A&E
Hamilton’s America finally premieres on PBS, continuing the musical's legacy
By Ghada Emish ’19
October 27, 2016
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As part of the Fallcoming/ Family Weekend, a preview of Hamilton’s America, a documentary that features behind-the-scenes making of the Hamilton musical leading to its unprecedented success on Broadway, was screened on Oct. 6. The entire film is now finally available on PBS having been screened for the first time on Oct. 21.
Before the screening at Hamilton College, Rand Scholet, founder and President of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society (AHA Society), talked about his intensive research, which involved going through 51,000 pages, including over 34 books on Alexander Hamilton, and studying 47 other important political figures at the time in order to draw comparisons between Hamilton’s role and that of other politicians. At the end of his research, Scholet determined that Hamilton was George Washington’s “indispensable partner during 22 years more than any other Founding Father.”
“Alexander Hamilton contributed the foundation and visionary upon which the USA achieved greatness,” and likewise the Hamilton musical created a revolution on Broadway, confirmed Scholet.
Hamilton has had an iconic role in expanding knowledge about Alexander Hamilton’s substantial role in establishing the core of America. The AHA Society also spreads knowledge about Hamilton’s role in building the nation, which goes beyond his most renowned achievements, such as signing the Constitution and serving as the first Secretary of the Treasury. More information about the extensive activities and events organized by the AHA Society can be found at theAHAsociety.org
Alexander Horwitz, director of Hamilton’s America, started behind-the-scenes shooting in September of 2013, eventually collecting 100 hours to choose from for the creation of the documentary.
Hamilton’s America reveals that Lin-Manuel Miranda the playwright, composer and the actor playing the title role of the musical, first got the inspiration for creating Hamilton on a vacation during which he read Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton (2004). While taking in Hamilton’s story, Miranda could see the text of this biography transforming into hip-hop lyrics.
“Lin (Miranda) Hamilton is doing exactly what Shakespeare did in history’s place: he is taking the voice of the common people and elevating it to poetry” and, thus, “ennobling the people themselves,” said Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director at the Public Theatre.
Miranda immersed himself in tangible experiences of Hamilton’s life, he’d spend time working on songs in the bedroom of Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s archenemy. In his musical, Miranda succeeded in emphasizing the stigmatization Hamilton felt as a 13-year old illegitimate child suffering from poverty and how that influenced his adult life. Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, where socio-political conditions were unstable; he came to the United States by virtue of a letter, in which he expressed the difficulty of life in Nevis, written so eloquently that it was published in a newspaper and granted Hamilton access to education in America. Miranda finds a personal connection to his father’s life in Hamilton’s story. His father, Luis Miranda, came to America from Puerto Rico hoping to realize his ambitions in a city as resourceful as New York. Miranda saw in Hamilton’s story the capacity to speak for the potential of immigrants in general. “Immigrants are hard workers” because they do a lot “to make sense of their reality and succeed in that reality,” affirmed Luis Miranda.
The dramatic translation of Hamilton’s life is well-suited for the intensity of historical events. Actor Christopher Jackson, who plays George Washington, indicate that his school did not have a theatre program, so history functioned as his “drama program,” in the sense that he looks at historical incidents from the perspective of “‘Who’s protagonist? Who’s antagonist? What’s at stake?’ You might find a world there to unlock,” asserted Jackson.
The few scenes featured from Hamilton in the documentary show that the choreography of the musical, designed by Andy Blankenbuehler, seems to highlight the competitive interactions among the Founding Fathers and the obstacles that Hamilton circumvented in order to become who he was. “Choreography to me is the writing idea, the lyric idea and the emotional idea that then is exaggerated into a heightened state and becomes physicalized,” confirms Blankenbuehler.
Hamilton demonstrates that there are new discoveries being made about crucial historical matters that are thought to be well-understood and developed. Hamilton’s America celebrates the power of storytelling in presenting perspectives that would otherwise remain in the shadows of history. This is also reaffirmed in Hamilton’s last line: “Who lives…Who dies…Who tells your story.”