FYI—HAMILTON! Drops tomorrow on Disney+

[PinkTulip]

4 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

I may be the only person in the US who has never seen anything from the musical, never heard the songs. 

Me too! Except I watched it this afternoon and LOVED it! Will watch again tomorrow!

[Sneezyone]

2 hours ago, Caraway said:

Does it get better?  Not understanding why everyone loves this so much. 

 

Let's see...It's ORIGINAL, something that's rare in musical theater these days. So much is merely a riff on Rogers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Sondheim, Lerner and Lowe.

• The use of rap music/beats. Many highfalutin theatergoers are not prepared for the cadence/speed and power of spoken word poetry.
• The British pop references in the lyrics and melody of King George III are incredibly clever and provide comic relief in a way that Disney tried and failed to do with the 80s ballad in Frozen II.
• The multiracial cast. It resets the narrative of stodgy white people with old, dusty ideas and illustrates just how radical the characters and their ideas were and still are.
• There was even a passing nod to 'Sally' (Hemmings).

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Sneezyone

[happi duck]

Loved it!

[maize]

1 hour ago, busymama7 said:

Can anyone tell me if it is edited on Disney+?  We are big musical people but have not seen this specifically due to language and content.  

I cringe at language and there definitely was some. We watched it anyway, I came down in this case on the side of it having enough value to make an exception. It isn't language we don't hear around us in the community anyway 😂

Apparently one F* was left in in the editing, I didn't catch it. Blasphemy was what bothered me.

[maize]

4 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

Let's see...It's ORIGINAL, something that's rare in musical theater these days. So much is merely a riff on Rogers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Sondheim, Lerner and Lowe.

• The use of rap music/beats. Many highfalutin theatergoers are not prepared for the cadence/speed and power of spoken word poetry.
• The British pop references in the lyrics and melody of King George III are incredibly clever and provide comic relief in a way that Disney tried and failed to do with the 80s ballad in Frozen II.
• The multiracial cast. It resets the narrative of stodgy white people with old, dusty ideas and illustrates just how radical the characters and their ideas were and still are.
• There was even a passing nod to 'Sally' (Hemmings).

 

I have never listened much to rap so my brain took awhile to adjust but it got easier as the show went on. Easier than listening to opera even when it is in English 😂

I loved the multiracial cast and the fresh and new feel of it. My kids are into theater and really enjoyed the choreography.

[busymama7]

1 minute ago, maize said:

I cringe at language and there definitely was some. We watched it anyway, I came down in this case on the side of it having enough value to make an exception. It isn't language we don't hear around us in the community anyway 😂

Apparently one F* was left in in the editing, I didn't catch it. Blasphemy was what bothered me.

Can you expound on the blasphemy? 

My standard is immorality portrayed as acceptable.  So he has a mistress, but does it seem as if it's an ok thing to do or is it shown as detrimental (beyond just like getting caught)?

[Sneezyone]

3 hours ago, maize said:

I have never listened much to rap so my brain took awhile to adjust but it got easier as the show went on. Easier than listening to opera even when it is in English 😂

I loved the multiracial cast and the fresh and new feel of it. My kids are into theater and really enjoyed the choreography.

 

LOL, I could see that. These rhymes come at you FAST. There are some lyrical touchstones referenced here (like Twista). He is known to be VERY, VERY fast with his lyrical delivery. The cadence starts out with a pace that reminds me of the earliest days of the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. He tries to ease the audience into it.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Caraway]

3 hours ago, Caraway said:

Does it get better?  Not understanding why everyone loves this so much. 

okay, I take it back, I’m crying. 
 

I do think it loses a lot being filmed. 
 

Still don’t think I would have paid 1k to see it, which was the going rate here. 

[Terabith]

13 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

LOL, I could see that. These rhymes come at you FAST. There are some lyrical touchstones referenced here (like Twista). He is known to be VERY, VERY fast with his lyrical delivery. The cadence starts out with a pace that reminds me of earliest days of the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. He tries to ease the audience into it.

Yeah, I am very glad we got the soundtrack and listened to it over and over again, and looked up all the lyrics years before we saw it.  I can't imagine having my first exposure to the music be trying to follow the plot as a whole.  It's very fast.  But the lyrics are amazingly clever, and they often are working in both references to rap/ hip hop music and history.  Honestly, Miranda is a legit genius.  

