then they sing, "Eliza." Eliza sings, "I put myself back in the narrative." She talks about trying to preserve Alexander's legacy, but then the song shifts and she talks about what she did with the fifty more years she lived after Alexander died: "I raise funds in D.C. for the Washington Monument," ... "I speak out against slavery," ... "I established the first private orphanage in New York City." The shift from this very male story about political power to a woman who's spent the whole play solely in the domestic sphere telling her own story and proclaiming her own legacy is a startling one. It made me cry. I don't mean it made me a little misty-eyed; I mean it made me full-on tears rolling down my cheeks, I probably would have sobbed if I'd been alone cry. I didn't expect that at all.
Even though the soundtrack on its own feels long in comparison to the exuberance of the stage play, there are songs I still love. "Right Hand Man" has the gloriously thumping "Here comes the General" piece. "Helpless" is one hundred percent my favorite song from the show. In the play, it's a narrative piece so we see what happens as time goes on, but in my head, I see it as a dance piece where every time she sings, "Helpless!" it's accompanied by an arms thrown out exhilarating turn - and I have a hard time listening to it without dancing. "Ten Duel Commandments" and the semi-reprise "The World Was Wide Enough" are phenomenally clever and lots of fun. "The Room Where It Happens" is a masterpiece of a showtune. "It's Quiet Uptown" is lovely. And, of course, both "Burn" and "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" are wonderful, emotional pieces.
I wish I knew more about music to know what all the references are, because I definitely recognized elements as familiar without knowing exactly what they're from. "My Shot" reminds me of Eminem's "Lose Yourself," but I don't know if it's allusion or if they're both references to something else. The show reminds me, more musically than thematically, of Evita, and I ended up listening to "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" the morning after we saw it because something about Hamilton reminded me of that song. "Helpless" has an almost doo-wop feel that somewhat reminds me of "Wishin' and Hopin'," which I most know from Ani DiFranco's cover for My Best Friend's Wedding. I know there were other bits in the show where I thought, "I recognize that," but couldn't pinpoint the specific reference. I always like seeing things that clearly place themselves into a history and lineage.
We both loved it. It has so much energy! The stagecraft is possibly the best I've ever seen. We were in the very last row of the balcony, which was a good angle to see that. The stage has a pair of concentric circles that both move, sometimes together as a unit, sometimes at different speeds. The choreography, both using that space and in general is so wonderful. There's a point near the beginning where everyone on stage is moving around, and they slowly come to a line at the front of the stage. It's done so naturally that you don't see it happening until it's almost done. (We see a lot of really interesting local choreography here, and transitions are something people really struggle with.) Instead of stagehands, the chorus brings furniture on and off and moves the movable staircases. The lighting is also phenomenal. They use the light to make patterns on the floor. I can't say enough good about the stagecraft.
While I hadn't listened to Hamilton before this, I had, of course, heard things about it. I'm going to embrace the paradox: I thought that having men of color play the Founding Fathers makes the values of freedom and revolution urgent and alive in a way that having white men in those roles wouldn't. I also thought that you can see the way that having men of color play those parts obscures the fact that the real Founding Fathers were white men whose value of freedom applied only to other white men. Both of those things are super interesting!
The part where the Founding Fathers only believed in rights and freedom for (some) men, and not for women was also interesting. There's a lyric where Angelica sings, "So listen to my declaration: / 'We hold these truths to be self-evident / That all men are created equal' / And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, / I'mma compel him to include women in the sequel!" Aside from that, though, the exclusion of women from revolutionary values is more implied than stated, and if you're not used to asking and thinking about the question of "What about women?" you might miss it.
I listened to the music only after we saw the show, and I think it loses a lot without the energy of the live performance and the physicality of the stage show. During the show, I thought, "This is so great!" Listening to the soundtrack, I kept thinking, "This is really long." In the soundtrack, you hear the women clearly in the songs they're in - which is less than half of them. In the stage show, half the chorus is women, and they and some of our main character women hang around the stage during various parts of the show, so you're seeing women for much of the show. You lose that in the soundtrack.
One of the most emotionally effective moments in the show is also something that doesn't come through in the soundtrack. When Phillip, Alexander and Eliza's son, is dying, he's on a table in the center of the stage. Alexander and Eliza stand behind the table, facing the audience. Eliza has her arm stretched across him, holding his arm. Alexander goes to put his hand over hers, and she moves it down Phillip's arm, away from him. It's a small moment, but so beautifully effective.
