For my first Blog Post, I watched Hamilton the Broadway. I remember my 4th grade teacher was obsessed with this play, and she even made shirts for our entire class which were Hamilton themed! Yet, I never actually sat down to watch the full thing until now, and I am so glad I finally did. I understand why my teacher loved the play so dearly. Even though this was not in person, it felt like a full theater experience because of the way the musical was shot. I didn’t expect to stay focused for almost three hours, but the way the show mixes history, music, and storytelling pulled me in pretty quickly.
This musical followed the life of Alexander Hamilton, starting from when he arrived in New York as a young immigrant all the way to his death after the duel with Aaron Burr. Watching the Broadway made me see the Founding Fathers differently from how we usually perceive them in textbooks. In the film, they are shown as young, ambitious, impulsive and kind of messy individuals who are trying to figure out what America should become. For example, the heated arguments, one of them being where Jefferson and Hamilton were arguing about whether to help France in their war efforts or stay neutral, and in that process saying some insults to one another. In the textbooks however, they are typically portrayed as people who knew what was going on, and seemed strict.
One scene that stood out to me was the song “My Shot” where Hamilton is basically hyping himself up because he refuses to let any opportunity slip away. It reminded me of some of our class discussions about pursuing opportunity and how personal motivation shapes people’s paths. Also, in class we talked about Colson Whitehead’s idea that “You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now”. Watching Hamilton, I kept thinking of that because the whole show is built around the older version of New York, yet the way it is shown is extremely alive and present, as if the city still holds all the old versions inside it. When Hamilton arrived and sang “In New York you can be a new man”, it reminded me of how Whitehead described the city as constantly changing but still remembering everyone who passes through it.
I admired how this Broadway used staging and choreography to tell the story. For example, during “Yorktown”, the ensemble moves in slow motion while Lafayette and Hamilton rap about the victory, and the spinning turntable stage makes the scene feel chaotic but controlled at the same time. It helped me visualize the intensity of the Revolutionary War in a way that a reading cannot.
I would also like to add that when we read the poem “Harlem,” we talked about what happens when dreams get postponed. Hamilton is basically the opposite. He’s terrified of delaying anything, which ends up being part of his downfall. His non-stop mentality feels similar to how we discussed dreams building pressure. Hamilton is always pushing, and Burr is always waiting, and it made me think of how the tone in “Harlem” shifts from soft to intense. Burr and Hamilton reflect this kind of phenomenon, especially in “The Room Where It Happens.”
During the show, I kept thinking about how identity and stories are shaped and one of the quotes we had talked about in class: “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”. Hamilton the Broadway shows the early leaders talking about freedom while still dealing with the contradictions like slavery, power, and inequality. It made me think about how ideals are easy to say but harder to live out… a similar theme present today.
All in all, watching Hamilton made me appreciate how art and performance can bring history into the present. It tied together a lot of ideas from class, especially the way New York holds different versions of itself over time. Even watching it virtually, I felt connected to the energy of the city, the themes we have discussed, and the idea that everyone is trying to create their own story/identity just like Hamiliton did.
