A Rob Burr, Sir

Today marks my 20th week of writing this blog. It’s unbelievable to me that I’ve been doing this for five months now. When I started, I don’t think I anticipated that I’d still be going by the time September rolled around. But here I am. And for blog post number 20 – in the very strange year that is 2020 – I’m going to write about something that I’m relatively new to: the musical phenomenon that is Hamilton. I hope you enjoy.

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A couple of months ago, Hamilton was released on Disney+. Having been on Broadway (and the West End) for a number of years, this was the first time that it was being made available for a large, global audience. I was excited to watch it. But…

I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m contrary. However, when there is a piece of media entertainment (be it a film, a song, a musical, or whatever) that lots of people have very strong opinions on, my natural tendency is to lean the other way. So if everyone is talking about how good a film is, I’ll go into it with an open mind, but ready to find flaws if they pop up. Likewise if loads of people talk badly about an album, I’m more inclined to give it a chance and look for the positives.

I think I do this to avoid being swayed by public opinion. I don’t know about other people, but I know that I’m susceptible to going along with the majority. It really bums me out when a film that I like gets a bad rating on Rotten Tomatoes, for example. But why? Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it doesn’t matter if you find yourself in the minority. I guess a part of it is the belief that if a lot of people agree with you, it makes your views more valid. Anyway, I think this is why I try to go against public opinion in the case of super popular things.

A good recent-ish example of this is with Game of Thrones. Specifically, the final episode. My wife and I saw it about a day later than most people. We did our utmost to avoid spoilers and we basically managed. But one thing we couldn’t avoid was the overwhelming negativity around it. People, for the most part, hated the finale. So, me being me, I went into it looking for all the positives that I could find. I came out of it saying things like, “I thought it was ok” and “It was always going to be hard to end the show”.

It took me months to reflect properly on it and admit to myself how terrible the finale was. It was so bad. Actually – whilst I’m trashing GoT anyway – the last two or three seasons were bad. Here’s what I think happened: they became victims of their own success. In the early seasons of the show, the most exciting aspect was the unpredictability. Any character – regardless of how big/popular they were – could be killed off at any moment. Towards the end of the show, there were at least three characters that you just knew would survive to the end. They were simply too popular to kill off.

As a writer – he says with his whole 20 weeks of blog writing experience – as soon as you let the fans dictate what you do with your story, you’re in trouble. Ironically, it was in trying to please all the fans that left them with a finale that virtually no fan enjoyed.

Anyway, I digress. Back to Hamilton. I was excited to watch it. But given the massive popularity of it, I was ready to view it with my harsh glasses on. I certainly wasn’t going to give it an easy ride. It’s safe to say that even with these provisos, it blew me away. It’s just incredible.

I was hooked from the very first song. What really won me over early on was towards the end of the first song when Aaron Burr (the character I perhaps enjoyed the most, hence my tribute to him in the blog post title) calmly announced that he was “the damn fool that shot him [Hamilton]”. You may think that this is a spoiler, but it really isn’t because:

1. It literally happened over 200 years ago; you’ve had time to find this out
2. As I say, they mention this in the opening song

In my view, it was a very brave decision to include this detail at the top of the show. I facetiously said that it happened over 200 years ago, therefore people should know about it. But realistically, I’d wager that a large percentage of the Hamilton audience would have had no idea how Alexander Hamilton died. What the show could have done is leave the incident as a surprise ending. Instead, they basically tell you how the story ends right at the beginning. Why?

My guess would be that there is the clever realisation that the journey is more important than the destination. In my opinion, it’s a hell of a flex from Lin-Manuel Miranda (the writer/creator/star of Hamilton). He’s basically saying, “Yes, I will tell you how this story ends, but this story is so good, you’ll still love it anyway.”.

One of the other inescapable aspects of the show is how diverse the cast is. A cast that is virtually all people of colour is something that arguably shouldn’t be as remarkable as it is. Shows like Aladdin (set in the Middle East) or The Lion King (set in Africa) notwithstanding, musical theatre is mostly white. 62% in the West End and 66% on Broadway, to be precise. Having a majority ethnic cast telling a story set in – and about – America is very refreshing.

A reoccurring theme on social media amongst people who disliked Hamilton was a negative opinion of the music. That they didn’t feel like hip hop was appropriate, or that the songs were too long etc. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But what I would say is be wary of anyone who dismisses the soundtrack as “hip hop”. Firstly, hip hop is a legitimate art form and there is no reason to not use it in musical theatre. Secondly, the songs aren’t just hip hop. Are there heavy hip hop influences? Yes. But there are also elements of pop, jazz, and straight up show tunes.

Listen to the voices of George Washington or either of the main two Schuyler sisters and tell me they couldn’t have been plucked straight from a more traditional stage show. Anyone who ignorantly (willful or otherwise) claims that the music is only hip hop was obviously not paying enough attention.

As for the rest of the show, I could wax lyrical about it for many more paragraphs. But I don’t want to spoil it. There are some genuinely surprising and entertaining twists and turns. The last thing I’d want to do is ruin anyone’s future enjoyment by listing all the cool stuff here. But I’d absolutely urge anyone who hasn’t seen it yet to do so. Who knows how much longer it will be available on Disney+; don’t throw away your shot.

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Thank you very much for reading. If you’ve been reading for most of the last 20 weeks, thanks for sticking with me. If you’re new to my blog, thanks for joining, I hope you enjoy. Take care one and all.