PBS explores how ‘Hamilton’ moved from inspiration to Browdway.
At first glance, “Hamilton’s America” may look like an infomercial to hawk tickets to the musical no one can get into.
But the “Great Performances” film is actually a well-crafted effort to both summarize “Hamilton’s” road from inspiration to Broadway history, and to give us historical perspective on the man who created the nation’s banking and economic system. The film kicks off the fourth annual PBS Fall Arts Festival Friday.
“Hamilton” mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda shares the screen with several cast members from the show (Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr., Christopher Jackson, Phillipa Soo, Jonathan Groff) as he tells the story of how he picked up Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and was struck by inspiration.
He hadn’t made much progress in 2009 when he was invited to the White House to perform for the Obamas, but he did have one rap tune written which became the title song “Alexander Hamilton.” The video of the performance went viral, which meant Miranda had to pursue his crazy idea.
What was it about the very patrician first U.S. treasury secretary that struck a chord in Miranda? Hamilton was born an illegitimate child on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. With little hope for a bright future, he made his way to the American colonies where he attended King’s College (later Columbia University), fought with the colonists in the American Revolution, and became a trusted adviser to the nation’s first president, George Washington (played by Jackson).
From a dramatic point of view, Miranda saw a parallel between Hamilton’s drive to rise above his humble beginnings and the lives of immigrants and people of color in our own time. He also saw the competitive relationship with future Vice President Aaron Burr (played by Odom) as the most important relationship in the musical. At the start of the show, Burr tells the audience outright that “I’m the damn fool that shot him.” The reason for the early revelation, Miranda says, is to ensure that the drama of their relationship wasn’t eclipsed by the audience waiting for fatal duel at the end.
Miranda wanted the focus to be on the show’s operative parallel to contemporary life, Burr representing the establishment, holding fast against allowing “outsiders” to share social status with them.
Miranda wrote some of the music for the show in Burr’s actual bedroom, and, with new footage, takes us with several cast members to points of historical interest, including Valley Forge and Mt. Vernon.
Jackson still feels conflicted about seeing the slave quarters at Washington’s sprawling home on a hill overlooking the Potomac. He cannot “forgive” Washington being a slave owner just because it was legal during his time, but the information adds to the complexity of the character Jackson built to earn a Tony nomination for himself. (He lost to Odom).
As we learn about the real Hamilton and his kind, we are treated to sections of several numbers from the musical itself, enabling us to understand why Miranda was inspired by Hamilton’s story and how he saw a way to use it to tell stories of the United States in our own times.
“Hamilton’s America” is far from just an inside show-biz documentary. Commentary from former Treasury Secretaries Timothy Geithner and Hank Paulson, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others help us understand Hamilton’s importance in the founding of the nation, while Questlove, Black Thought, John Weidman, Nas and Stephen Sondheim help us understand the artistic roots of the show.
Perhaps the most important contributor is Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater where “Hamilton” tried out before moving the Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theater.
Eustis unabashedly compares Miranda to Shakespeare, specifically, on the subject of “taking the voice of the people and elevating it to poetry,” as Shakespeare did in his history plays. Eustis says Miranda is the first person since Shakespeare to take that approach and that the process “ennobles” everyday people.
It’s fascinating to think of Will Shakespeare applauding in the audience of the Richard Rodgers Theater, but of course that would only happen if he could rise from the grave. That might be easier than getting tickets to “Hamilton.”