i haven't looked at much critique, and I'm sure there's stuff that could have been better, nothing is perfect, but I think anyone who is willing or eager to completely decry a progressive work for not being progressive enough is not interacting well, or effectively, with reality.
Apparently I'm willing to fight and die on the pro-Hamilton hill but here are good critiques that have been made: Why in your progressive musical do you have like three female roles when you could have balanced your gender split way better Where in your progressive, race-oriented, early American History musical are the Native Americans; there is not a single one Where in your progressive musical feat. Hamilton and John Lauren's relationship is the acknowledgment that they were in a homoromantic relationship, a thing we have a pile of documented evidence about, which we know you read You address slavery in your progressive musical but not the fact that your good guys were also slaveholders and not great about that. Sup? (I never get into this argument bc to me, poc can represent slaveholding however tf they want, and I'll just be over here, not pretending I'm the expert here.) Re: that: why in all of fuck would you offhand mention Sally Hemings just once and not address that again, at all. Final point that I care deeply about and not many other people do: where in your American revolution musical are the Hessians and the Baron von Steuben. I think your rap ensembles need more fake German. There are probably other things, this is just what I've seen about and some suspicious hyperfocus on Prussia. A lot of nit picking on something that has made critics finally start calling rap Art but it's not like there's nothing here. There are a lot of good points. Where are your Native people and contralto roles, hamilton (Somewhere in the 50 years of history they couldn't cover in minute detail, christ)
A lot of the criticism I've seen seems to be people wanting the musical to cover everything they want with no thought towards pacing and time limits, people not liking any positive portrayal of the founding fathers and people ignoring the good Hamilton's done/doing for PoC especially in theatre in favor of being visibly angry about something popular.
yeah. and ignoring the awesome stuff it's doing wrt public opinion on immigration, which is kinda important. ive seen this with a bunch of media though, like, when there isn't a lot of representation people shove all their hopes and dreams on one thing. which they then idealize. and of course it fails them, because nothing is perfect, and nothing can get Every Topic. and if you try to do that, you get glee. that plus the 1 flaw = the devil's work thing.
a lot of the criticisms of hamilton i've seen seem to forget that it's about alexander hamilton, not the general historical period in the usa.
Yeah, like, one argument I looked over seemed to be going on the premise that we should never talk about the founding fathers positively at all because most of them were slave owners, and like. yes, that is terrible, and it should be talked about more, but first of all, people contain multitudes and can, indeed, do good despite bad, and I think recognizing that is pretty important, and second of all, if a musical about the founding fathers did nothing but talk about the awful things they did, no one would watch it. And if no one watched hamilton, dozens of poc actors wouldn't have the amazing career boost and opportunities they've had and thousands of people wouldn't have at least begun to rethink how they think of racism in our past- mentioning a founder as a racist slave owner and calling out sexism of the time is something not even taught often in schools, at least as far as my memory of american history serves, and it's an important step. Being a smaller, but still significant step in a progressive direction is exactly what hamilton needed, extremely radical pieces of art rarely have the extreme, broad appeal that hamilton achieved.
i have no relevant or coherent positions re: hamilton criticism that other people haven't already covered so i just gotta say this wtf nobody told me Hamilton/Laurens was canon and im so mad this was kept from me!!!! ugh, the de-queering of history will never stop being awful. but that's not really relevant to the thread so i'll shut up now.
Perusing their correspondence, endless historians have affirmed that one Alexander Hamilton and one John Laurens were in a homoromantic/homosexual relationship. Also that Laurens had several other boyfriends over the course of his life (hence fandom tending to canon Laurens gay and Alexander bi/pan in fanfiction) and that there was additional correspondence between the two that no longer exists because the Hamilton estate censored or destroyed those letters in interest of decency because they were too obscene. Warm in their friendships indeed People have been queer since the dawn of our species and probably before that, let no one erase the queer for you my friends ((EDIT: And that's why this is probably the only one of those points I listed above that actually bothers me. Yes they absolutely didn't have the time or the set-up for most the issues I listed. They DID have time to cover this relationship and talk about John Laurens, because they DID. It was an important plot and emotional point of the show and they just... low-key no-homo'd it. Despite the fact that you read this material and had to have had an inkling about this relationship, you mentioned he may have been his lover in the damn Hamiltome you just... sigh. Ok, the Sally Hemings thing bothers me for the same reason--if you included it, say something about it? Or just leave it out.)
I do like that a founding father most people had forgotten about because his main achievements were so ECONOMICAL and HARD TO READ has somehow centuries later become a bisexuality icon. One I fully, wholeheartedly accept. You hot mess of a man, Ham, you are queer American history.
THIS HAS BEEN THE ENTIRE TIME HELLO I'VE BEEN IN HAMILHELL FOR LIKE 4 MONTHS I think I know at least Act 1 entirely off by heart oops. I will catch up with this thread when I get home!!
I HAD A DREAM ABOUT THIS Laurens was wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt the entire time. Alex starts off in worn-looking clothing including an ugly striped jumper and gradually gets nicer clothes as he climbs up in the world. ...Ok that's literally all I can remember but I just woke up like, "Thank you, brain, Laurens would absolutely be wearing a BLM shirt."
I would like to a) apologise for spamming the thread and b) ALSO CONCUR IM SO MAD LIKE LIN I LOVE YOU BUT YOU COULD'VE MADE THE LAMS WAY MORE OBVIOUS
Suggestion: in all future performances of Hamilton: an American Musical, Ham plants a sloppy, desperate kiss on Laurens immediately before the Laurens/Lee duel, potentially followed by him handing Laurens a handkerchief as a token. Y/N
Ok so this reminds me. I MIGHT have watched a bootleg of Act 1 (I want to save Act 2 for when I EVENTUALLY GET TO A THEATRE. IT WILL HAPPEN. I'M WILLING TO WAIT FOR IT. And I enjoy sobbing in front of strangers apparently) and I just want to post these Lams screenshots bc y'all Spoiler: image heavy (also sorry lin) The classic Laurens Neck Grip Which is immediately followed by Laf and Herc telling them to be less gay this is the 1700s shit's still illegal, y'all (LOOK AT THEIR FACES. THEY'RE SO GUILTY) Except they don't give a fuck because they're young scrappy and thirsty hungry And if you look closely you can pin-point the moment Laf and Herc realise John has got it BAD
Whenever I listen to the album, I always block it in my head for maximum Lams. For example, having them dance together in My Shot, and using that evil genius's idea about Satisfied being a duet (though I divide the lines up differently to the OP), and so on. I love the sloppy-desperate-kiss idea, though. I'm definitely adding that to my headproduction.
http://unicornempireprints.tumblr.c...nicornempire-new-hamilton-design-preorder-get https://www.etsy.com/listing/484746...n-t-shirt-not-throwing?ref=shop_home_active_4 -casually pushes this across the table at fellow nerds-
@albedo oh gosh they were at the last con I was at and I only resisted getting one by being broke as fuck *grabby hands*
