Hamilton Review

Once upon a time, there was a man who cared so very little for musicals. Quite a lot of them actually - but I am talking about one particular individual who made a fatal error. That mistake was to marry a woman who was absolutely obsessed with the bloody things.

So he took her to Book of Mormon and Wicked. He watched Disney movies and Les Miserables. He listened to musical songs whenever she stuck them on Pandora. And in doing so, he accepted that they were just stories and music and jokes the same as most anything else. But this never blossomed into a fullblooded love of the thing.

That was until Hamilton.

Because Hamilton is one hell of a story. It has the power of an 800 lb gorilla. A gorilla made from titanium. And that has bombs strapped to its fists.

Part of that power comes from Alexander Hamilton’s own life. Going into the show, I only knew that Hamilton was an early Secretary of the Treasury and died duelling (thanks Something Positive). I didn’t know the extent to which his tale was a straight up Greek tragedy. I didn’t know how influential he’d been or the many things he’d done. Lin-Manuel Miranda deserves a pat on the back for spotting this half-forgotten story and the potential in it if nothing else.

But there are so many things else. The songs are incredible. Rap’s ability to enthrall and amaze with the sudden twists of its wordplay are fused perfectly the musical’s love of big emotive choruses. I wonder whether the surely inevitable imitators will be able to handle these two influences half as deftly. I’m going to guess mostly no, but I hope enough do that rap musicals take off and become a thing. They need to be a thing.

Of course, the rap element also adds to Miranda’s decision to cast the play as predominantly black. There’s so many words that have been written about that, and better than I can write them, that I will stick to one point and one point alone. That is the added weight given to many of the lines placed in the founding fathers’ mouths by the fact it is a black man speaking them. The contradiction between their words on liberty opposed to their actions regarding slavery is sharp, but sometimes forgotten. Not here.

It seems that no nuance or contradiction in words is missed here. And it is that textual density that is the final and greatest source of Hamilton’s power. Every re-listen to the soundtrack sounds better as a consequence. That textual density allows Hamilton to be history lesson, character study, philosophical treatise and incredible entertainment all at once. Anyone who claims to love words should listen to the songs and read the lyrics and see just how much Miranda accomplished here.

Those words are the most fitting tribute there could be to Alexander Hamilton; a piece of art that matches his inexhaustible energy and eloquence.

And that’s why I might be a little obsessed with a musical.