Why You Should Watch Hamilton, Even If You're Tired of Hearing About It
We’ve all been there. Someone tells us to check out this new thing that is “the best thing ever”, and before we even engage it we can feel the pressure to give it the same level of praise. I would bet that this is the story for a large part of the population that had a friend tell them they should check out Hamilton at the height of its power. This level of popularity can often bring the contrarians to the top of the twitter feed like a fire trying to rise to the people on the top floor. So needless to say, something that has been so popular for so long is bound to have huge fans and harsh critics. However, in the midst of the years of acclaim, what was once an exclusive and groundbreaking piece of art became a household sing-a-long that families listen to while they make dinner. The Michelin star meal was transferred into a microwave dinner, with specifically chosen and risky ingredients simply printed on the tiny ingredients label where most would never look. Despite what seems to be a culture-wide watering down, Hamilton has found new life with its release on Disney+. It has been given a timely comeback to remind us of why those friends of ours thought it was “the best thing ever” in the first place.
Hamilton was revolutionary (pun very much intended), but the release of the filmed performance reminds us that it still is. In the midst of our nation’s outcry against racial injustice, here is the story of America’s founding fathers, all white men, many of whom owned slaves and actively fought for the continuation of slavery in the building of a new nation. Yet, in Hamilton, you will not see a single founding father with a white face. Writer, composer, actor, and producer Lin Manuel-Miranda made a specific choice to primarily include only people of color in this story of America’s fight for freedom. The result is a powerful one, one that when you stop and look past the catchy hooks and clever rhymes, you can see the pain of the injustice that has plagued our nation for 400 years. Christopher Jackson who plays George Washington was quoted in an Indiewire article saying, “Their deficiencies are well-documented and glaring. It was a very powerful choice to take the idea of these men and present them through the bodies and vessels of Black and brown actors. It represents the fact that our role in building this country has never truly been acknowledged, and I think it opened up the audiences’ minds to the spirit of what these men meant, even if they were woefully incapable of living it out in their own experiences.” The role of Hamilton in our culture has been significant, yet its message goes far deeper still as Alexander Hamilton’s story speaks to forgiveness in light of the gospel and how we as people and as a nation can move forward.
Micah 4:4 (CSB), “But each person will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the Lord of Armies has spoken.”
In the song “One Last Time” Christopher Jackson as George Washington sings:
If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on
It outlives me when I’m gone
Like the scripture says:
“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.”
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made
I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree
A moment alone in the shade
At home in this nation we’ve made
The message of this verse’s impact goes beyond this song. Crouching behind every decision the characters in this show make is the fear that they will not have a legacy. Legacy is everything to these men. They must constantly work:
How do you write like tomorrow won't arrive?
How do you write like you need it to survive?
How do you write ev'ry second you're alive?
Specifically, in the life of Hamilton, we see how this constant need to have a meaningful life plays out. He searches for satisfaction in places where it couldn’t be found and ultimately ends up destroying his own life for fear of losing his legacy. It seems that once everything was gone for Hamilton, he began to search for what Washington had already found: a moment alone in the shade. A space outside of the public eye where his family became his legacy, not his constant fighting and writing. The story of redemption between him and his wife Eliza is a powerful one. A story hinted at in “It’s Quiet Uptown”. Only through the grace of Christ are we able to find the type of forgiveness that Eliza finds. The type of forgiveness that even fifty years after the death of Hamilton, allowed Eliza to continue his legacy by telling his story. These themes of grace, forgiveness, and redemption are stitched into the very threads of Hamilton’s story.
So whether or not you’ve always loved Hamilton, or you’ve always been annoyed by its fandom, the filmed performance is a must-watch. Watching the actors move across the stage is a reminder of our nation’s beautiful diversity and the power the gospel has by grace to bring forgiveness and redemption to even the bleakest of our nation’s deep flaws. Because as Burr would agree, the world is wide enough for all of us.