[maize]

17 minutes ago, busymama7 said:

Can you expound on the blasphemy? 

My standard is immorality portrayed as acceptable.  So he has a mistress, but does it seem as if it's an ok thing to do or is it shown as detrimental (beyond just like getting caught)?

 

15 minutes ago, WendyAndMilo said:

Nope, not at all.

IIRC, there's one or two "Jesus Christ" that I could actually catch, and an "Oh God"...and one very big g-d.

WendyAndMilo got most of it I think. There was one loud "Jesus Christ" from the king that bothered me more than others, maybe partly because he is a comical character and using Christ's name for humor is not at all something I am comfortable with.

[Sneezyone]

8 minutes ago, Terabith said:

Yeah, I am very glad we got the soundtrack and listened to it over and over again, and looked up all the lyrics years before we saw it.  I can't imagine having my first exposure to the music be trying to follow the plot as a whole.  It's very fast.  But the lyrics are amazingly clever, and they often are working in both references to rap/ hip hop music and history.  Honestly, Miranda is a legit genius.  

 

There are a lot of hip hop lines in there, like Biggie Smalls' "If ya don't know, now ya know." I got a big kick out of it.

[hjffkj]

5 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

I may be the only person in the US who has never seen anything from the musical, never heard the songs. Oddly, I have zero interest in it. We have Disney, tho, so maybe I’ll try it.

You are not the only one.  I only recently heard one of the songs from it but didn't know that's what I was listening to until I started listening to the lyrics.  Then I just assumed that's what it was. 

I'm not opposed to seeing it but we don't have Disney+ and this isn't going to convince me to get it.  I like musical theater but it is simply too expensive for me to be able to justify the cost.

[Sneezyone]

2 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

You are not the only one.  I only recently heard one of the songs from it but didn't know that's what I was listening to until I started listening to the lyrics.  Then I just assumed that's what it was. 

I'm not opposed to seeing it but we don't have Disney+ and this isn't going to convince me to get it.  I like musical theater but it is simply too expensive for me to be able to justify the cost.

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Pam in CT]

We just finished it.  

We were able to see it in the theater and of course that was awesome, but I actually really *liked* the film format -- you can see the facial expressions so much more clearly, and some of the shots (from backstage as King George walked forward, from the ceiling as the Reynolds pamphlets flew up, upwards to particular characters "listening" on the balcony as the upstage characters had a line concerning them) really added.  My two favorite songs (Burr's Room Where it Happened, and Eliza's Burn) are both narrative-arc turning point moments, and to see the characters in closeup.  And Lin-Manuel at that moment in Quiet Uptown when Eliza finally takes his hand... ((sob)).

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Pam in CT

[KungFuPanda]

28 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

We’re doing the same thing. We’re all grown here so I think we can play through in about a month. DH thought Picard was on Disney+ but he was mistaken. 🤣

[Pam in CT]

49 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

 

17 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

We’re doing the same thing. We’re all grown here so I think we can play through in about a month. DH thought Picard was on Disney+ but he was mistaken. 🤣

 

Us too.  All the Stars Wars, Black Panther, all the animated shorts, and off it goes again.

[Sneezyone]

31 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

We just finished it.  

We were able to see it in the theater and of course that was awesome, but I actually really *liked* the film format -- you can see the facial expressions so much more clearly, and some of the shots (from backstage as King George walked forward, from the ceiling as the Reynolds pamphlets flew up, upwards to particular characters "listening" as the upstage characters had a line concerning them) really added.  My two favorite songs (Burr's Room Where it Happened, and Eliza's Burn) are both narrative-arc turning point moments, and to see the characters in closeup.  And Lin-Manuel at that moment in Quiet Uptown when Eliza finally takes his hand... ((sob)).

 

I actually liked this version too and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it captured both of my peeps attention through the whole thing. DD remembers only the love story/triangle bits, as is her won't, LOL, but DS got a lot more out of it. DD remarked, unprompted, that she really liked the diverse cast. That, actually, surprised me. She said it helped her take it out of the 'history' bucket (which she hates). I suspect they will both be listening to the soundtrack and re-watching when I'm not around to observe/listen (b/c allowing mom to see would give her entirely too much 'I told you so' satisfaction).

