Hamilton: An American musical

This is the Forty-Sixth article in a permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader, to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.

I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe Independence Day! In addition to watching the beautiful firework display hosted by the City of Stroud and GRDA, I continued to celebrate our great nation’s birthday by watching the filmed version of the Award Winning, Broadway Musical; ‘Hamilton: An American Musical’ on the Disney Channel.

For those who are unfamiliar with this amazingly popular musical, a bit of information from Wikipedia is in order. Hamilton: An American Musical, simply known as Hamilton, is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It tells the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the show’s music draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and the traditional-style show tunes; the show casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers and other historical figures. Owing to this use of modern storytelling methods, Hamilton has been described as being about “America then, as told by America now.”

As a theatre set designer and technician, I was impressed by the versatile and well utilized set and lighting. I mean a double rotating stage with actors singing and dancing or frozen in tableau! Scaffolding that is effortlessly maneuvered across the stage with actors singing during the move! Tables, chairs, books, lanterns and other set pieces being promptly placed, interacted with and removed in sync with the choreography and music tempo! Beautiful, functional and mostly accurate costumes that enhance the story and create the suspension of disbelief that is necessary for any successful theatrical production.

Yes, it is a visual spectacle that deserves the many awards it has earned but most importantly, the beautiful technical achievements of this musical fit seamlessly into the story that is being told about the life lessons learned, political and personal struggles, triumphs and tragedies of our Founding Fathers.

The musical details Hamilton’s life in two acts, along with how various historical figures influenced his life. He begins life as an orphan from a backwater, unimportant island in the Caribbean, moves to New York and promptly joins the revolution. (Do you see the parallel life led by Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.) He used his time and opportunities that were presented and, like a sculptor, crafted his life to take him from poverty to Historical renown.

That drive of Hamilton’s to succeed is a central theme of his life and is lyrically told throughout, however, the song that most resonated with me came after the American Revolution and occurs when Hamilton is busy practicing law. The lyrics are ‘Why do you write like you’re running out of time? /Write day and night like you’re running out of time?/ Ev’ry day you fight, like you’re running out of time”. I won’t give away any

I won’t give away any spoilers as I hope you will take the time to watch this amazing show, but I want you to ask yourself; what you are doing with your time? After all, like Alexander Hamilton, we only have a limited, unknown, amount of time. Are you using it efficiently? Are you accomplishing your goals? Are you setting goals to accomplish? Are you sculpting your life to bring you to your goals?

Until next time; Make Art Happen.