Hamilton (musical)

Hamilton is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It is inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow.

The musical is about the story of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton through music that are mainly made up of hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes.

The show is known for having non-white actors as the Founding Fathers and other historical figures. Through this use of modern storytelling methods, Hamilton has been called for being the "America then, as told by America now."

A movie, which is a live recording of the musical with the original cast, was released on Disney+ on July 3, 2020.

Story

A nineteen year old orphan named Alexander Hamilton moves from the Caribbean to New York where he meets Aaron Burr who tells him to “talk less, smile more, don’t let anyone know what you're against or what you're for” then they go to a bar where they meet Hercules Mulligan, Marquis de Lafayette and John Laurens and join the American Revolution.

Burr asks General George Washington to make him his secretary but instead Washington hires Hamilton. Hamilton marries a woman named Eliza Schuyler while Burr falls in love with the wife of a British soldier. Charles Lee insults Washington so Laurens decides to duel Lee with Hamilton’s help and Washington punishes Hamilton by sending him home where Hamilton finds out his wife is pregnant.

Lafayette convinces Washington to bring back Hamilton to help with the Battle of Yorktown. Hamilton’s wife gives birth to a son Philip Hamilton while Burr has a daughter Theodosia. Hamilton and Burr become lawyers.

Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay write the Federalist Papers to convince people to get a new Constitution and President Washington hires Hamilton to be in charge of spending money for the Government.

Thomas Jefferson comes back from France and is angry with Hamilton for spending too much money. Hamilton then has sex with a married woman whose husband then blackmails him for money. Hamilton strikes a deal with Jefferson and James Madison that they get to choose the capital of the country if Hamilton can start his own bank.

Burr wishes he could be in the room where the deals are made so that he could know what happens inside it, so he joins the Democratic-Republican Party and becomes a politician. Jefferson tries to convince Washington to support France against England in their war but Hamilton convinces Washington not to do that so Jefferson quits his job working for Washington and decides to run for President of the United States while Washington decides to retire.

After John Adams becomes president he and Hamilton don’t get along well so Hamilton quits and complains about Adams. Jefferson, Madison and Burr think that Hamilton stole money from the government so Hamilton tells them the truth, that he spent his own money paying a man named Reyolds not to tell anyone that he had sex with Reynolds’s wife but Hamilton is scared that Burr will use this to blackmail him so Hamilton writes a letter in a newspaper telling everyone everything and his wife is angry with him about it.

When a man gives a speech criticizing Hamilton, Hamilton’s son Philip is angry about it, so they have a duel. Philip fires his gun at the sky but the man shoots and kills him. Hamilton becomes upset about it, Eliza being angry at him, and questioning if he knew about the duel.

Then Burr runs for president and there’s a tie between him and Jefferson so each one asks Hamilton who he thinks would be a better president of the United States. Hamilton says he hates Jefferson and disagrees with him on everything but that he’s still better than Burr since Jefferson actually believes what he says he believes but Burr doesn’t believe in anything.

Jefferson becomes president and doesn’t want Burr to be his vice president so Burr asks Hamilton for a duel. Instead of killing Burr, Hamilton fires his gun at the sky and Burr shoots Hamilton and kills him. Burr regrets his actions and his loved ones sing a song about how upsetting Hamilton dying is.

Hamilton (musical) Media

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  Cast members perform selections from the musical at the White House, 2016. L–R: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr., and Christopher Jackson

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  Members of the touring cast perform at the 2020 Women's March in San Francisco.

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  Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton

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  Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London, in December 2017

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  The Hamilton cast and crew greeted President Barack Obama on July 18, 2015. This performance was led by Miranda's then-alternate, Javier Muñoz (center left), in the titular role, while Miranda (far left) accompanied Obama in the audience.

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  Lin-Manuel Miranda Gallery, Vega Alta barrio-pueblo, Puerto Rico