What is Hamilton? A guide to the hit musical coming to Disney+
Depending on the company you keep, you may have heard excitable murmurings about Hamilton and its imminent on-screen arrival. That doesn’t mean, however, that you’re aware of what it is – or, indeed, why it’s inducing quite such a fuss. Allow us to give you a history lesson.
What is Hamilton?
Officially titled Hamilton: An American Musical, it’s a musical theatre production. Specifically, one that tells the story of forgotten American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his ascent out of poverty and to power against the backdrop of the American War of Independence.
Sounds dry
That’s an understandable reaction. Part of Hamilton’s runaway success, however, is due to how it presents this narrative, namely, in the form of well-crafted hip-hop and RnB songs. In fact, the majority of Hamilton fans have never even seen the production – they’ve just become hooked on the original Broadway cast recording of the score, despite it running for more than two hours.
Just how big a deal is it?
It is hard to overstate Hamilton's cultural impact. It set a Broadway box office record for the most money grossed in a single week in New York City in late November 2016, taking $3.3 million. To date, it has won 11 Tony Awards, a Grammy and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The first New York Times review said “I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But...” According to Forbes, the show has earned more than $1 billion so far.
Who’s the mastermind behind all this?
None other than the prodigiously talented Lin-Manuel Miranda, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent who has won a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, three Grammys, two Oliviers and an Emmy. He was even nominated for an Oscar in 2016, for Best Original Song in Moana (yes, Miranda is increasingly making a name for himself in Hollywood).
Miranda created Hamilton after becoming enthralled with Ron Chernow’s biography of the Founding Father on holiday, and proceeded to write songs for an album called The Hamilton Mixtape. It’s a sign of his audacity that he performed the first of these early works at the White House in 2009, despite being invited to perform hits from his previous musical, In The Heights. But it paid off: the song paved the way for the musical's opener, Alexander Hamilton.
Miranda also wrote the book of the musical and cast himself as the title character. We’d be deeply envious of his talent, if he wasn’t so loveable. In the last few years, he has worked on the music for two Star Wars films and appeared in Mary Poppins Returns and the BBC's adaptation of His Dark Materials. A film adaptation of In The Heights, directed by Jon M. Chu, is in the pipeline for next summer. He's also working on a Disney animation set in Columbia.
Since the pandemic, he's been a frequent cheerful presence on the internet talk shows and Zoom sing-alongs while Hamilton lyrics have appeared on posters at the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept across the world.
So Hamilton has been to London?
Indeed. The show started off-Broadway in early 2015, before transferring to Manhattan’s main strip a few months later. It consistently sold out, with tickets for Miranda’s last performance, in July 2016, reportedly earning $10,000 a pop on the secondary market.
The London transfer was met with great enthusiasm by the UK theatre scene when it debuted in December 2019. Lucky theatregoers took to Twitter to praise the show: “Hamilton is put together with skill unlike anything I've seen before,” one wrote. "Every single component, technically, musically, is perfect. There's no other word for it.”
Producer Cameron Mackintosh even set about revamping Victoria’s Palace Theatre especially for the occasion. A hugely popular run followed until, like the rest of the West End, Hamilton was forced to close in mid-march due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Mackintosh has said it will not reopen until 2021 at the earliest.
If it's closed, why am I reading this?
Another valid question. One problem with the Hamilton phenomenon has been how few people could actually see it – runs have so far been limited to the US and London and tickets were expensive; top price seats routinely sold for over £800. Given that the show engages with a vision of a fairer America with opportunities for all, and that it's fan base is largely young and therefore less likely to be wealthy, the financial and geographical barriers to watching it was a problem Miranda must have been acutely aware of.
So back in 2016, he and director Thomas Kail shot the film over three days, capturing the original cast's final performances, including Miranda in the title role. Director of photography Declan Quin installed nine cameras around the Richard Rodgers theatre and sound was recorded through 100 microphones. The result was a 161-minute film. Two of three obscenities in the lyrics were rendered inaudible to get the film a PG-13 rating.
