On Friday, October 21st aired ‘Hamilton’s America’ as part of PBS’s “Great Performances.” Directed by Alex Horwitz, ‘Hamilton’s America’ is a documentary about the beginnings of the hit Broadway musical ‘Hamilton’ and the person for the inspiration of the play, the one that helped found our country, Alexander Hamilton. The documentary followed the three years that Lin-Manuel Miranda spent in creating ‘Hamilton.’
The Broadway phenomenon that is ‘Hamilton’ premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in early 2015, and officially opened on August 6, 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of ‘Hamilton’ was inspired to write rap songs when he read Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton. In the documentary, Miranda revealed to Chernow that rap songs were just coming off the page when he read it. The New York Times called it a “game changer” when the “Hamilton Mixtape” was made. The Broadway play has won eleven Tony Awards including Best Musical, a Grammy Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.
The documentary takes a closer look at the creating of ‘Hamilton’ and the process that Miranda went through as he made it into a musical. However, the documentary is not just another film about being backstage and the putting together of the musical. It had also focused on the history of the actual founding father himself and his views as he helped establish the nation. The documentary intertwines both the American history and the creating of the play as they do go hand-in-hand.
As a musical, we learn that the rap within the play is different as each character has his or her own style as they sing. For instance, Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs) has an jazz twist when he raps in the opening number for Act Two, which really signifies how out-of-touch he is since he has been in France. George Washington (Christopher Jackson) has a more metronomic style because as a person he is more methodic.
Furthermore, we see how ‘Hamilton’ began as just a song when Miranda first performed it at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word in 2009, where he was originally supposed to perform a part from ‘In the Heights.’ We see how and where Miranda wrote the number “My Shot.” And we see the reason why Hamilton’s color is green—because the walls in Hamilton’s study were green.
As for who Alexander Hamilton is, the documentary features Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr), and other cast members learn about their respective characters as they go to different historic sites. It shows Miranda writing the lyrics for the play in a room that Aaron Burr once slept in. They go to “the room where it happens.” They went to historical landmarks such as Valley Forge and Mount Vernon.
Moreover, with interviews from the cast we learn in the documentary that Miranda as Alexander Hamilton character is just playing his dad; Jonathan Groff thinks that King George’s solo is basically a break-up song; and Daveed Diggs believes Thomas Jefferson wrote a wonderful document, but kind of “sucks.”
In addition to interviews from the ‘Hamilton’ cast, the documentary featured interviews with politicians such as President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Horwitz stated, “This is a film about shared history, shared ideals,” so he felt it necessary to bring in commentators from both sides. Because this was an opportunity to illustrate history, politicians readily agreed to it.
Best of all, the documentary featured clips from the actual Broadway musical and performances that the cast sings on stage. Seeing those clips are even more amazing when you have never seen the play.
Lin-Manuel Miranda expected ‘Hamilton’ to change his life, but he never expected that the show would change the legacy of the founding father. Miranda keeps saying that he is “waiting for life to get back to normal.”
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If you missed it on television, you can watch it on the PBS website until November 18th--don't miss your shot!
