The Hamilton Uproar

Has anyone not heard about Hamilton, at this point? You know, the musical taking Broadway by storm, as well as the whole theater and drama community as well as all surrounding communities in a 1,000 foot distance. It’s the new craze, and I can’t say there is no reason for it. I’ve listened to the songs myself. Multiple times, actually. I am not shy to admit that I turn the soundtrack on virtually every time I drive any length of time in my car. It’s catchy, it’s different, it’s edgy. The thing is is that this was probably not expected from a musical reliving history from the 1800s. That was not to be expected at all.

Hamilton has a total of twenty-three songs, with almost all of them containing moments of rap. Now who would have ever imagined Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on a stage, rapping about their lives? It’s interesting for sure, it’s unexpected and it almost seems like a joke, in a way. But the musical just works. Not many musicals can pull off rap. It seems almost as if the theater world would not appreciate it, and if the audience doesn’t like it, it should not be in the script. But that was a risk, a huge risk, that those behind Hamilton had to take. That was not the only risk, either.

I’m sorry to say this, but I am going to make a big claim here. I do not believe that many care about our country’s past history anymore. The history lovers out there are considerably far and few between at this point in time. So the inspiration for the story of Alexander Hamilton and his life before he got killed seems like a boring topic that wouldn’t get many’s attention. Well somehow that was a risk that also paid off. Maybe it was a combination of the two risks put together? Because something about it just works. It’s making people not only love the musical, but also learn some history in the process. This brings up another point…

Will this get the ball rolling? When a die hard Hamilton fan learns all about Hamilton, will that create a snowball effect to learn all about our nation’s history? Because as much as I claim to say that knowing history serves no purpose, it could do our society some good. So could one little musical make us better as a nation collectively? I’m not going to definitively agree on this. But it is a cool thought, that this one musical has caused such an uproar. The cast went to the White House, for goodness sake. If that’s not making a mark on history, I don’t know what is.