Hamilton: The Revolution
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1455539740
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical
Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country's origins for a diverse new generation.
HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages--"since before this was even a show," according to Miranda--traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.
Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don't throw away their shot.
votes? BURR: MADISON: You got more than you gave. Well, we’ll see how it goes. HAMILTON: JEFFERSON: And I wanted what I got. 6 Let’s go. Hamilton faces Burr. BURR: No! When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game. But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game. You get love for it. You get hate for it. You get nothing if you . . . HAMILTON: –One else was in The room where it happened. COMPANY: The room where it happened. The room where it happened. No one else was in The
She’s all those things. But in her opening sentence, I wanted her to establish that she is not the center of the party: That’s Angelica’s gig. I took the structure of the discarded sentence and used it later for Angelica, to far better effect: “So I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in New York City is insidious . . . ” 3 All that survives of “This One’s Mine.” 4 Several contemporary letters describe Hamilton’s eyes: Apparently they were really something. 5 This dialogue is
brain. This swagger, built on a bedrock of total insecurity, is the contradiction that is our Hamilton. Helpless! Hoo! Ooohh Helpless! Look into your eyes, And the sky’s the limit I’m Helpless! Down for the count, And I’m drownin’ in ’em I’m Helpless! That boy is mine. That boy is mine! Look into your eyes, And the sky’s the limit I’m Helpless! Helpless! Helpless! Down for the count, Down for the count, And I’m drownin’ in ’em. And I’m drownin’ in ’em. Helpless! Helpless! Down for the count,
founders that even something as unprecedented and revolutionary as the United States would carry traces of many tangled traditions—the same way that “My Shot” carries the DNA of “Shook Ones,” which in turn sampled Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock, who had their own constellations of riffs, quotes, inspirations. The predecessor who gets sampled the most in Hamilton is the Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the King of New York, the greatest rapper of all time. Lin’s annotations
his grieving for Laurens. For a man who had an opinion on everything, for him to hold back betrays genuine, life-changing grief. It is possible that Hamilton and Laurens were lovers at some point—Hamilton’s letters to Laurens are every bit as flirtatious as his letters to the opposite sex, if not more so. If this is the case, the silence betrays an even more profound loss. TOMORROW THERE’LL BE MORE O F US 1 This is the only scene unrepresented on our cast album, precisely for this reason: