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libervorereads 's review for:
Hamilton: The Revolution
by Jeremy McCarter, Lin-Manuel Miranda
*Originally published on book blog Will Read for Feels.
With the Tony Awards scheduled for today, I couldn’t not pay tribute even in some small way to my current obsession, Hamilton: An American Musical. I can’t count the number of times I’ve listened to the soundtrack in the past week or two, but it was only this week that I started reading the book for it, Hamilton: The Revolution, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (the genius behind the book, lyrics, music, and titular performance for Hamilton) and his co-author Jeremy McCarter (who is also director of the Public Theater, where Hamilton was staged before moving to Broadway).
By the time I read this, the lyrics to the songs were nothing new to me, but I really appreciated the annotations by Miranda (and a few from McCarter), as they let me look at each song in a new light, and I found myself experiencing the feels all over again, and magnified at that, thanks to the context provided by those notes. It took me three days to read this book because I kept stopping to listen and re-listen to the songs.
And that’s not all. Between the annotated song lyric pages were chapters that explored Lin-Manuel Miranda’s writing and development process as well as all the work everyone involved in the production, from the director to the choreographer to the actors and more. Little details about what each person brought to make the story come alive onstage but also in terms of the words and music. Things like personal triumphs and tragedies and how they affected those who helped put the musical together made each song, each photo mean so much more, even though the lyrics held a rainbow of feels even without that additional information.
Being over 8,000 miles from New York, I haven’t had a chance to see the Broadway musical myself, nor will I have one in the immediate future, but somehow the descriptions of the direction and choreography really helped me solidify it in my imagination. And some of the details the authors shared about the decisions made for the choreography were things I felt would enrich the understanding and appreciation of someone who did see the musical, maybe even multiple times.
The overall result? The Hamilton soundtrack alone still chokes me up even after I’ve listened to it dozens of times, but several parts of Hamilton: The Revolution had me blubbering all over again, while others had me giggling or hugging myself in what we Filipinos call kilig (romantic sort of thrill). And there were enough notes on Miranda’s efforts to keep things historically accurate and the instances in which he departed from the facts that I’m now determined to read the book that inspired the musical, Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father’s biography written by Ron Chernow, as well as his Washington: A Life. I’ve also decided to rewatch a bio-documentary I watched a few years ago, called The Real George Washington, as well as HBO’s John Adams miniseries. Which is more American history than I’ve had since the seventh grade!
In the end, Hamilton: The Revolution helped me understand that this musical tells of at least three revolutions: the historical one fought between the Americans and the Brits, for sure, but also the revolution in thought that created the United States of America and that still exists in and helps define it today. Thirdly, the revolutionary nature of this play in music and in theater, and the way it plays notes to a song we won’t hear the whole of for years to come. And that song? That same revolution in thought and burning ambition that keeps people like Hamilton inspiring people of today.
With the Tony Awards scheduled for today, I couldn’t not pay tribute even in some small way to my current obsession, Hamilton: An American Musical. I can’t count the number of times I’ve listened to the soundtrack in the past week or two, but it was only this week that I started reading the book for it, Hamilton: The Revolution, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda (the genius behind the book, lyrics, music, and titular performance for Hamilton) and his co-author Jeremy McCarter (who is also director of the Public Theater, where Hamilton was staged before moving to Broadway).
By the time I read this, the lyrics to the songs were nothing new to me, but I really appreciated the annotations by Miranda (and a few from McCarter), as they let me look at each song in a new light, and I found myself experiencing the feels all over again, and magnified at that, thanks to the context provided by those notes. It took me three days to read this book because I kept stopping to listen and re-listen to the songs.
And that’s not all. Between the annotated song lyric pages were chapters that explored Lin-Manuel Miranda’s writing and development process as well as all the work everyone involved in the production, from the director to the choreographer to the actors and more. Little details about what each person brought to make the story come alive onstage but also in terms of the words and music. Things like personal triumphs and tragedies and how they affected those who helped put the musical together made each song, each photo mean so much more, even though the lyrics held a rainbow of feels even without that additional information.
Being over 8,000 miles from New York, I haven’t had a chance to see the Broadway musical myself, nor will I have one in the immediate future, but somehow the descriptions of the direction and choreography really helped me solidify it in my imagination. And some of the details the authors shared about the decisions made for the choreography were things I felt would enrich the understanding and appreciation of someone who did see the musical, maybe even multiple times.
The overall result? The Hamilton soundtrack alone still chokes me up even after I’ve listened to it dozens of times, but several parts of Hamilton: The Revolution had me blubbering all over again, while others had me giggling or hugging myself in what we Filipinos call kilig (romantic sort of thrill). And there were enough notes on Miranda’s efforts to keep things historically accurate and the instances in which he departed from the facts that I’m now determined to read the book that inspired the musical, Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father’s biography written by Ron Chernow, as well as his Washington: A Life. I’ve also decided to rewatch a bio-documentary I watched a few years ago, called The Real George Washington, as well as HBO’s John Adams miniseries. Which is more American history than I’ve had since the seventh grade!
In the end, Hamilton: The Revolution helped me understand that this musical tells of at least three revolutions: the historical one fought between the Americans and the Brits, for sure, but also the revolution in thought that created the United States of America and that still exists in and helps define it today. Thirdly, the revolutionary nature of this play in music and in theater, and the way it plays notes to a song we won’t hear the whole of for years to come. And that song? That same revolution in thought and burning ambition that keeps people like Hamilton inspiring people of today.