Edited July 4, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Junie]

I really enjoyed it!

The language was really too much for me, though.  If I decide to let my teens watch it, I will be muting often.

I really wish that they would make a clean version of this that would be appropriate for a wider audience.  Lin-Manuel Miranda is a talented storyteller.  (I started to abbreviate his name as LMM, but realized that is how I refer to Lucy Maud Montgomery -- another great storyteller, but in a very different vein. lol.)

[Terabith]

1 minute ago, Junie said:

I really enjoyed it!

The language was really too much for me, though.  If I decide to let my teens watch it, I will be muting often.

I really wish that they would make a clean version of this that would be appropriate for a wider audience.  Lin-Manuel Miranda is a talented storyteller.  (I started to abbreviate his name as LMM, but realized that is how I refer to Lucy Maud Montgomery -- another great storyteller, but in a very different vein. lol.)

You can get a soundtrack with clean lyrics.  

[Sneezyone]

On my fourth viewing, I hear Ludacris’ No.1 Spot in the melody of “Right Hand Man” (which also has ‘Austin Powers’ references with the hook). This is so fun! I also love the Samba rhythm beneath ‘Non-Stop’. Nice nod to the Carribean.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

We don’t have Disney +, but I was considering it for Hamilton and also for some movies I was expecting to see in-theater this year before COVID happened. (Live-action Mulan, for one.) 

We still suffer along with only a MiFi unit and phone hotspots for internet here, so I’m always worried I won’t be able to watch a whole show. I may give it a go, though. 

[Penguin]

Wait. What? Grown people don’t watch Disney movies? I am shocked, lol. I subscribed to Disney+ back in the fall because my kids (all young adults) wanted to see Mandalorian. . But we’ve kept it. It doesn’t get as much use as Netflix, but it gets enough to keep. 

I don’t know most of the posters on this thread well enough to know if you would appreciate  this film or despise it, but one of my favorite cult films is Return to Oz and it is on Disney+. Forget everything you know about the Wizard of Oz from the Judy Garland movie. This is based off the books and it is...something else. It’s like a horror film...for kids. But horror films are not for kids, so I have no idea what Disney was thinking in 1985 when it released  this one.  It makes a lot of Cult Classic lists.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Penguin

[hjffkj]

7 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

oh i meant musical theater is too expensive not a disney+ subscription.  I was just commenting on why I hadn't seen it live yet. 

If I were to get Disney+ I'd have  hard time cancelling it because my kids would love it. And I just don't need another streaming service.  I'm slowly leaning towards cancelling netflix because there so few movies worth watching on it.  But I'm paid up until Oct so it won't be until then

[ktgrok]

On 7/3/2020 at 6:54 AM, FuzzyCatz said:

Aww enjoy everyone!  We don’t have Disney and I’ve seen it twice on stage so can’t justify it just for Hamilton.  

It's only $6.99 for a month. Less than the cost of one movie ticket, and they have a ton of stuff on there - Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Bed knobs and broomsticks, etc

14 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

I may be the only person in the US who has never seen anything from the musical, never heard the songs. 

I've only heard a few short clips of songs...i wanted to wait and SEE it not just listen to it. And it was SO worth it! 

 

[ktgrok]

I had never seen it, never heard the album (just clips) and oh my goodness! That was AMAZING! The energy! every moment for nearly 3 hours I was either dancing in my seat, crying, or had goosebumps. Just....amazing. 

[MEmama]

15 hours ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

I may be the only person in the US who has never seen anything from the musical, never heard the songs. Oddly, I have zero interest in it. We have Disney, tho, so maybe I’ll try it.

Nope, not the only one. I don’t know anything about and zero interest. We are not a musicals family. 
I did see a commercial for it though. To say I don’t get the appeal is a massive understatement. 

10 hours ago, Terabith said:

Yeah, I am very glad we got the soundtrack and listened to it over and over again, and looked up all the lyrics years before we saw it.  I can't imagine having my first exposure to the music be trying to follow the plot as a whole.  It's very fast.  But the lyrics are amazingly clever, and they often are working in both references to rap/ hip hop music and history.  Honestly, Miranda is a legit genius.  

My first exposure was completely cold and it was tough, but there was definitely no dozing off physically or mentally during the show.  I was tired and energized at the same time.

