What Is Hamilton?

The latest musical to take the world by storm is the off-broadway production of Hamilton: An American Musical. The creator of the play, Lin-Manuel Miranda, created and played the role of Alexander Hamilton in the production. When he was in high school, Miranda wrote a paper about the 1804 duel between Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr. That paper sparked his interest, which was a leading cause in the creation of this musical. While Hamilton may be the musical of the century, not everyone can see it live, as tickets are limited and expensive. This, however, does not stop the fans from seeing the show. Many fans find videos online and listen to the story in the songs. One of the Scituate High School’s history teachers, Kristen Emerson, confesses how she’s “one of those people who voraciously watches any video that [she] can of the performance.” Many Hamilton fans have only heard the storyline through songs and videos, but still understand it through these viewing methods.

Scituate High School junior and Hamilton lover, Abbey Johnston, is going to the show on Saturday, October 1st, and claims that she cried when she got the tickets. When asked why she loves Hamilton so much, she exclaimed, “It just gets me so amped up! When I’m feeling down and stuff… it’s just gotten me through some really hard times. Just some of those songs man… you just get really into it! You just feel so much better about yourself.” She has been a Hamilton lover for a long time because “it’s not your typical musical.” This is a very different type of musical that anyone has ever seen. It brings hip-hop, R&B, pop, and rap, together to form an amazing type of show that appeals to varieties of audiences. Emerson explains, “it’s a totally new way of telling an old story… It’s not a normal musical. A lot of people don’t like it because of that, but I like it all the more because of it. It literally does not sound like a musical.” The amazing cast creates a show that brings the story alive. Emerson says, “They have different rapping styles. Lafayette raps extremely quickly, Thomas Jefferson doesn’t rap. It’s a slow kinda lazy rap. It brings to life real people, which is very hard for musicals to do.” This amazing production was nominated for sixteen Tony awards and in the end, won eleven of them. Hamilton has created its own brand of musical theater that many hope to see more of in the future.