If you haven’t heard of the Broadway musical megahit “Hamilton,” you may have been living under a “Wicked”-sized rock since September.
The musical, written by and starring lyrical genius Lin Manuel-Miranda, is a rap and hip-hop lesson about the life of treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, whom Miranda said “embodies hip-hop.”
Miranda’s musical hit the Broadway stage in August 2015, and the original cast recording was released a month later.
The cast recording sold a record-breaking $32 million in albums before the show even hit Broadway.
Speaking of Broadway, the show is completely sold out until September 2016 and even has multiple shows in October 2016 sold out.
So, to put it quite literally, if you want to see “Hamilton,” you’ll have to wait almost a year to do so.
This begs the question, how does a musical become so successful?
In this day and age where whitewashed movies and dumbed-down reality TV are kings of entertainment, a musical has stolen the show and has garnered audiences that consist of Madonna, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, President Obama and Beyoncé.
The way in which “Hamilton” has become the biggest musical in the 21st century, aside from its engaging story and powerful messages, is that it doesn’t just tell us the story, but rather, it raps it eloquently as opposed to the usual singing.
No, really.
A big reason why it attracts the likes of Queen Bey and other public figures is because Miranda raps a piece of American history extraordinarily and authentically.
While “Hamilton’s” astounding rhymes and high-class entourage garner attention, its cast is one reason why the show is viewed in a different light.
Miranda cast his show non-traditionally, by color-blind casting, meaning he cast roles in the show without considering each actor’s ethnicity. Each role in “Hamilton” is a familiar one to U.S. history buffs: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Aaron Burr and James Madison.
Non-traditionally, the actors who play each of these roles are people of color, which is all part of authorial intent, or how Miranda wrote each character to be played.
Miranda cast actors of color to play the roles of all the main characters who were historically white, and it’s awesome.
But, why exactly?
“The show reflects what America looks like now,” Miranda said in an interview with the New York Times.
In the same article, the New York Times called “Hamilton” a historiographical account of history, rather than a historical account.
Putting that into perspective, we’re getting an adaptation of history that is almost unprecedented and, considering the history of rap, a little uncouth in the minds of some.
But it works wonders, and the idea of telling one of America’s untold stories in a way that reflects modern America is borderline Einstein-esque.
Rapping a history lesson on treasury secretary Alexanderis one thing, but this masterpiece teaches us just what America has become since our founding fathers fathered it 300 years ago.
Broadway god Stephen Sondheim even called it a “breakthrough,” which means it’ll probably sweep the Tony Awards faster than you can remember “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” at the 2003 Oscars.
If that’s not enough for you, then you can just go back to shows like “Wicked.”
