I learned a lot from this film. First, Alexander Hamilton was Latino, and a master at rap battles. Also, that most of the founding fathers were black, and that racial diversity means making 3/4 of your cast black, without only one person who is half Asian, but no native Americans, Arabs or any other races. And that a white parents can have two black daughters, and one half Chinese daughter. And finally, that Thomas Jefferson was actually Prince. I had no idea that randomly dancing was so common in colonial times, as well. So the point being, this fantasy is clearly the product of it's times, with racial diversity triumphing over historical accuracy.
I had heard this was a great musical, and so I wanted to check it out for myself.
This film / musical is my worst fears of what musicals would be prior to my having ever seen a musical as a kid. It's people signing sporadically for no reason, as well as dancing. And the style of this film is that the everyone is constantly signing, so that there are about 50 songs in this musical, one after another, from the very beginning until the very end. I watched this film with subtitles turned on, and when people sing, it is often hard to make out the words, I would think the story would be lost if I had seen in live on stage.
Also, all of the songs are completely unremarkable. There is a lot of word repetition with a lot of the chorus repeating what the lead singer sings, and even some points where the lyrics are merely vocables (such as Da da da dat da dat da da da da ya da). None of the songs stand out as emotional high points, nor do they have a catchy tune.
All of the action takes place on a single, nondescript set. It doesn't appear to be a colonial setting, as the walls are at least two stories tall and brick.
While I realize that the creator of this musical is also the lead actor, and that is admirable in itself, I still prefer more of a story, with more depth than this musical goes into.
While the Founding Father Hamilton's life should really be better known, there are only 5 points that are relevant. In this musical, those points are brought out every 3rd song or so.
1) He was born in the Caribbean, and lost both his mother and father at a young age.
2) He was the first Treasury Secretary and he created the banking system for the US
3) He cheated on his wife (though it appears to that he was tricked, to a point)
4) His son died in a duel
5) He died in a duel.
One other point is that his wife created an orphanage
This musical completely omits Alexander Hamilton's 7 other children, making it seem like Philip, who died, was his only child.
