Skip to main content

Revisiting "Hamilton"

 I went back to see "Hamilton" this weekend -- my first time as a married man and father of children. 


One thing that struck me is that Lin-Manuel Miranda isn't consistently interested in Eliza; he seems to try really, really hard, but, in Act Two, you can sometimes feel his pulse slowing to a crawl when he attempts to imagine this character's inner life. (Thus: the puzzling talk about "removing myself from the narrative," "putting myself back in the narrative." Who uses language in this way? If Miranda could try another draft, he might find more moments for Eliza that move beyond "tedious saint" writing.)


I did think of Ann Leary's remarks on "Breaking Bad": "Vince Gilligan doesn't always know what to do with Skyler, so he just has her constantly applying hand cream. Again and again, the camera moves to Skyler, and we see her reaching for her jar of hand cream....")

This isn't to say I lack love for "Hamilton." (I've spent many, many hours thinking about this show!) But, it seems to me, love can include an honest assessment of the loved object's flaws.

Mainly, the excitement I felt Saturday had to do with Lin-Manuel Miranda's self-satire. Like Hamilton himself, Miranda is "a bit much." He is someone who feels that America really needs a book of his own inspiring Tweets. (He retyped his Tweets as a book, and he sold the book!) He is someone who appointed himself to deliver a self-infatuated sermon to the country after the Pulse nightclub shootings. Miranda is just a bit insufferable, and he seems to know this, and he can laugh about his own "Hannah Horvath" qualities. That's sort of charming.

My favorite "Hamilton" moments are any moments in which Hamilton reveals his character through gestures. I love when he appears at a trial: "Do you realize, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the very first murder trial ever to occur in our young nation?" (Burr has a wonderful rejoinder: "My client is innocent. That's all you need to say.") I admire the way "hunger" is suggested when Hamilton deflects a question about his origins: "Unimportant. There's a million things I haven't done. But just you wait....Just you wait...." And I like his bluntness, his way of slicing through skin to get to the subtext: "Don't modulate the key then not debate with me...."

What a treat to spend three more hours with this living, breathing invention, in the big city, on Saturday.

P.S. It seems like LMM was recalling Sondheim's "Dot" while he was writing. Dot says, "Look at what you've done, then at what you want." Eliza says, "Look at where you are. Look at where you started." But I *care* more about Dot--who can be juvenile, gossipy, raunchy, dishonest, peevish, human. I just care more about Dot than about Eliza. That's where I'm at. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

The Death of Bergoglio

  It's frustrating for me to hear Bergoglio described as "the less awful pope"--because awful is still awful. I think I get fixated on ideas of purity, which can be juvenile, but putting that aside, here are some things that Bergoglio could have done and did not. (I'm quoting from a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Church.) He could levy the harshest penalty, excommunication, against a dozen or more of the most egregious abuse enabling church officials. (He's done this to no enablers, or predators for that matter.) He could insist that every diocese and religious order turn over every record they have about suspected and known abusers to law enforcement. Francis could order every prelate on the planet to post on his diocesan website the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. (Imagine how much safer children would be if police, prosecutors, parents and the public knew the identities of these potentially dangerous me...
1 comment
Read more

Raymond Carver: "What's in Alaska?"

Outside, Mary held Jack's arm and walked with her head down. They moved slowly on the sidewalk. He listened to the scuffing sounds her shoes made. He heard the sharp and separate sound of a dog barking and above that a murmuring of very distant traffic.  She raised her head. "When we get home, Jack, I want to be fucked, talked to, diverted. Divert me, Jack. I need to be diverted tonight." She tightened her hold on his arm. He could feel the dampness in that shoe. He unlocked the door and flipped the light. "Come to bed," she said. "I'm coming," he said. He went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of water. He turned off the living-room light and felt his way along the wall into the bedroom. "Jack!" she yelled. "Jack!" "Jesus Christ, it's me!" he said. "I'm trying to get the light on." He found the lamp, and she sat up in bed. Her eyes were bright. He pulled the stem on the alarm and b...
1 comment
Read more