Hamilton, anyone?

I've tried a few times, minorly, without luck. One of these days I'll probably go down and try for real. I haven't listened yet, as I prefer to see a show first.

YES. I am just a little obsessed with Hamilton. I have the cast album and was listening to it last night. I really, really want to go see the show, but sadly I don't have several hundred dollars to drop on a ticket.

I'm constantly blown away by the clever mixture of current music and vernacular and absolutely true-to-history events and themes. It's a slightly different way of saying, "This is how these people felt," but with a little wink and nudge--but with so much heart and sincerity, too, because you can tell Lin-Manuel Miranda really cares about all these characters and stories. As a writer of historical fiction, I'm frankly jealous. I can't use hip-hop and rhymes and modern slang to tell my story. But the jealousy is entirely subsumed in my ardent admiration of what this musical does.

Um, do I sound a bit crazy? Possibly. But people aren't kidding when they call it things like "transformative".

I think Stephen Colbert said it best: "My first reaction was, 'this is very interesting, this is very different' . . . then, 'this is quite magnificent', then two hours later, 'Why am I crying over Alexander Hamilton?'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7YTPuEMgaE

YES! I love it.

Amazingly well done. The execution is perfect. This has surprised me more than any other show. Ever.

Google Play recently had the album for download for 99 cents. If any of you are interested, it is well worth your dollar! (YMMV - not sure if that price is still valid.)

I absolutely adore Hamilton. I kept seeing friends on social media tweeting lyrics and I was beyond confused. Then Lin-Manuel and a few other cast members (Renée Elise Goldberry and Daveed Diggs) performed freestyles during a cypher on the BET Hip Hop Awards. I adored Renée's rap and looked her up and realized they were all in what all my friends were talking about. I finally listened to the entire thing on Spotify and fell in love so, so fast. I had a fair amount of days where I listened back-to-back. I could literally write an essay about everything I love about this musical, but I will refrain lol.

I know I'll be lucky to get tickets to the tour when it comes to my city. I definitely know I won't get any for the Broadway production especially with the original cast tbh.

Lin-Manuel Miranda went right onto my idols list because how do you have that much talent to create something like this? It actually amazes me.

Listened to it properly very recently and LOVE it. As a clueless Brit who was taught zilch about the American Revolution, I learned so much by listening to it and reading along to the annotated Genius Lyrics.

Amazing, amazing musical. Very powerful!

I'm not wild about Hamilton -- then again, I didn't much care for In the Heights, either. I'm not arguing Lin's brilliance, I can definitely recognize it -- his stuff just isn't to my taste.

Though I may try again soon and, who knows?

Oh, my God, finally, a Hamilton thread. I'm obsessed with this show. I saw it in November. Went with my two best friends. We all immediately downloaded the cast album.

It's a crazy idea, right? To do a historical Broadway musical in hip-hop? But it totally works! The energy of the music and the dancing really bring the sense of the excitement of the Revolution to the fore. I'm a history buff, but my God, my social studies teachers sucked all the excitement out of the Revolution. If I'd known about the beef Hamilton had with, well, practically everyone, it would've made US History much more engaging.

Here's a video of the Grammys performance (it isn't the best quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oNz5uruEpo

I was quietly resigned to waiting for a movie version and to never getting to see this live, but seeing that performance really lit a fire in me. I HAVE to go. Like Sunflowerrei, I'm a historical fiction writer with a particular love of American history, so . . . I just . . . I can't NOT at this point. I'll just have to find the money, that's all.

The US National tours will be out soon, so keep your eye out on that! We bought our tickets two months in advance, not long after the show transferred to Broadway. We sat in the nosebleeds, but that was fine. I think the hype has just grown since then and I know people who have tickets for January 2017 booked.

MonsterTamer said:

YES! I love it.

Amazingly well done. The execution is perfect. This has surprised me more than any other show. Ever.

Google Play recently had the album for download for 99 cents. If any of you are interested, it is well worth your dollar! (YMMV - not sure if that price is still valid.)

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The price was still valid as of an hour ago.

I was looking through something on my blog tonight and came across two posts related to Hamilton that y'all might find interesting.
Hamilton
Jessica's #Ham4Ham Adventure

I'm super jealous of everyone who's seen it/has tickets to see it "soon". Two of my coworkers have seen it and another has tickets. And I'm the historical fiction writer in the bunch . . .

I just need someone else who's willing to shell out $250+ and money for a hotel room. So far, no luck! (I suppose I could wait for the national tour, but it's unclear when that'll be, and I don't imagine those tickets will be any cheaper or easier to get hold of. It's likely they'd hit DC, but that's not guaranteed, either.)

I've been listening to this show in fits and starts on Spotify but never had time to listen all the way through to the end till this morning. Which is why I spent a good 10 minutes crying in front of my computer. Good lord.

I grew up in Virginia, and I grew up in theatre, so musicals and colonial history are a part of my blood. I love love LOVE the way this show uses modern conventions like hip-hop to bring history to life. For some reason I was really struck by how he portrayed those cabinet debates as rap battles. Freaking genius. What a show.

The cast of Hamilton performed at the White House today--here's a video of their performance. Just skip to about 45 minutes in to hear them do the opening number and other songs.

Add me to the list of devotees... I found it on NPR's First Listen program and was blown away. I don't like musicals. I'm not a fan of most hip-hop. This is GENIUS.

You want to engage youth in the understanding and appreciation of history? This is it - granted a junior or senior year of high school version, but it makes it contemporary, relevant and important.

Genius.com has the complete lyrics, complete with annotations (many done by LMM himself): http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-alexander-hamilton-lyrics

Show time! Show time! Yo!

Hamilton just won the 2016 Pulitzer for Best Drama! It's only the ninth musical to win the prize.

Sunflowerrei said:

Hamilton just won the 2016 Pulitzer for Best Drama! It's only the ninth musical to win the prize.

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Holy Shit, that's awesome!!! And extremely well-deserved. (My favorite musical is next to normal, another Pulitzer winner). I think I need to sit down with that Grammy performance and give it another shot.

Dang. I need to get on buying a ticket right now. Literally right now. The prices are already insane and have only been going up!

*Goes to buy ticket*

MacArthur Foundation Grant, Grammy, Pulitzer, Tony awards coming.... my what a haul. Nice to see something so well done appreciated so widely. Since Mr. Miranda has won just about everything on offer, the real surprise will be when he's announced as the NBA Finals MVP!