I have heard nothing but hype about the musical Hamilton for the past four years. I’ve always been a fan of musical theater, but I also don’t really like to seek out soundtracks for musicals that I’m not already familiar with, so I never listened to anything from Hamilton. However, when I heard that a professionally-made filmed version of the Broadway show was going to be released on Disney+, I knew that I had to check it out to see what all the hype was about.

Most people that would care about Hamilton in the first place probably already know what it’s all about, so I’ll keep the description brief here. Basically, the show tells the life of Alexander Hamilton. The first act of the show deals with him coming to America, getting married, and serving under George Washington in the Revolutionary War. The second act deals with his personal/marital issues, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his eventual duel with Aaron Burr where he was shot and killed.

When it’s at its best, I think Hamilton is revolutionary. It’s rare that you’ll see a modern musical have this level of impact, and that’s encouraging to see. I think Hamilton earns its level of notoriety through all of the unique things that it does, and I’d like to go into some of those things.

For one thing, the musical sets itself apart by consisting entirely of musical numbers, with very few spoken lines ever being said. While there are definitely other examples of this, it’s pretty rare, and so I thought it was a bold choice that ultimately works in its favor. One of the other fascinating things about the show is that almost all of its characters are played by people of color. This can feel kind of jarring sometimes given who the characters are, but somehow it works. There are still weird moments, like when it’s talked about Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, and Thomas Jefferson being played by a black man here. And honestly I’m normally not a fan of when movies decide to do this sort of thing, since it usually feels very forced. But Hamilton is the exception for me, where I think the all-black cast works in its favor simply because of what this musical is.

And that brings me to the single thing that I find most unique and interesting about Hamilton, which is that it’s a hip-hop/rap musical. This is a blend that you really don’t see that often in musical theater, since most musical numbers are very “showtunes” feeling, with booming voices and long notes being held. While Hamilton does have a few numbers that feel like traditional Broadway songs, most of its songs are rapped, which was just amazing. I thought Lin-Manuel Miranda did an absolutely amazing job writing the show here, because these are some of the most interesting musical numbers I’ve heard in years.

I also want to give a lot of praise to the overall production. Part of this praise is for the production of turning this into a watchable movie, since this is something I don’t think is done nearly enough for Broadway shows. Anyone that loves musicals is familiar with having to watch crappy bootleg copies of shows in order to see them, so it was refreshing to see a professionally-shot and edited version of the show. But aside from the translation, the show itself was such an amazing production. The cast was nothing short of amazing, and they brought a historical period that normally doesn’t interest me to life in a way that I found so fun. It’s really amazing how everything plays together too, with some fantastic choreography being aided by the set design, with simple but interesting pieces like a rotating stage. The whole production was just really well done.

However, despite everything Hamilton does that is amazing, I also unfortunately do have some complaints. I actually initially had a hard time getting into it. I think part of this is because the subject matter normally doesn’t interest me, and so I’m not as familiar with the story as I should be. Aside from that, there’s just a lot going on at once in this show, and that takes some getting used to. You’re trying to focus on the lyrics, the choreography, and everything in between, and so I was kind of a little lost to what was actually going on amidst all of the initial exposition. I think that once you adjust to this, it becomes really straightforward and as enjoyable as I was describing it, but there was definitely an initial hurdle for me.

The other problem is that I don’t think the show nailed it the whole way through. I think that this is one of those unfortunate instances where act 1 is noticeably better than act 2. I thought that act 1 was damn near perfect, but in act 2 I was starting to get a little bored. I noticed that for some reason in act 2 they dialed back on the rap numbers and had more of the traditional Broadway kinds of songs, which made the musical lose what was making it unique for me. There are definitely exceptions, like two rap battles that are featured in act 2, so I don’t want to act like act 2 is horrendous or anything. I still really liked it, it just wasn’t quite as good as act 1 for me. Because of this problem, I also thought the musical ended up being a little too long. Its runtime on Disney+ is 2 hours and 40 minutes, and so it just ended up being one of those cases where I was ready for it to be over before the credits hit.

In the end, though, I think that what makes Hamilton special far outweighs its problems. I think that anyone that’s a fan of musicals needs to check it out. I actually even think that this will work for some people that normally aren’t a fan of musicals because of how different it is from the norm, so I’d also recommend this to anyone that likes rap/hip-hop. I don’t think Hamilton is quite the level of perfection that some people do, but I definitely really enjoyed it and think it’s one of the most original musicals that’s come out in a long time. I know I’m going to be listening to the soundtrack a lot from here on out.

4/5