![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshayminI saw "Hamilton" with my parents in San Antonio last Sunday! I loved it, boy oh boy oh boy~
I was mostly listening to my iPod because I didn’t want to listen to my parents in case they didn’t like it because they were old and Rap Musicals Are Weird and Difficult to Follow (which judging from their expressions during intermission, it was likely) but I still ended up catching, “I don’t understand why they had different races play historical figures who were originally white.”
I think I know why.
The Founding Fathers are as white as white can get. So white and male that they’re practically mayo. So having them played by mostly black men while engaging with a genre thought specifically for blacks (rap), it forces you to look at Hamilton and the FF as wholly new people. And that’s the thing. Hamilton & Co. are super white and male. Yet their lives and struggles are something a lot of people who aren’t white and male can still relate with: rebellion, a fight for freedom against their privileged and rich oppressors, and the hard work of keeping and shaping their independence after it’s been established.
“This nation was founded by immigrants.” This was a line met with applause from the audience. Unfortunate Implications regarding Native Americans and slavery aside, the musical emphasizes that Hamilton himself is from a family of immigrants. It’s a reminder that the people that white supremacists loathe and spit on were the ones who built the country they claim to love. Lin-Manuel Miranda in the role of Hamilton shows us how proud he is of his Puerto Rican heritage, and subtly shows its audience the parallels between how the British treated the US when they were still colonies to how the US treats Puerto Rico today. Hell, it’s explicitly shown by King George still being played by a white guy. :p
To show exactly how screwed America would've been if it didn’t rely on other nations (meaning (gasp) people who aren’t white Americans), George Washington is played by an Asian man, reminding the audience that nations like China and Japan historically had serious military skill. The French too were also played by black people—they were our allies and it's damned disgraceful the way America today treats the people who worked so hard to help them in the past.
Speaking of black and brown people pulling the weights and progress of America while white politicians are busy being petty high schoolers, Eliza and Angelica are specifically played by black women. The end of the musical emphasizes Eliza’s importance; if it hadn’t been for her hard work, we would’ve known little about her husband and the people who worked so hard to build America. It is black women today who are pushing the hardest for progress in our country. For all the praise we give the suffragists, they were perfectly willing to give up their voice and the right to vote and keep serving the patriarchy if it meant WOC couldn’t get rights. It's the Ida B. Wellses, not the Susan B. Anthonies, who prevented our country from imploding itself into stasis and carried on the hopes and dreams of Eliza Schuyler for a continually evolving country that truly would become a land where you could be free.
Casting POC as white historical figures can also be used as scathing political commentary and irony. See: Thomas Jefferson, who had used and abused Sally Hemings, and his hypocritical policies regarding slavery. Casting him as a pompous black asshole who is the Regina George to Hamilton’s Cady feels like the perfect Fuck You and call-out of a guy who really isn’t the romantic figure your biased history books portrayed him.
“Hamilton” showed how history can be relevant and colorful. All those stone dead people are no longer generic bland faces with dates and a laundry list of accomplishments (military and otherwise) It showed how important it was to remember the legacies of the people who shaped our world for better or worse, from the unsung heroes who were ignored due to being women/POC/WOC/LGBTQ/etc. to the famous figures we thought we knew but turned out to be demonized or put on a pedestal and stripped of their humanity. Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story? Those words kept haunting me long after I saw the musical.
There’s a reason why Mike Pence despised this show, and this is it. :p
(Also, I think it’s telling how loud the applause was after “Burn,” Eliza’s actress’s incredible singing aside. I think I even heard a woman in the audience crying. DDD: )
Consider this my glowing review and my recommendation to see this live. :p Just boy oh boy oh boy. The rush and elation of seeing a good musical is spectacular and magical~ <3
I was mostly listening to my iPod because I didn’t want to listen to my parents in case they didn’t like it because they were old and Rap Musicals Are Weird and Difficult to Follow (which judging from their expressions during intermission, it was likely) but I still ended up catching, “I don’t understand why they had different races play historical figures who were originally white.”
I think I know why.
The Founding Fathers are as white as white can get. So white and male that they’re practically mayo. So having them played by mostly black men while engaging with a genre thought specifically for blacks (rap), it forces you to look at Hamilton and the FF as wholly new people. And that’s the thing. Hamilton & Co. are super white and male. Yet their lives and struggles are something a lot of people who aren’t white and male can still relate with: rebellion, a fight for freedom against their privileged and rich oppressors, and the hard work of keeping and shaping their independence after it’s been established.
“This nation was founded by immigrants.” This was a line met with applause from the audience. Unfortunate Implications regarding Native Americans and slavery aside, the musical emphasizes that Hamilton himself is from a family of immigrants. It’s a reminder that the people that white supremacists loathe and spit on were the ones who built the country they claim to love. Lin-Manuel Miranda in the role of Hamilton shows us how proud he is of his Puerto Rican heritage, and subtly shows its audience the parallels between how the British treated the US when they were still colonies to how the US treats Puerto Rico today. Hell, it’s explicitly shown by King George still being played by a white guy. :p
To show exactly how screwed America would've been if it didn’t rely on other nations (meaning (gasp) people who aren’t white Americans), George Washington is played by an Asian man, reminding the audience that nations like China and Japan historically had serious military skill. The French too were also played by black people—they were our allies and it's damned disgraceful the way America today treats the people who worked so hard to help them in the past.
Speaking of black and brown people pulling the weights and progress of America while white politicians are busy being petty high schoolers, Eliza and Angelica are specifically played by black women. The end of the musical emphasizes Eliza’s importance; if it hadn’t been for her hard work, we would’ve known little about her husband and the people who worked so hard to build America. It is black women today who are pushing the hardest for progress in our country. For all the praise we give the suffragists, they were perfectly willing to give up their voice and the right to vote and keep serving the patriarchy if it meant WOC couldn’t get rights. It's the Ida B. Wellses, not the Susan B. Anthonies, who prevented our country from imploding itself into stasis and carried on the hopes and dreams of Eliza Schuyler for a continually evolving country that truly would become a land where you could be free.
Casting POC as white historical figures can also be used as scathing political commentary and irony. See: Thomas Jefferson, who had used and abused Sally Hemings, and his hypocritical policies regarding slavery. Casting him as a pompous black asshole who is the Regina George to Hamilton’s Cady feels like the perfect Fuck You and call-out of a guy who really isn’t the romantic figure your biased history books portrayed him.
“Hamilton” showed how history can be relevant and colorful. All those stone dead people are no longer generic bland faces with dates and a laundry list of accomplishments (military and otherwise) It showed how important it was to remember the legacies of the people who shaped our world for better or worse, from the unsung heroes who were ignored due to being women/POC/WOC/LGBTQ/etc. to the famous figures we thought we knew but turned out to be demonized or put on a pedestal and stripped of their humanity. Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story? Those words kept haunting me long after I saw the musical.
There’s a reason why Mike Pence despised this show, and this is it. :p
(Also, I think it’s telling how loud the applause was after “Burn,” Eliza’s actress’s incredible singing aside. I think I even heard a woman in the audience crying. DDD: )
Consider this my glowing review and my recommendation to see this live. :p Just boy oh boy oh boy. The rush and elation of seeing a good musical is spectacular and magical~ <3
