Culture | Musical diplomacy

Patriotism on Broadway

Why everyone wants to see “Hamilton”

|NEW YORK

LIVE theatre is an artisanal art form. Even a big show serves, at most, 2,000 people at a time, which seems almost quaint in this era of viral cultural phenomena. Many people never hear about acclaimed productions being performed on their own doorstep, much less works that may be earning praise overseas. Yet for some reason nearly everyone, from New York to Nottingham, is talking about “Hamilton”.

A musical about America’s first treasury secretary does not sound like obvious material for a blockbuster. A hip-hop score and largely non-white cast would seem to guarantee it a place in the cultural margins. But tickets to “Hamilton” have been well-nigh impossible to get since its off-Broadway premiere in January. Near-universal critical acclaim and an insatiable public ensured a quick transfer to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in August, where it is now sold out for the next ten months. Other cities want to get their hands on the show: Chicago will have its own production next September. Cameron Mackintosh is working on bringing “Hamilton” to London in 2017. At a time of bitter political polarisation, this musical even enjoys a rare consensus: President Barack Obama, who has seen it twice, said finding it “brilliant” may be “the only thing that Dick Cheney and I have agreed on during my entire political career”.

Why are so many people so giddy about “Hamilton”? Part of the show’s appeal is its subject. The story of America’s first bureaucrat is almost too good to be true. Born illegitimate and raised in squalor in the Caribbean, Alexander Hamilton arrived in New York in 1773 as a penniless orphan with little more than a sharp pen, good looks and a chip on his shoulder. Yet he restlessly worked his way up to become an essential player in the revolutionary war and one of America’s Founding Fathers. As George Washington’s right-hand man, he helped create the new government, churned out elegant essays defending its constitution (which are still frequently cited in the Supreme Court today), and invented much of the machinery that would keep it all humming, such as a public debt, a central bank and a coastguard. But the fearless ego and stubborn pride that fuelled his rise also ensured his fall, at the hand of Aaron Burr, the vice-president, on a duelling ground in Weehawken, New Jersey, when he was just 49.

It is a sexy tale, and one that has been overshadowed by other stories of the period. Hamilton had a more lasting impact on the country than many of his peers, but he also had a gift for making powerful enemies, many of whom went on to become president. (Hamilton’s role in the nation’s first political sex scandal kept him out of the office.) This tarnished his record and obscured his legacy. Before this year, few Americans registered that it is his handsome face on the $10 bill (on December 11th a proposal to replace Hamilton was delayed by the treasury secretary in part because of pressure from the musical’s fans).

Yet “Hamilton” is no mere history lesson. The thrill of this show, beautifully directed by Thomas Kail, is the way it makes events that happened centuries ago feel as fresh and as relevant as the political debates that are taking place today. In the hands of Lin-Manuel Miranda, its 35-year-old writer, composer and charismatic star, the story of this daring immigrant made good becomes the story of America, a country that is still as “young, scrappy and hungry” as the brash revolutionaries who rolled up their sleeves to help build it.

Some of this vitality can be put down to casting. Unlike most stories about America’s intrepid first steps as a country, “Hamilton” resembles much of the nation as it is now. All of those dead white men and women have been energetically reincarnated by an excellent cast of mostly African-American and Latino actors. At a stroke, the show reasserts the way America has always been a nation of striving immigrants and outsiders, and that the country’s story is the property of all Americans—even those whose ancestors may have started out as property themselves.

Even more remarkable is the music, which harmonises several worlds that rarely collide: 18th-century history, musical theatre and hip-hop. When Mr Miranda first proposed his plans to combine his unlikely passions, few believed he could pull it off. Although he had won a Tony for his first hip-hop-inflected musical, a semi-autobiographical tale called “In the Heights” about life in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood in New York, his vision for this show was far more ambitious. Ron Chernow, whose vivid 800-page biography of Hamilton provided the inspiration (and is back on bestseller lists 11 years later), says he was “flabbergasted” when Mr Miranda first told him that “a hip-hop musical kept flying off the page”. Daveed Diggs (pictured), an accomplished rapper who steals his scenes as Lafayette in the first act and Jefferson in the second, concedes he was sceptical, too. “It’s tricky enough to accurately depict history without seeming didactic or corny,” he explains. “But with hip-hop, if it isn’t authentic, it doesn’t work.”

