Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere for the past couple of years, I’m sure you will have heard of the award winning stage and film musical Hamilton.
I first came across Hamilton whilst listening to show-tunes on Youtube and instantly loved the music and lyrics written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. However I didn’t have the chance to see it until it came out on film by Disney in 2020. This filming was of an earlier cast and featured Lin-Manuel himself as the famous Alexander Hamilton.
Filmed at The Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in June of 2016, Hamilton tells the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton's life and the trials and tribulations of America and politics at that time.
It is a story of America then, told by America now.
Here is a list of 10 interesting facts about the show, some of which even hardcore Hamilton fans might not know.
1. How long Hamilton took to write
Lin-Manuel took over 7 years from 2008 to 2015 to compose and write Hamilton. With some songs taking up to a year to write and perfect, and with a total of 46 songs of course it took a while!
2. Hamilton holds the world record for most Tony award nominations.
That’s right, this award winning musical holds the title for most nominations. In the 2016 Tony Awards Hamilton was nominated for 16 awards and of that it won 11. Including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actor in a Musical (Leslie Odom Jr.), Best featured Actress in a Musical (Renée Elise Goldsberry), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Paul Tazewell), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Howell Binkley), Best Direction of a Musical (Thomas Kail), Best Choreography (Andy Blankenbuehler) and Best Orchestrations (Alex Lacamoire).
It is also one of the very few musicals to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Awarded to
Lin-Manuel Miranda.
3. The song ‘Guns n Ships’ is the fastest song EVER in musical theatre
Using a mix of hip hop, RnB and pop Hamilton has some pretty speedy songs with ‘Guns n Ships’ being the fastest ever. During this song the character Lafayette raps at 6.3 words a minute! Now that’s pretty fast.
4. The amount of Lyrics it covers in a small space of time.
Hamilton has a total of 46 songs, and over 20,000 words to deliver to its audience. Over the complete run time it works out as 144 words per minute. Let's compare that to some other shows. Oklahoma! is at 59 words per minute, with a total word count of 4,303. Pirates of Penzance has around 58 words per minute, with a total of 5,962 and Phantom of the Opera had 77 words per minute, and a total of 4,709 words. Now back to Hamilton- if this was to be performed in regular speech it would take 5 to 7 hours to complete the whole show.
5. The secret character named The Bullet
Played by Ariana DeBose, in the filmed show and original Broadway cast, this hidden character is one of the most important throughout the musical. The bullet represents death heading towards Alexander during the story and it also interacts with other characters at important times too. Just have a look. The Bullet Carries a shot that barely misses Hamilton at the start of ‘Stay Alive’. In Yorktown, The bullet shakes hands with Laurens after helping him kill a redcoat. Laurens then becomes the next character to die. In ‘Blow Us All Away’, she tells Phillip where to find George Eacker, who goes on to kill him in a duel. The Bullet herself is killed after King George song "You'll Be Back," when she's discovered acting as a spy and during Hamilton’s duel with Burr, notice how she slowly moves closer and closer to Hamilton while he’s giving his final speech. She stops when Eliza appears, when his life flashes before his eyes, and then she continues on to kill him. The bullet appears in many other moments in the show. Next time you’re watching, be sure to watch her path and see what happens to those characters.
6. The relationship between Alexander and Angelica
Most of what we see in the show is true, however when Alexander and Angelica are concerned Lin-Manuel chose to change things a little. Now it is true that Angelica liked Alexander and had things been different she would have pursued a relationship with him, but the famous lyric ‘ My dearest, Angelica’ was actually the other way around. Now it did of course happen but with Angelica to Alexander and that famous comma did cause a stir for him too, changing the meaning completely. In actual fact though, in the show when Alexander met Angelica, Angelica was already married, with children and had moved away. Still the same flirtatious relationship did happen between them, just from a distance.
7. The ingenious staging of Arron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.
Now, many things about this hit musical are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G but if you are a theatre buff like me then you will really appreciate my next point and the impact it has on the show. The way in which Burr and Alexander walk throughout the show is purposeful. Now for the untrained eye they are just walking around the stage, but if like me you noticed the way they move, well done. This is part of their characters. Aaron Burr typically walks in straight lines from A to B to show that his vision is very straight and he only sees one option in life, whereas Alexander travels in an arc or circular pattern to show he is open to change and many possibilities, not just the straight and narrow like Burr. You will also notice that throughout the show Burr does change,more so towards the end of the musical. It’s very slight but by the end Burr has started to walk with a curve too. What excellent staging and a great way to show character development. Totally ingenious.
8. King George The Third
Yes, he gets a whole point about him and why you may ask? For those of you that have seen the show I think you will agree that he is one of the most memorable things about Hamilton. However, did you know that King George lll Is on stage for a grand total of just nine minutes? And only 6 mins 45 secs is actually singing too. The other 2 minutes he spends dancing and strutting on and off the stage and yet he is the one of the best things about the show.
9. The Eliza Project is a real charity.
In the final song ‘Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story’ Eliza sings the line “I established the first private orphanage in New York City. I help to raise hundreds of children.” Well this is true, back in 1806 an orphanage was opened by the Schuyler Hamilton foundation. It is still going today under the name Graham Windham and continues to help children in NYC. However, Phillipa Soo, who played Eliza in the original broadway cast of Hamilton, and Morgan Marcel created The Eliza Project in 2015 to provide children in Graham Windham opportunities to study The Arts.
10. Eliza’s infamous gasp at the end of the show.
Why does she gasp? What does it mean? Well upon asking Lin-Manuel he said this part of the show isn’t scripted and the Elizas can choose to do it how they wish and many people have their own ideas about what it means. It could be that Eliza dies and finally gets to be with Phillip and Alexander again, especially because Alexander appears just behind her. It could be that she realises how much good she actually did in the time she had left and another popular theory is that she breaks through the fourth wall of theatre and sees the audience. For me it’s one of the most poignant parts of the show and I love it. It brings me out in goosebumps every time I hear it.
That’s it, I'm off to watch Hamilton again now! Let me know your thoughts on this blog. Do you know any more fun facts about the show?
I think the gasp at the end is her dying. I’ve only seen the version on Disney+ but I’d love to see other actresses’ interpretations!
I'm sure Next to Normal won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2010.