I didn't know much about Hamilton going in to the musical. One of my friends had played one of the songs for me once, but it was one of the King George songs ("You'll Be Back") and without much context it didn't make a great impression on me. This was the same friend who had previously championed Robocop: The Musical and Silence of the Lambs: The Musical, so I was left with the impression that this was a mock-musical, not a legitimate production.
By the time it arrived on Disney+ I had heard many murmurings about how good it was supposed to be. I like to pride myself that while the average American doesn't know too much about Canada, I know quite a lot about the USA. Still, I never had to learn about Alexander Hamilton, so I knew almost nothing about him going into the musical; I knew he died in a duel with Aaron Burr, but I didn't even know what the duel was about. Now, post seeing the musical, listening to the album and having read three books about Alexander Hamilton, I'm in a better place not only in terms of understanding him but in understanding the history around the Revolutionary War in general.
The curious thing about seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton on Disney+ is that I felt simultaneously that I would have enjoyed seeing it on the big screen - but at the same time knew I would never have paid money to watch a "mere" recorded live performance in a cinema. Disney+ made accessing the movie easy as I went from being interested in it only to learn why it was such a "big deal" to it becoming the most enjoyable film I saw in 2020; I've seen it four times now.
And of course there's an entire cottage industry of books about Alexander Hamilton. I read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the book credited with inspiring the musical. I read Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father a graphic novel by Jonathan Hennessey and Justin Greenwood. And I just finished Duel with the Devil by Paul Collins, a book about Hamilton and Burr serving as defense lawyers in a murder case (it would make a great Rick Geary graphic novel).
With all the reading I've done I do appreciate that the musical took some liberties with Hamilton's life but then, the real Hamilton didn't rap, so it never pretended to be authentic. The three songs sung by King George do get a lot of attention from fans and (taken in-context) they're a lot of fun, but I was most impressed by Daveed Diggs, who portrayed Lafayette & Thomas Jefferson. He didn't have a lot to do in the the first act as Lafayette, but his Jefferson was a lot of fun in the second act; his performance in the Disney+ performance is so perfect I was bit put-out to discover in the album recording his delivery of the line "Because I'm the President" (from "The Election of 1800") was a lot less funny than the version in the video.
The songs are extremely catchy; many times I've found the lyrics of "My Shot," "The Shuyler Sisters", "Right Hand Man," and "What'd I Miss" appear in my head. The different song styles, the recurring lyrics that define or contrast the characters' journeys. It's a rich musical and I keep returning to it to find I like it even more. It's fun, educational and emotionally absorbing.