Yet both of them—and many others—swiftly climbed aboard the moment they heard Mr Miranda perform what would become the first number of the show. Now sung by Burr (the silky-voiced Leslie Odom junior), who jealously narrates Hamilton’s rise, its rhythmic poetry immediately announces a new voice for the stage: “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

“You’re hearing rhyming couplets and quatrains—it’s really quite extraordinary,” says Mr Chernow, who adds that he was stunned when he heard the first 40 pages of his book compressed into a catchy four- minute song. (He swiftly agreed to be a historical adviser throughout the project.) After Mr Miranda, the son of a political activist, performed a version at the White House in 2009, Mr Obama leapt to his feet in a spontaneous standing ovation.

Rap and hip-hop have been around for 40 years, but in “Hamilton” many are discovering it for the first time. Some have been surprised to learn that this musical form is all about lyrical dexterity, about elevating vernacular speech into rhyming, rapid-fire verse. This makes it uniquely well-suited for conveying masses of information as succinctly and cleverly as possible (particularly useful when presenting a man who published over 27 volumes of writing; Mr Miranda’s Hamilton says more than anyone in Shakespeare other than Hamlet). For example, a cabinet debate between Hamilton and Jefferson over whether to establish a national bank is presented as a rap battle, with Hamilton arguing: “A new line of credit, a financial diuretic, how do you not get it? If we’re aggressive and competitive the union gets a boost. You’d rather give it a sedative?”

Against all expectations, it feels natural for these characters to talk this way, despite their period costumes. Mr Miranda pulls this off by supplying them with perfectly chiselled lyrics that are dramatic, erudite and cool all at once. They pulse with internal rhymes and reveal ever more detail each time you listen to them. A perfectionist, he worked at these songs for six years and was still tinkering after the show opened on Broadway. “The fact that I can go to Lin at intermission with an idea about a line, and he can come up with a better one and then perform it an hour and a half later is the great gift of Lin-Manuel Miranda,” says Mr Kail.

The music, richly orchestrated by Alex Lacamoire, is packed with references to the hip-hop soundtrack of Mr Miranda’s youth. A number about duelling protocol called “Ten Duel Commandments”, for example, offers a playful nod to the Notorious B.I.G’s tips on drug dealing, “The Ten Crack Commandments”. But these songs, which also draw from jazz, R&B and the soaring ballads of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber, are easily enjoyed on their own merits. The cast recording, released digitally in September, is the first to top the charts as both a Broadway cast album and a rap album. It has also won millions of fans who may never reach Broadway, but who can at least find each other on social media. Rolling Stone, the San Francisco magazine, recently named it one of the best albums of the year.

Yet there is something about this moment that has made this show feel especially relevant. Unlike many of the biggest Broadway musicals of the 21st century, such as “The Book of Mormon”, “Spamalot” and “The Producers”, “Hamilton” is performed with utter sincerity. It presents a portrait of America’s founders that showcases their brilliance but acknowledges their flaws. Jefferson was a clever tactician, but also a preening showboat; Hamilton had serious “skill with a quill”, yet he could also be a self-destructive windbag. The country’s politics were always a messy business, full of personal grievances, selfish ambition and rabble-rousing invective. (As Christopher Jackson’s wise Washington says: “Winning was easy, young man. Governing’s harder.”) These were not philosopher-kings working in some golden age, but imperfect men who still managed to forge a new country out of hard work, compromise and a shared vision of democratic principles.

This is an optimistic message. At a time when Americans have been pondering big questions about who they are and what their country is—who is served and who gets to belong—“Hamilton” offers a welcome chance to feel patriotic about how it all began, and where it might still go. It also presents a more inclusive, more multicultural vision of what America always was and what it should be. Just as every generation brings a new set of rebels who are moved to “rise up” against injustice, every age must bring its own compromises for getting things done. The country will always be a work in progress, a “great unfinished symphony” in the words of Mr Miranda’s Hamilton. As Americans struggle to compose the next few bars, some are finding inspiration in the notes coming from Broadway.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Patriotism on Broadway"

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