Hamilton

Today I made a point to bring up the newest Broadway play, Hamilton. I was invited by a friend to listen to the soundtrack of the musical last night and I was blown away. I thought the idea of a musical based off of one of the founding fathers would be sort of ridiculous and quirky. To be honest, I was expecting something reminiscent of Book of Mormon or something. We all probably learned a little bit about Alexander Hamilton in AP US History, but his life was complex and deeply entwined with the development of the country as we know it. Beyond that, Lin-Manuel Miranda both wrote and stars in the musical, beside an almost exclusively African American cast. The parallelism between the current turmoil in our country and the events during its conception create a rich storyline that not only informs the audience about the life of Hamilton, but also raises questions about the climactic moment of our current circumstances. The use of modern hip-hop sounds and occasionally explicit language to give a story that otherwise might've been about a bunch of old dead white guys into a complex conversation about our connection to our past as a country. Everyone please take some time to listen to it from beginning to end. I got a lot out of it.

https://play.spotify.com/album/1kCHru7uhxBUdzkm4gzRQc