7 hours ago, Terabith said:

You can get a soundtrack with clean lyrics.  

Be careful with this one.  We tried three times with amazon to get the edited soundtrack and all three times they set a set with two copies of one disk and no copies of the other one.

10 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 

Let's see...It's ORIGINAL, something that's rare in musical theater these days. So much is merely a riff on Rogers and Hammerstein, Gershwin, Sondheim, Lerner and Lowe.

• The use of rap music/beats. Many highfalutin theatergoers are not prepared for the cadence/speed and power of spoken word poetry.
• The British pop references in the lyrics and melody of King George III are incredibly clever and provide comic relief in a way that Disney tried and failed to do with the 80s ballad in Frozen II.
• The multiracial cast. It resets the narrative of stodgy white people with old, dusty ideas and illustrates just how radical the characters and their ideas were and still are.
• There was even a passing nod to 'Sally' (Hemmings).

 

I would agree with this.  I knew very little about it when I saw it initially in London last year except for a 60 Minutes interview of Miranda.  I am partway through the book Hamilton and what I find so amazing is that Miranda could read that book and say to himself, you know I think I could make a Broadway musical out of this guy’s life.  To think that and then to be able to get the right meter and rhyme Hamilton’s life story is artistic genius.  The music isn’t my typical genre, but the creation of the show is brilliant.  Yes, the music is original, but I also think one thing that doesn’t come across on the movie form is just how unrelenting a performance it must be for the cast.  I am an engineer and not a musical theater type or a dancer, but unlike most musicals there are no actual set changes.  The movement of the props are all worked into the choreography, the movement is constant, and those with smaller parts are someone different in the second act.  Like the careful word choices in the lyrics there is nothing extraneous in the set or how the cast moves around.

There is a 20 or 30 minute documentary on Amazon Prime that goes into the musical roots of Miranda’s work and Hamilton in particular.  I don’t remember the name of it, but it was interesting.

[ktgrok]

10 minutes ago, Mom2mthj said:

I would agree with this.  I knew very little about it when I saw it initially in London last year except for a 60 Minutes interview of Miranda.  I am partway through the book Hamilton and what I find so amazing is that Miranda could read that book and say to himself, you know I think I could make a Broadway musical out of this guy’s life.  To think that and then to be able to get the right meter and rhyme Hamilton’s life story is artistic genius.  The music isn’t my typical genre, but the creation of the show is brilliant.  Yes, the music is original, but I also think one thing that doesn’t come across on the movie form is just how unrelenting a performance it must be for the cast.  I am an engineer and not a musical theater type or a dancer, but unlike most musicals there are no actual set changes.  The movement of the props are all worked into the choreography, the movement is constant, and those with smaller parts are someone different in the second act.  Like the careful word choices in the lyrics there is nothing extraneous in the set or how the cast moves around.

There is a 20 or 30 minute documentary on Amazon Prime that goes into the musical roots of Miranda’s work and Hamilton in particular.  I don’t remember the name of it, but it was interesting.

Even the lighting was INCREDIBLY done. Just amazing. Everything had a purpose, everything was just perfect . 

[sassenach]

19 minutes ago, Mom2mthj said:

I would agree with this.  I knew very little about it when I saw it initially in London last year except for a 60 Minutes interview of Miranda.  I am partway through the book Hamilton and what I find so amazing is that Miranda could read that book and say to himself, you know I think I could make a Broadway musical out of this guy’s life.  To think that and then to be able to get the right meter and rhyme Hamilton’s life story is artistic genius.  The music isn’t my typical genre, but the creation of the show is brilliant.  Yes, the music is original, but I also think one thing that doesn’t come across on the movie form is just how unrelenting a performance it must be for the cast.  I am an engineer and not a musical theater type or a dancer, but unlike most musicals there are no actual set changes.  The movement of the props are all worked into the choreography, the movement is constant, and those with smaller parts are someone different in the second act.  Like the careful word choices in the lyrics there is nothing extraneous in the set or how the cast moves around.

There is a 20 or 30 minute documentary on Amazon Prime that goes into the musical roots of Miranda’s work and Hamilton in particular.  I don’t remember the name of it, but it was interesting.

I was amazed at how small the cast was when they came out for their bow. I would have sworn that the ensemble was double what it actually was. 

