In case you haven’t heard, there’s this show on Broadway called "Hamilton." (If you haven’t heard of it, what are you doing? Do you even live on this planet?) The show is a masterpiece from the brilliant mind of Lin-Manuel Miranda, detailing the life and times of U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton, complete with rap and hip-hop music and an incredibly diverse cast. The book (dubbed the “Hamiltome” by Miranda) sold out in days. The show has already won a number of awards, most recently a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and is anticipated to sweep at the Tony Awards next month (and will most likely set a record for most nominations for a single show, when nominations are announced on May 3).
"Hamilton" is more than deserving of all of these accolades for many reasons, many of which being the extraordinary lyrics Miranda wrote. Here are 23 really hard to narrow it down – there are definitely many more than deserve to be on this list!) that prove exactly why this play deserves every award it receives:
1. The entire opening song, “Alexander Hamilton.”
Okay, okay, it’s not a lyric, but seriously: how can I pick just single lines? From “10 dollar founding father without a father” to “put a pencil to his temple connected it to his brain,” every word of this song is a genius. This song perfectly introduces the show, prepares the audience for the unique musical style, and ties in perfectly to the end as we meet the narrators of Hamilton’s story. The world will never be the same, indeed.
2. History has its eyes on you.
I get chills every time I hear this line. Particularly with everything going on in our country and in the world right now, it really does feel like history has its eyes on all of us as well.
3. Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now.
I just love the beautiful, pure optimism of this line. It is such a fitting line for Eliza to sing throughout the show and is a lovely reminder to us to sometimes stop worrying about all the bad and enjoy the good once in a while.
4. I’m past patiently waiting, I’m passionately smashing every expectation, every action’s an act of creation.
Out of a phenomenal song that very distinctly defines the character of Hamilton, this line stands out as an ideal descriptor for the man. I will never stop being amazed at how Miranda puts certain words together and makes them sound so good.
5. Oui oui, mon ami, je m’appelle Lafayette. The Lancelot of the revolutionary set. I came from afar just to say “Bonsoir”! Tell the King “Casse toi”! Who’s the best? C’est moi.
Lafayette introduces himself by rapping in French. What more could you want?
6. You have no control: who lives, who dies, who tells your story.
The defining idea behind the entire show. Not only is it crucial to the show, but it really makes you think about your own life. Who will tell your story?
7. Cause I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in New York City is insidious.
Again: how does Miranda do it? This line is incredible. And nearly impossible to say (trust me, I’ve tried).
8. I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable, I am an original.
I think this might actually be my favorite line in the entire show. Burr is such a fascinating, complex person, and somehow Miranda describes his entire character with this one lyric.
9. And when my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance.
Another one of those lines that just perfectly encapsulates a character. This line is Hamilton. It absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it, and it still does every time I listen to “Hurricane.”
10. The rap in “Guns and Ships.”
The rap is incredible – and is the fastest song in the history of musical theater, with a whopping 19 words in about three seconds. Don’t deny it: you’ve tried to do it.
11. Immigrants: we get the job done.
One of my favorite notes that Miranda included in the “Hamiltome” was that they have actual had to add a few bars of music between this line and the next one because of the audience reaction to this line. It was true back then, and it’s still true now.
12. Now for a strong central democracy, if not then I’ll be Socrates throwing verbal rocks at these mediocrities.
All of “Nonstop” is pretty incredible, but I’ve always been partial to this lyric. I just love the imagery of “throwing verbal rocks.” More unbelievable word use by Miranda.
13. A civics lesson from a slaver, hey neighbor, your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor. “We plant seeds in the South, we create,” yeah keep ranting. We know who’s really doing the planting.
As my roommate said to me once, this kind of makes you think that every debate in history was a rap battle. This lyric in particular, though, just makes me want to be there cheering Hamilton on every time I hear it. I just love hearing him call out Jefferson.
14. Life doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes and we keep living anyway…
This one doesn’t really need commentary. Just: wow.
15. Your sentences left me defenseless. You built me palaces out of paragraphs, you built cathedrals.
Again with the amazing imagery. I love this lyric so much; the description is stunning, and it depicts what an incredible writer Hamilton was.
16. Thanks to Hamilton, our cabinet’s fractured into factions. Try not to crack under the stress, we’re breaking down like fractions. We smack each other in the press, and we don’t print retractions.
Further evidence of Miranda continuing to boggle my mind with his use of words.
17. We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable.
This is just one line of many from “It’s Quiet Uptown,” which makes me emotional every single time I listen to it.
18. I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.
This line is simply amazing (and is made even more so by the fact that Miranda has said it is autobiographical).
19. I’m in the cabinet, I am complicit in watching him grabbing at the power and kissing it. Washington isn’t gon’ listen to disciplined dissidents this is the difference this kid is out.
Kissing/disciplined/dissidents/difference – how do you decide to put all those words together and make them sound so good???
20. Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.
This show really makes you think about so much more than just the founding fathers and the beginning of this country.
21. Talk less, smile more.
I just love this; it’s something we should all consider. And there are definitely some politicians right now who should heed this advice.
22. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel. WORK!
One of the favorite parts of one of my favorite songs in the show. Angelica is a revolutionary-era early feminist and it is so, so amazing. You go, girl.
23. And when my time is up, have I done enough? Will they tell your story?
My love for Eliza knows no end. This lyric explains her entire character, and how she is in many ways the most important person in the entire story. The “Hamilton” referred to in the title is not just Alexander, but also Eliza.
Sorry (but not really) that these songs are all stuck in your head now. But that's an excuse to listen to it, right? That’s what I’m going to do, as I wait to one day be in “the room where it happens.”
