Hamilton

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farley3k wrote:

After watching I decided to listen to Rivals! on Audible to try to understand the rivalry between Burr and Hamilton a bit better.

Boy it paints Hamilton in an unflattering light. He was basically a major A-hole to Burr for years. It is a very stark contrast to the Broadway show.

Like much of history I am sure it is nuanced but I came away feeling rather disappointed Miranda picked Hamilton to be the "hero" of the show.

It's been awhile since I read the Fournier book that inspired the musical, but my recollection is that their relationship was a lot less personal and/or structured than the events might have led you to believe. It's a lot closer to a Tweet war between two people who met a few times a few years ago than the intertwined and opposed narrative that the musical gives you.

farley3k wrote:

Like much of history I am sure it is nuanced but I came away feeling rather disappointed Miranda picked Hamilton to be the "hero" of the show.

The person I watched it with hadn't seen or heard anything about the show before, and their immediate reaction was "Well Eliza is the real hero".

I'm disappointed it didn't end with a guy unable to say the name "Aaron Burr" because he had a peanut butter sandwich stuck in his mouth and was out of milk.

This weekend, we had a BBQ dinner and a viewing of the show, with some desert during the intermission. Here was my wife's menu:

Act One wrote:

Rise Up Relish Tray
Ham-Burr-gers
Hurricane Hot Dogs
Your Obedient Chicken
You Will Never Be Satis-fries
Dip ‘n Chips
3 Fundamental Things at the Exact Same Time Caprese Salad
Cabinet Battle Corn on the Cob

Act Two wrote:

Monti-Jello
Non-Stop Popcorn
History Has it’s Pies on You

Perfect!

kazooka wrote:

It's been awhile since I read the Fournier book that inspired the musical

It was Ron Chernow's book.

On the conversation of secret protagonist, my vote goes to Eliza.

I couldn't watch Hamilton and turned it off after a few minutes.

The music and voice levels on the VOD were at a point where I couldn't decipher the words. It was like trying to listen to someone in a crowded area and was just frustrating.

Not interested in watching a musical as closed caption. You kids get off my lawn.

Hamilton Act 1 but it's Muppets

farley3k wrote:

Hamilton Act 1 but it's Muppets

Teaser photo lies; it's just audio, and not even "good" muppet voices. (At least, that first voice grated on me enough that I bailed pretty quickly.)

That's actually Gonzo's voice, not badly done at all. Grating, yet, but always has been...

Well, OK. I'll give it another try.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s silly still. But at least the guy who did is a good mimic.

Finally got a chance to watch this on Disney+. I don't listen to much rap so the storytelling held in some of the early songs was hard to follow lyrically. Compound this with it being a recorded stage show via television and I think a lot was lost in the translation and I'm positive I missed more than I understood. Even then, I still really enjoyed it and want to watch it again without distractions. And now I really want to go see it live.

If anything, the music was engaging and my daughter was dancing most of the time. It took me a minute but I was finally hooked at Burr's closeup during Wait For It. On the storytelling, I think it rewards people for being a fan of this period in history and I was still amazed at how much I learned. My family didn't even have that going in and my noticing or laughing at some obscure historical reference was mostly met with blank stares and eyerolls. Still it was fun to stop at intermission and fill in some blanks or google stuff as needed. Burr's portrayal as an envious Salieri was apt and human. He is mostly held up as a faceless also-ran, villain and eventual murderer in classrooms, so seeing this version of him was rewarding. Whether Hamilton was meant to be the hero or not, giving him credit as a majority stakeholder in our current system while showing him warts and all was vital and refreshing. This really felt like a smart and honest portrayal of overlooked history.

Of course I'm a huge fan of 1776 and the comparisons have been flying around for years. For anyone at Disney put off by profanity or suggestive themes, they're really nothing new even with sacred cows like the Founders. Two generations prior we had an entire musical about how the Declaration wouldn't have happened if Jefferson didn't get his daily nooner with a side of entire songs about John Adams being 'obnoxious and disliked'. Updating this style with a few f-bombs is in line with a story 'told by America today' and I especially loved the idea of framing political debates as rap battles. Some fun (deliberate or not) laughs included having the actor for Madison be a head taller than Jefferson, considering the one thing most Americans know about him was his (lack of) height. And my personal favorite was Washington calling himself the 'model of a modern major general' with Saratoga being #13 if 'in order categorical'

Either way.. liked it a lot and loved a few parts. Can't wait to watch it again uninterrupted.