The original plan was to hold the footage for five or six years but when Miranda saw the final cut in 2017, he was so pleased (apparently he took off a shoe and threw it in the air) that he brought the release forward. After a bidding war, Disney paid £75 million for the rights. At one point, Bob Iger himself, then CEO, flew to New York in order to personally pitch Miranda for it.
It was originally scheduled for cinema release in October 2021. But when the pandemic hit, Iger asked Miranda and Kail if they'd consider putting it straight on the Disney streaming platform. Initially, they refused. But as the months dragged on and more disappointed ticket holders watched the dates of their cancelled productions slide by, they relented. Hamilton will stream on Disney+ from July 3.
So should I scrub up on my US history?
It’s true that the average British punter has plenty to learn about the foundation of the United States, yes – after all, Miranda's educated a good few Americans about the portrait on their 10 dollar notes. And it’s fair to say that, certainly if you’re just indulging in the score, you may get confused, although things are considerably clearer on stage.
Here are the key players to familiarise yourself with:
Alexander Hamilton
As the opening line of the musical states: “a bastard orphan son of a whore and a Scotsman” who grew up on St Croix, a Caribbean island in poverty. He got out by hard work alone and made it to New York. Hamilton was a polymath who wrote the majority of the Federalist Papers, which helped to ratify the US Constitution, and founded the country’s banking system, coastguard and NY Post.
He wasn’t flawless, though: Hamilton’s downfall (spoiler!) came in the form of the country’s first major sex scandal and he died in his fifties after his rival Aaron Burr shot him in a duel.
Aaron Burr
“The damn fool that shot him!” Career politician Burr was neck-and-neck with Hamilton throughout his career, especially while the pair became lawyers after the Revolutionary War.
He did, however, ascend to the upper echelons, becoming the third vice-president of the US – to Thomas Jefferson, whose views he famously didn’t stand for.
George Washington
First President of the United States. Before then, both the thorn in Hamilton’s side and arguably his greatest mentor.
The Schuyler Sisters
“The envy of all”, as we learn, “if you can marry a sister, you’re rich son”. The 12 Schuyler siblings were boiled down into three captivating sisters for Manuel’s purposes.
In reality, they were socialites born in New York but increasingly internationally travelled as they moved around for marriage and general fancy do-gooding. Eliza really did found the first private orphanage in New York.
Thomas Jefferson
Third president of the US after serving as the first secretary of state under Washington. He was a liberal president and the main author of the Declaration of Independence. He was also, however, a plantation owner whose, in Manuel’s words, “debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labour”. In the musical, Hamilton and Jefferson had a rap battle in the cabinet.
As a British person, will I be offended?
It’s true that George III is very much the pantomime baddie in Hamilton. As Simon Schama wrote in The Financial Times last year: “anyone who knows anything about the melancholy, conscientious George III might have a hard time seeing him camp it up in the show-stopping You’ll be Back”.
But you’d have to have a severe sense of humour failure to struggle to find the royal portrayal funny. There's also a couple of entertaining digs in lyrics such as: “Britain keeps s-----g’ on us endlessly / Essentially, they tax us relentlessly / Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree / He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free.”
Just how historically accurate is Hamilton?
Historical legacy and accuracy is a key component of the Hamilton’s meaning, and Miranda’s deliberate casting of actors of colour plays with the notions of history-makers and America’s construction, too.
The musical has induced chatter among historians regarding accuracy – namely regarding the portrayal of Hamilton as an anti-slavery hero, when, in reality, some historians believe he contributed little to the abolitionist movement.
There are other examples of artistic license, too: Miranda admits to “forgetting” the other nine Schuyler siblings (only three appear in the musical, two of whom are central to a love triangle with Hamilton).
For the most part, however, Miranda’s determination for accuracy and constant liaising with Chernow paid off: Hamilton is nerdishly correct with certain details of the plot and lyrics.
How can I watch it?
Subscribe to Disney+ for £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year. Sign up to the ticketing website for email updates of when the show will return to the West End and tickets go back on sale. Be like Hamilton: young, scrappy and hungry and do not give away your shot!
Read more:
Hamilton characters: what happened next for Eliza, Angelica and Aaron Burr?