About halfway through I had the thought that filming a live show is such a high pressure task. My Dd has worked as a stage manager and every night of live theater is so different. To perform such an intricate show, with no second takes, knowing that it will live on film forever...I am blown away by what they created. 

The filming was SO GOOD. So often with live filmed shows, I get frustrated with the camera angles and directorial choices. This was perfection. 

[maize]

This may not apply to most people, but I have to say that as a face-blind person the diverse cast made it so much easier to keep track of who was who. I tend to rely on things like hairstyle and skin tone to recognize individuals; I usually really struggle with recognizing people on screen from scene to scene and Hamilton made that so much easier. The diversity in men's hairstyles was particularly helpful!

[Tap]

1 hour ago, maize said:

This may not apply to most people, but I have to say that as a face-blind person the diverse cast made it so much easier to keep track of who was who. I tend to rely on things like hairstyle and skin tone to recognize individuals; I usually really struggle with recognizing people on screen from scene to scene and Hamilton made that so much easier. The diversity in men's hairstyles was particularly helpful!

I really struggle to keep male characters separate on shows. Women are usually easier to tell apart with hair/makeup styles, but men can be really difficult! I too, love when diversity helps to make the story and characters more authentic and distinctive.

[Lady Florida.]

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. We saw it in Orlando last year but I'm so excited to see it with the original cast. Those are the people I've been listening to on the soundtrack for ages. 

Later this afternoon is going to be my time to watch.

[mellifera33]

We watched the first half last night, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I hadn't listened to the music before, but we watched with subtitles and that helped with processing the lyrics. My 12 year old who has just finished studying U.S. history enjoyed seeing what he had learned in a different form. I'm happy to see that Amazon music has the clean version of the soundtrack, so I think we'll be listening to that in the car in the future. 🙂

[Ali in OR]

We watched this last night as a family and absolutely loved it. I am so amazed at what Lin Manuel Miranda envisioned, penned, and created. My college kid fell in love with the soundtrack when she was a junior in high school (she was in her school's performance of Cats and fellow cast members introduced her to it). Hamilton ended up in a couple of short answer college application essays for her. For Christmas 2018, dh got her tickets for the San Francisco performance, and he ended up going with her as he was there to move her out of her dorm at the end of the year. It was an incredible experience for both of them. I bought the soundtrack and I've read The Hamilton Affair, so I could follow the show pretty well last night. And loved it. I am so glad they filmed it with the original cast and kudos to Disney+ and whoever else was involved to make this available to so many.

We had no streaming service of anything except Amazon Prime, but we got Disney+ last weekend (my anniversary gift). And if you sign up for a whole year it's less than $6 a month. In the past week I've watched The Making of Frozen 2, Coco, Onward, 4 episodes of The Mandalorian, and now Hamilton. I think we'll get our money's worth! And my kids are grown--my 17 yo actually got Disney+ for herself on her phone earlier in pandemic. She's very happy to have me pay for it instead!

[Lady Florida.]

On 7/2/2020 at 7:33 PM, Sneezyone said:

I hope you’re used to speedy hip hop lyrics! It’s not exactly Twista fast but you gotta have your listening ears on! The lyrical battles are epic. 

It's probably too late for some, but I listened to the soundtrack repeatedly. At one point I even sat there with my phone reading the lyrics as it played. I do think it helped because if you're not used to hip hop (and I'm not) you can miss so much. I can now sing along without missing a beat, though I'm sure I sound ridiculous. 😄 

On 7/2/2020 at 7:46 PM, klmama said:

We saw it in Chicago, and I can't wait to see it with the original cast!  The Chicago cast did a nice job, but I didn't really "believe" Hamilton.  I want to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's version.  

The Orlando cast - Broadway touring cast  - was great. We all thought King George stole the show because he played it like a toddler having tantrums. But still, original cast ❤️ 

Edited July 4, 2020 by Lady Florida.

[Lawyer&Mom]

1 hour ago, sassenach said:

About halfway through I had the thought that filming a live show is such a high pressure task. My Dd has worked as a stage manager and every night of live theater is so different. To perform such an intricate show, with no second takes, knowing that it will live on film forever...I am blown away by what they created. 

