HAMILTON
Inside Lin-manuel Miranda’s Broadway banger ON: DISNEY+
1 HAMILTON VERSUS BURR
Ben Travis: The central dynamic of the show is introduced immediately — American Founding Father and statesman Alexander Hamilton (Lin-manuel Miranda), the verbose livewire whose mind and mouth never stop, versus Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr), his sympathetic, similarly ambitious, but overly cautious rival. The two are on a collision course from the off, and Miranda sums it up right from Act 1 banger ‘My Shot’ — “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?”
Thomas Kail: In 2011, we [Kail and Miranda’s theatrical hip-hop troupe Freestyle Love Supreme] were doing a benefit at a small theatre in New York City, and Lin had a new song called ‘My Shot’ to debut. That was the first time I was in the room when one of Hamilton’s songs interacted with an audience. In that moment I knew there was a live version of the show. Whether it was called a ‘Mixtape’ or not, there were possibilities for this to exist as a piece of live theatre, whatever form that might take.
2 ‘THE SCHUYLER SISTERS’
Helen O’hara: This introduction to the most important women in Hamilton’s life is a massive crowd-pleaser. In this original Broadway production you hear the huge cheer that (naturally) greets the claim that New York is “the greatest city in the world”, and the second for Angelica’s feminist declaration (“And when I meet Thomas Jefferson/i’mma compel him to include women in the sequel”). Angelica did know Jefferson later, by the way, and may even have had an affair with him, but he never supported women’s suffrage. One quibble with this song, however: “and Peggy” was actually witty and daring, eloping with her husband and once — family legend has it — saving her infant niece from marauding enemy troops.
3 THE KING
Ben Travis: Few people in the Hamilton cast get to have as much outright fun as Jonathan Groff, playing a murderous, maniacal King George III — a jilted monarch framed as toxic spurned lover, spiteful of America’s desire for independence. You could say he’s spitting mad — literally. As the film now reveals in close-up, during ‘You’ll Be Back’ Groff is liberally spraying saliva with wild-eyed fury, big globs sticking to his chin. Nice. It’s the sort of detail you’d only ever get to see with this kind of close-up capture.
Thomas Kail: The discipline and the rigour of it was something that I wanted the audience at home to participate in. Which is why we also didn’t clean up the sweat. When you’re under those lights, working as hard as you have to in Hamilton, it’s a physical exertion. I wanted that to be part of the experience for the audience.
Top: Spray that again? Jonathan Groff, “spitting mad” as the murderous, maniacal King George III. Below:
Burr emerges victorious after his duel with Hamilton.
4 ‘THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS’
Amon Warmann: More than just being extremely catchy and the song name most likely to be used in a Hamilton gag, ‘The Room Where It Happens’ is notable for capturing the moment power-hungry Burr begins to morph into a villain. This is signified by the ingenious, plot-advancing lyrics and reinforced further by the impeccable staging. It’s all energetically performed by Leslie Odom Jr, who gets more and more ostentatious as the track builds to its show-stopping climax. A true pièce de résistance.
5 THE BULLET
Watch out for the curls of actor Ariana
Helen O’hara: Debose (who made her breakthrough in TV’S So You Think You Can Dance) — she plays ‘the Bullet’, a character who appears next to those about to die, like an omen. She ultimately carries the bullet that will kill Hamilton himself.
6 THE TORRID AFFAIR
Helen O’hara: It’s only right to have a sort of torch song about infidelity in there somewhere; the real Hamilton was serially unfaithful. But ‘Say No To This’ has dark undertones as well: not only is Hamilton cheating on his wife here, but also torpedoing his chances of ever holding high political office again, because Maria Reynolds’ husband would blackmail him for years. The second act only gets tougher for Hamilton from here; this number — sung by Miranda and Jasmine Cephas Jones — is where his career begins to go wrong.
7 HAMILTON’S DEATH
Amon Warmann: Hamilton opens with the revelation that Burr shot Hamilton, and 44 songs later the event plays out in the emotional ‘The World Was Wide Enough’. Beginning with a reprisal of ‘Ten Duel Commandments’ from Burr’s perspective before cutting the music entirely for Hamilton’s final soliloquy as the bullet that’s about to end his life inches towards him, the lyrics are devastating (“What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see” is especially poignant). That it switches back to Burr as he grapples with his actions — and regrettable legacy as the man who shot Hamilton — only makes the track more heart-breaking.
8 ELIZA’S LEGACY
Ben Travis: Hamilton doesn’t end on the Hamilton you expect. Beyond Alexander’s death, we stay with Eliza — despite the heartbreak, betrayal and grief, she uses her many remaining years (she lived to 97) to secure her husband’s legacy, as well as expanding her own. It ends with Eliza’s gasp as she looks to the audience, guided to the front of the stage by Alexander — or is it Lin, at this point? Perhaps the gasp is Eliza reunited with her family in death; or perhaps she literally sees the audience, realising her story — in Hamilton, through Lin-manuel Miranda — is finally told.
Thomas Kail: Phillipa [Soo] is extraordinary in the show. The fact that that performance is preserved for her and others to finally see is very meaningful for me. What the cast gave is now preserved, for them and the people who can’t get to New York or London or Boston or Chicago. We’re lowering the barrier to entry.