Hamilton

On Friday night, one of our dreams came true! We were able to see Hamilton.

In two hours and 45 minutes, we felt every emotion our mortal tabernacles are capable of experiencing. We were transported to a different place - a place I don't even have the words to describe.

We emerged from the theater changed.

Lin is a genius. Whatever goes on inside his mind that creates, that thinks deeply about things and makes them come out in words, is beautiful. Every word of his work was pondered and deliberate. In fact, a quote from The Book Thief comes to mind that I'm sure Lin-Manuel Miranda can relate to, "I have hated the words, and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right."

He made them right.

As I was sitting in the theater, I kept thinking about how much I wanted to write down all of my thoughts. Over and over I thought, "I want to remember this. I want to write down what I thought about at this moment, at this scene, at this lyric."

I knew the only way to capture it was to write like I was running out of time...

I didn't write it in time. So much of it has already left me.

But here are a few remaining things I can write about Hamilton:

I loved Aaron Burr. The actor and the character (it took me a few minutes to accept each of the actors in their roles, as I'm used to the original cast, but they all won me over). Before seeing the play live, I always thought we were supposed to dislike Aaron Burr, but now that I've seen the play unfold, I no longer believe that. I think we are supposed to imagine ourselves in his shoes and acknowledge our own capacity to be jealous, hesitant, or vengeful. We are all one reaction away from Aaron Burr. We are all one reaction away from being a villain in history - from being "the damn fool that shot him." The way Aaron Burr is written reminds me a lot of Hugo's Javert. He is a character who draws sympathy.

And then there's Eliza. Prior to Friday night, I didn't know how powerful Eliza is in the play. I know the story. I know the songs. "Quiet Uptown makes me sob like a baby." But I never realized until the play was drawing to a close that Eliza is everything.

One of the most beneficial things I did prior to seeing Hamilton was read Hamilton: The Revolution (I tried to read Chernow last year, but it was while I was in my last two semesters of school, and I couldn't afford the time). I loved going into it with Lin's annotations in mind and knowing a lot about his creative process. I also found it imperative for my own experience to know all the characters and be familiar with the song lyrics. I, personally, would have missed a lot of the story without prior research. There are some things that you are supposed to either just know or infer from a brief song lyric. The fast-paced music and characters on stage who dress very similar to one another make it easy for pertinent details to slip right past.

I can't say that I recommend Hamilton to everyone. I would never say you need to go see it.* If you and I were to stand at a cliff's edge and look out over a beautiful landscape, our eyes might not be drawn to the same things. Maybe you will notice the water, and I will be captivated by the flowers, and you will be frustrated with me because I'm not getting what you want me to get from the water, and I won't understand why you're not more interested in the flowers.

I will only say that if you do get the chance to see Hamilton, I hope it touches you! It was meat to!