According to Wikipedia they actually stitched together footage from three performances, and did some of the musical numbers without an audience in order to use a camera on a crane.  Not that you could ever tell. The editing is seamless.  So well done.  
 

That said, having seen only the first act last night, without any prior exposure, Hamilton is great, but I remain convinced that Lin-Manuel’s masterpiece is actually Moana.  This is a hill I will die on.  

[sassenach]

7 minutes ago, Lawyer&Mom said:

According to Wikipedia they actually stitched together footage from three performances, and did some of the musical numbers without an audience in order to use a camera on a crane.  Not that you could ever tell. The editing is seamless.  So well done.  
 

That makes sense. It kinda stressed my out imagining this as a one shot deal.

[klmama]

17 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

The Orlando cast - Broadway touring cast  - was great. We all thought King George stole the show because he played it like a toddler having tantrums. But still, original cast ❤️ 

I'm glad you liked it!  The Chicago King George stole the show, too.   

FYI, the Broadway touring casts sometimes have members of the original Broadway cast (often in "better" roles than they had in the original), but they are almost always different performers.  

[Lady Florida.]

18 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 
I love musical theater and have taken my peeps as often as I could since they were small. My SIL lives in NYC and entices them to visit with show tix, lol. This is as good as it gets without being there. Turn the volume up, watch on your biggest screen in HD, and make sure it’s dark!

I'm both a musical theater fan and a history nerd, so this musical is perfect for someone like me! Thanks for the suggestions. I don't usually watch tv in the dark but I can see where this would be an exception.

12 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 

There are a lot of hip hop lines in there, like Biggie Smalls' "If ya don't know, now ya know." I got a big kick out of it.

I read that Daveed Diggs had a hard time at first saying "Mr. President" after that line. He said muscle memory made him want to say the original word. 

12 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

 

It's $6.99 for one month. We didn't subscribe to Disney+ before because my kids are too big and I don't see a need. I told them they have 29 more days to binge watch, lol.

We signed up for the trial not thinking we'd really find anything to watch, then the news about Hamilton came out. We figured we'd keep it for a while just for that. Then dh and ds (and now even I) started watching both Marvel and Star Wars stuff they have. I also found some documentaries to watch. 

2 hours ago, Mom2mthj said:

I would agree with this.  I knew very little about it when I saw it initially in London last year except for a 60 Minutes interview of Miranda.  I am partway through the book Hamilton and what I find so amazing is that Miranda could read that book and say to himself, you know I think I could make a Broadway musical out of this guy’s life.  To think that and then to be able to get the right meter and rhyme Hamilton’s life story is artistic genius.  

I'm a history nerd who read that book and thought the same thing - How do you read this and think, "This would make a great hip-hop musical". It's why Miranda is a musical genius and I'm not lol.

I was also struck by his comment that he picked up the book for some vacation reading. I love history, love long books that some people think are boring, but that's not the kind of book I'd choose for vacation reading. The man is brilliant!

[73349]

It was fascinating. I normally have to watch TV/movies with closed captioning on--to the extent that I watch at all--so I definitely did with this one. The profanity was a little much, but the show was fast-paced enough that the mind has to follow along on to the next thing.

The adultery is portrayed as one of the biggest mistakes of Hamilton's life, devastating his marriage and ruining his chance of becoming a viable candidate for president.

Lots of interesting visual and vocal choices. Some hints of Les Mis with a much smaller cast. Miranda has a brilliant sense of timing, though not quite the caliber of singing voice as most of his colleagues.

[ScoutTN]

13 hours ago, hjffkj said:

You are not the only one.  I only recently heard one of the songs from it but didn't know that's what I was listening to until I started listening to the lyrics.  Then I just assumed that's what it was. 

I'm not opposed to seeing it but we don't have Disney+ and this isn't going to convince me to get it.  I like musical theater but it is simply too expensive for me to be able to justify the cost.

$8 for a month (cancel at any time) and there is a free trial week.

All Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, and Hamilton. 

Pretty good value, for a month or two of summer. 

[Ottakee]

Well.....I might be forced to sit and watch it.  I am mildly interested.  Today though I hurt my leg biking (possibly tore something) and can't bear weight at all.  

[Lady Florida.]

4 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

Well.....I might be forced to sit and watch it.  I am mildly interested.  Today though I hurt my leg biking (possibly tore something) and can't bear weight at all.  

