Reviews

finished this!! i actually really enjoyed it. you know the broad strokes from high school, of course, but it was neat to dive into the details and compare notes w the musical. Lin Manuel Miranda brought Ron Chernow on as the historical consultant for Hamilton, so, lol. it is funny how some things were lifted verbatim for Hamilton lyrics -- I mean, we're drawing from one well it seems, but I still respect it! the cabinet battles, especially, I was surprised to hear mirrored the exact arguments and considerations were really at stake. Lin is genuinely so talented.

overall I do have more respect for the LMM's storytelling abilities, in seeing just how much had to be edited and condensed down into cohesive narratives and themes. Burr seems more human and developed in the musical (in this telling he seems peripheral and so conniving. also as an aside he really was best friends with his daughter Theodosia and would write her letters about his lovers and comment on their appearances, ah!). of course there were many political battles that just didn't make the musical -- one striking thing is how Hamilton personally interrogated members of the whiskey rebellion for upwards of two days (eep!) and how upon his death he left Eliza and 7 children in v dire financial straights, to the pt that his friends had to come together and pool money to help them survive. there's other stuff like how Hamilton had a healthy dose of skepticism about democracy and expected the constitution to fail, and it seems like they were about to have a civil war every couple of years lol.