Odom Jr., Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony
Ramos and Phillipa Soo. Even Miranda, who
plays Hamilton and wrote the musical’s songs
and story, wasn’t yet a brand name.
The music mixes R&B, hip-hop and show tunes.
There are shards of songs by Gilbert & Sullivan,
Grandmaster Flash, Rodgers & Hammerstein,
Jason Robert Brown, DMX and the Notorious
B.I.G. It riffs on Shakespeare and the Bible. It
could only come from a mind as brilliant and
hungry as Miranda’s.
This version reminds us of that talent but also its
absence: Broadway kept being Broadway after
“Hamilton” for the most part, returning often
to dusty or safe shows. It turns out Miranda’s
audacious step wasn’t the sharp end of the
spear — it was just a glorious one-off. “Hamilton”
dangled the possibility of a brilliant future and,
now five years after its debut, Broadway has
clearly wasted its shot.
So with theaters idle due to the pandemic, the
film version’s fast-tracked streaming arrival — it
was slated to hit movie theaters in October 2021
— is welcome. But a second societal spasm —
the confrontation with racial injustice — makes
“Hamilton” a problematic choice in the wake of
George Floyd’s death.
The nation seems different from a few years
ago, ready for another revolution, this time
from the streets, not from the drawing rooms
where it happened in the 1700s. We are
reexamining our dark history and who it really
holds dear. Statues are toppling, old heroes
are being interrogated and past indiscretion
brought into the light.