Another interesting aspect of the show is how much I disagree with Alexander's values. I mean, yeah, freedom, revolution, all that. But his personal values are very much not mine. One of the key songs is "My Shot," where he sings, "Hey yo, I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy and hungry / And I’m not throwing away my shot." His whole personal achievement arc is about being successful in a traditional fame, fortune, and power way. The way he treats women leaves a lot to be desired. One of the central pieces of the second act is the Hamilton-Reynolds affair, where his narration is, "That's when I began to pray: / Lord, show me how to / Say no to this / I don't know how to / Say no to this." I'm deeply unsympathetic to this line of reasoning. Even before that, there's this: "But what do we have in common / We’re reliable with the / Ladies / There are so many to deflower / Ladies / Looks / Proximity to power / Ladies / They delighted and distracted him / Martha Washington named her feral tomcat after him." Yikes. There's also the part where his concept of honor leads to both his son's and his own death: "Ladies, I'm looking for a Mr. George Eacker / Made a speech last week, our Fourth of July speaker / He disparaged my father's legacy in front of a crowd / I can't have that, I'm making my father proud." I think it's possible to see in the show how badly that goes for both of them, but I don't think the show itself is critical of it. It made me shake my head at how damaging those traditional masculine values are.
The counterpoint to all of that is Eliza. Alexander and Eliza get married in the first act, and she's the one I'm much more sympathetic to. When she's pregnant with their first child, she sings "That Would Be Enough," where she says that having him home with them would be enough. When the Hamilton-Reynolds affair comes to light via Hamilton publishing The Reynolds Pamphlet, where he fully admits to the affair to prove himself innocent of financial crimes, she sings "Burn," which is a phenomenal piece on stage as she burns all the letters he wrote to her: "I'm erasing myself from the narrative / Let future historians wonder / how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart / You have torn it all apart / I'm watching it burn / Watching it burn." They reconcile after Phillip dies.
The most wrenching song is the last one, which is called "Finale" in the program and "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" on the soundtrack. The answer to the question of "Who tells your story?" when it comes to women has so often been: "No one." The chorus sings, "Who tells your story?" again and again, and then they sing, "Eliza." Eliza sings, "I put myself back in the narrative." She talks about trying to preserve Alexander's legacy, but then the song shifts and she talks about what she did with the fifty more years she lived after Alexander died: "I raise funds in D.C. for the Washington Monument," ... "I speak out against slavery," ... "I established the first private orphanage in New York City." The shift from this very male story about political power to a woman who's spent the whole play solely in the domestic sphere telling her own story and proclaiming her own legacy is a startling one. It made me cry. I don't mean it made me a little misty-eyed; I mean it made me full-on tears rolling down my cheeks, I probably would have sobbed if I'd been alone cry. I didn't expect that at all.
Even though the soundtrack on its own feels long in comparison to the exuberance of the stage play, there are songs I still love. "Right Hand Man" has the gloriously thumping "Here comes the General" piece. "Helpless" is one hundred percent my favorite song from the show. In the play, it's a narrative piece so we see what happens as time goes on, but in my head, I see it as a dance piece where every time she sings, "Helpless!" it's accompanied by an arms thrown out exhilarating turn - and I have a hard time listening to it without dancing. "Ten Duel Commandments" and the semi-reprise "The World Was Wide Enough" are phenomenally clever and lots of fun. "The Room Where It Happens" is a masterpiece of a showtune. "It's Quiet Uptown" is lovely. And, of course, both "Burn" and "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" are wonderful, emotional pieces.
I wish I knew more about music to know what all the references are, because I definitely recognized elements as familiar without knowing exactly what they're from. "My Shot" reminds me of Eminem's "Lose Yourself," but I don't know if it's allusion or if they're both references to something else. The show reminds me, more musically than thematically, of Evita, and I ended up listening to "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" the morning after we saw it because something about Hamilton reminded me of that song. "Helpless" has an almost doo-wop feel that somewhat reminds me of "Wishin' and Hopin'," which I most know from Ani DiFranco's cover for My Best Friend's Wedding. I know there were other bits in the show where I thought, "I recognize that," but couldn't pinpoint the specific reference. I always like seeing things that clearly place themselves into a history and lineage.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-19 02:56 am (UTC)Genius (formerly rap genius) has annotations of all the songs! https://genius.com/Original-broadway-cast-of-hamilton-alexander-hamilton-lyrics
Some done or confirmed by Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, which is really neat!
The 'Hamiltome' is also a really neat deep-dive into the play https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26200563
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-19 09:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-19 11:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-19 11:39 pm (UTC)