Patriotic shows
Jul. 4th, 2020 06:55 amIt has been the tradition at our house for several years to celebrate United States Independence Day by watching "1776" (filmed stage musical) and/or "Moscow on the Hudson" (movie). Last night we decided to take advantage of Disney+'s streaming deal to watch "Hamilton" (filmed stage musical). We'll probably watch the other two today or tomorrow.
People have been gushing so much about "Hamilton" for the past five years that it would be hard for it to live up to its hype.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shalmestere and I both found it interesting, informative, and well done, but not OMG awesome. Miranda (as author) does a good job of converting now-obscure, dry issues like national banks into relatable, human issues that you can believe people getting passionate about, and also at clever wordplay that gets those issues across concisely. Miranda (as actor, in the title role) isn't as charming or physically attractive as we are told Hamilton was, and shalmestere kept being distracted by his scruffy facial hair, which an 18th-century man of letters wouldn't have worn in public. We were both puzzled by the actresses in stays and knee-britches, no dresses, playing several unnamed "company" roles -- if they're intended to represent ordinary background people, why are they wearing androgynous underwear? And if they're intended to represent impersonal forces of nature, why are they in period-specific clothes at all?
AFAICT, there are only two characters' overlap between "Hamilton" and "1776": Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The pictures of Jefferson are radically different: "Hamilton"'s Jefferson is older, having spent a number of years in Paris, and comes off (played by the same actor in the second act who played Lafayette in the first) as a self-important, entitled queen, while "1776"'s Jefferson is a young intellectual, aware of his own intelligence but humble about his place in history. The pictures of Washington are more consistent, although in "1776" he's a disembodied voice who never actually appears on stage: he's a seasoned, world-weary military man who thinks he might not be the best person for the job, but he's got the job so by God he's going to do it the best he can, especially if he ever gets the resources he needs.
The part of "Hamilton" that resonated with me was the intellectual self-righteousness of Hamilton and, to a lesser extent, Jefferson. They're both fiercely intelligent and ambitious guys, with a tendency to think they're "the smartest one in the room" (as Burr accuses Hamilton of at one point) and that nobody else is as well suited to fix things. One must stand up for the objective truth, even at the cost of embarrassing yourself, hurting loved ones, or dying. Those are failings to which I can imagine falling victim myself. Burr is presented as just as ambitious as Hamilton, and possibly as smart, but in other ways they're diametric opposites: Burr's first words to Hamilton are advice to keep his opinions to himself, while Hamilton's criticism of Burr is for his refusal to commit publicly to anything, no matter how righteous.
ETA: On the Fourth, we didn't actually watch either "1776" or "Moscow on the Hudson": we spent about an hour binge-watching "Schoolhouse Rock" (including several episodes each of "Grammar Rock", "Multiplication Rock", and "America Rock") followed by Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", which is at least has a quintessentially American setting (1920's Louisiana), a bunch of strong POC characters, and a message of getting what you want through a combination of dreams and hard work.
People have been gushing so much about "Hamilton" for the past five years that it would be hard for it to live up to its hype.
shalmestere and I both found it interesting, informative, and well done, but not OMG awesome. Miranda (as author) does a good job of converting now-obscure, dry issues like national banks into relatable, human issues that you can believe people getting passionate about, and also at clever wordplay that gets those issues across concisely. Miranda (as actor, in the title role) isn't as charming or physically attractive as we are told Hamilton was, and shalmestere kept being distracted by his scruffy facial hair, which an 18th-century man of letters wouldn't have worn in public. We were both puzzled by the actresses in stays and knee-britches, no dresses, playing several unnamed "company" roles -- if they're intended to represent ordinary background people, why are they wearing androgynous underwear? And if they're intended to represent impersonal forces of nature, why are they in period-specific clothes at all?AFAICT, there are only two characters' overlap between "Hamilton" and "1776": Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The pictures of Jefferson are radically different: "Hamilton"'s Jefferson is older, having spent a number of years in Paris, and comes off (played by the same actor in the second act who played Lafayette in the first) as a self-important, entitled queen, while "1776"'s Jefferson is a young intellectual, aware of his own intelligence but humble about his place in history. The pictures of Washington are more consistent, although in "1776" he's a disembodied voice who never actually appears on stage: he's a seasoned, world-weary military man who thinks he might not be the best person for the job, but he's got the job so by God he's going to do it the best he can, especially if he ever gets the resources he needs.
The part of "Hamilton" that resonated with me was the intellectual self-righteousness of Hamilton and, to a lesser extent, Jefferson. They're both fiercely intelligent and ambitious guys, with a tendency to think they're "the smartest one in the room" (as Burr accuses Hamilton of at one point) and that nobody else is as well suited to fix things. One must stand up for the objective truth, even at the cost of embarrassing yourself, hurting loved ones, or dying. Those are failings to which I can imagine falling victim myself. Burr is presented as just as ambitious as Hamilton, and possibly as smart, but in other ways they're diametric opposites: Burr's first words to Hamilton are advice to keep his opinions to himself, while Hamilton's criticism of Burr is for his refusal to commit publicly to anything, no matter how righteous.
ETA: On the Fourth, we didn't actually watch either "1776" or "Moscow on the Hudson": we spent about an hour binge-watching "Schoolhouse Rock" (including several episodes each of "Grammar Rock", "Multiplication Rock", and "America Rock") followed by Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", which is at least has a quintessentially American setting (1920's Louisiana), a bunch of strong POC characters, and a message of getting what you want through a combination of dreams and hard work.