Oh, sorry to hear that. I popped something in my knee last week getting up off the floor (I was looking at instructions on a large box). It's just now starting to feel better. Dh says we're at that age (he and I, not you) where all we have to do to injure ourselves is get out of bed. 🤣 

Anyway, since you're the injured one stuck on the couch you should get to choose what to watch. I hope you like Hamilton, but if you're not enjoying it, find something you'll like to make being stuck recovering a little easier.

[freesia]

We loved it. I, of course, sobbed through from Philip’s death to the end...

we loved all the comic extras you miss just listening to the CD.

[Amira]

Just finished it.  I’ve read so much about Hamilton but have never seen it or listened to it.  We loved it and will be watching again tomorrow.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Amira

[teachermom2834]

I watched last night. I love musical theater but have never seen Hamilton or even listened to the music. My dd did hip hop to "My Shot" at a recital a couple years ago and that was the extent of my knowledge beyond that it is hip hop.

I was worried I would be disappointed because it has just had so much hype it would be hard to live up to that and as much as I love theater it just doesn't usually translate well to screen. They did an excellent job making the stage show into a movie. 

It does get better as you go, I think, as a previous poster mentioned. After the first twenty minutes I was thinking that is is fun and entertaining but pretty silly and nothing spectacular. As it went it got better and better though. Also, as much as I love theater often in the last 20-30 minutes of a long show I'm thinking it is time to wrap it up. This was so strong right to the end. I really did end up loving it and I want to watch it again. 

I didn't let my 12 yo dd watch because I had read about the scene with the mistress and I just had the impression there was more bad language and sexual content than there actually was. I don't love some of the lyrics in the scene with the mistress but in the context of the rest of the show I can live with it for her. We are studying American history this year so I'll wait until the we have studied the characters and then watch it. She will be another six months older then and I think she will appreciate it more. But, if Disney pulls it before then I'm sure I'd let her watch it. 

[ktgrok]

3 hours ago, maize said:

This may not apply to most people, but I have to say that as a face-blind person the diverse cast made it so much easier to keep track of who was who. I tend to rely on things like hairstyle and skin tone to recognize individuals; I usually really struggle with recognizing people on screen from scene to scene and Hamilton made that so much easier. The diversity in men's hairstyles was particularly helpful!

Yes! Very true for me as well. 

[Pam in CT]

re hints of Les Mis:

1 hour ago, whitehawk said:

It was fascinating. I normally have to watch TV/movies with closed captioning on--to the extent that I watch at all--so I definitely did with this one. The profanity was a little much, but the show was fast-paced enough that the mind has to follow along on to the next thing.

The adultery is portrayed as one of the biggest mistakes of Hamilton's life, devastating his marriage and ruining his chance of becoming a viable candidate for president.

Lots of interesting visual and vocal choices. Some hints of Les Mis with a much smaller cast. Miranda has a brilliant sense of timing, though not quite the caliber of singing voice as most of his colleagues.

LMM has said in several interviews that Les Mis is the show that most influenced him as a writer, which so intrigued my kids during our 2=year obsession with Hamilton that upon their beseeching we all trooped out to Mis (which my husband and I had seen, like, 40 years ago or something) to figure out why.  And you can see it.  Not just the small-character development within epic scale overall story/energy/timing/staging/use of the crowd as a sort of Greek chorus that so propels the narrative that you literally don't need any spoken dialogue, just the movement from song-to-song furthers the story along, though all of that... but also the genius use of musical motifs -- each character gets an associated line laid out once in a whole song and thereafter referenced, by other characters as well as repeated by the original, in other later songs (Hamilton: not throwing away my shot; Burr: wait for it; Eliza: Helpless; it would be enough; Angelika: you will never be satisfied/I hope you're satisfied; Philip's Blow Us All Away) and also how whole songs get re-purposed to different purposes later in the show (Eliza's Helpless comes up again in Mariah's seduction scene; the Battle of Yorktown's Stay Alive returns when Eliza and Alexander are hovering over Philip's bed; Ten Duel Commandments for both Philip's and Alexander's duels; and etc).

I appreciated Les Mis a LOT more the second time around, knowing how closely LMM had studied it, than I had the first time through.  (Which is how I know my modest talents are derivative appreciation, not original genius, sigh...)