A Hamilton weekend!
I had requested this book from the library more than a month ago, and it came in about two weeks ago.* At the time that I requested it, I did not know that Disney Plus was going to premiere Hamilton on their streaming service.
This is fantastic!
Except...we did not have Disney Plus.
We weighed the costs.
$6.99 versus the $1200 plus it would have cost for the three of us to see it in Jacksonville. Do I like live theater? Seriously? You're asking that question to Mr. Community Theater?
But you cannot ignore the cost savings. Plus..live theater is gone, for now, especially Broadway.
So we watched it. Did we enjoy it?
YES!!!
The songs were spirited, and it was a very creative sweep through our early national history. The lyrics were rapid-fire, so I did not catch everything that everyone said, but what I did catch seem accurate and insightful. All were excellent, but Daveed Diggs was the most exceptional standout to me, with his enthusiastic portrayals of Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. I had no idea that the guy I knew from Blackish and Snowpiercer was such a consummate musical performer.
On the downside, I am not a fan of what I call operatic musicals, one where the story is only conveyed through songs, with no spoken dialogue. Nevertheless, the whole thing was so good I didn't notice it as much as I did in Les Miserables or Jesus Christ Superstar.
Yes, there was some washing over of history, but less than I thought there would be. Hamilton was an important figure, but not an unblemished one. He had associations and tolerances of slave owners, including his marriage to a woman from a slave-owning family. He was a Federalist, not my favorite party, one that was a bit more central power-oriented, and a little less for state and local control. The party was also more closely identified with wealthy interests at that time.
So, no, although I don't vilify him, I wouldn't say I was Team Hamilton.
But am I Team Hamilton the Musical?
Oh, yes! Count me on board that one!
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