There are lot of musical references. "Sometimes I have to wonder how I keep from going under" is straight out of the first rap hit, "The Message" (which is a song about holding on under stress). I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the others; I missed that Washington reference. And that's is one of my absolute favorite operas!

The King's songs are clearly homage to the Beach Boys; I think the juxtaposition is intended to show that he's stuck in the past, out of touch and just not "with it". But man, as pop songs, they are very well crafted. Great tunes.

I'm also amazed at the lyrical complexity. And the flows are just crazy. I'm still working out how the rhythms work in the first song.

Robear wrote:

The King's songs are clearly homage to the Beach Boys; I think the juxtaposition is intended to show that he's stuck in the past, out of touch and just not "with it". But man, as pop songs, they are very well crafted. Great tunes.

I thought it was a homage to The Beatles.

It has elements of that, but it also resembles "God Only Knows" and other songs off of "Pet Sounds", which is their most critically acclaimed album. What pushes it over the edge for me is the high register for the vocals, which is much more BB than Beatles. It also doesn't have the high speed four beat sound the Beatles often used (think Sgt. Peppers), it's more, wafty...

Anyway, that's my take. I grew up on both, and it clearly seems BB to me.

I've read the bits about how King George's songs are tributes to Britpop but I could see the Beach Boys as well. All I heard was Michael Buble.

And I can't take too much credit for picking up the Pirates of Penzance reference. I've been spending quarantine downtime playing Creasy's Fifteen (now Twenty) Battles on tabletop, so my brain had a little bit of Baader-Meinhof conditioning at work.

Robear wrote:

There are lot of musical references. "Sometimes I have to wonder how I keep from going under" is straight out of the first rap hit, "The Message" (which is a song about holding on under stress). I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the others; I missed that Washington reference. And that's is one of my absolute favorite operas!

The King's songs are clearly homage to the Beach Boys; I think the juxtaposition is intended to show that he's stuck in the past, out of touch and just not "with it". But man, as pop songs, they are very well crafted. Great tunes.

I'm also amazed at the lyrical complexity. And the flows are just crazy. I'm still working out how the rhythms work in the first song.

I actually loved watching for this in the credits. Any song that sampled from another song fully listed out that song & its composers, which was really cool.

Well, our tickets for Hamilton were postponed from last month to November, and who knows if that will even be the case, so we decided to check it out. (EDIT: They just moved it to Jan 2022 this morning LOL)

Glad I never experienced any of the music before this so the whole thing hit me like a mallet.

Between the fact that it was an operetta, the time period and the way the stage was set up including the rotational centre, it gave me the vibe of a less dour Les Miserables.

Robear wrote:

Anyway, that's my take. I grew up on both, and it clearly seems BB to me.

You crazy dawg. That song is so British Invasion, it sounds like The Kinks trying to do a cover of Penny Lane.

That’s nothing like the Kinks! And anyway, Pet Sounds came out 9 months before Penny Lane; in other words, right when the Beatles would have been recording...

So there!

Philippa wrecks me every single time. Damn dusty Disney channel.

Cut Hamilton Song: I Have This Friend

Just watched this, thought it was fantastic.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Just watched this, thought it was fantastic.

You really waited for it!

He was not standing still, he was lying in wait!

WizKid wrote:
Robear wrote:

The King's songs are clearly homage to the Beach Boys; I think the juxtaposition is intended to show that he's stuck in the past, out of touch and just not "with it". But man, as pop songs, they are very well crafted. Great tunes.

I thought it was a homage to The Beatles.

I got the Washington reference. My bad for not smacking you upside the head with it

Bad Lip Reading - Axe Assassin Albertson (Hamilton) Parts 1 - 5





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