to be fair, they also talked about other musicals i didnt care about, but I wasn’t feeling it, lmao. i would have been happy with literally any other topic, but i fall asleep during this shit, cant help it

  • vomit_sounds [any]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    29·
    1 year ago

    I have to admit that I only knew that Hamilton was a slave owner and that he is played by a black guy. I didn’t even know he raps.

          • ScrewdriverFactoryFactoryProvider [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            15·
            1 year ago

            Edit: I ended up using this comment as an excuse to infodump but I tried not to do the whole thing where, by infodumping, I am implying that this knowledge is uncommon or that the person I’m responding to is ignorant of it. And it appears that I’ve explained the idea of a leitmotif to a theater kid. My bad, Othello. I just like explaining things. Love your stuff stalin-heart

            it implied Hamilton is TOTALLY biracial

            It’s pretty wild what facts needed to be left out or minimized to make this come across. Being playing by LMM instead of a white guy is a big part, obviously, but the whole idea that he was an “immigrant from the Caribbean” does a lot of heavy lifting there, too.

            He was the grandson of wealthy merchants on one side and of Scottish nobility on the other. He was seen as lower status because he was born in the colonies and out of wedlock, but he was very much a colonizer. And his “immigration” was moving from one British colony to another and British colony. He received a decade of private education and tutoring before his mother died and it was that education that he used to be able to go to New York with the purpose of continuing his education.

            you could have had a scene where sally hemmings comes out played by a child and had a long mournful monologue, about her abuse at the hands of jefferson, a “founding father”

            For anyone who’s not super familiar with musical theater, it tends to make heavy use of callback, reprise, and theme to tie together disparate ideas. If you don’t know what that means, think of the happy music that plays in the beginning of Up. When that same music plays near the end of the opening sequence and that makes you wanna cry? It’s not just because it’s sad. It’s because the music juxtaposes the sadness of the moment with the happiness and hope they’d just lost. It’s that kind of thing.

            Hamilton has stuff like this all over and is pretty tightly woven, but there are some dropped threads where you would expect some kind of callback and we just don’t get any. The reason? There were several more songs about opposition to slavery that were dropped because they didn’t play well in the test showings.

            Hamilton is truly a story of oppression, as packaged for the privileged masses.

              • ScrewdriverFactoryFactoryProvider [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
                9·
                1 year ago

                No need to delete it. I put mine back up. I’m just having a weird day and was getting in my head about coming off as annoying.

                I also got very into Hamilton for a while, to the point where I was writing out maps of various motifs that came up and itemizing where they were and what that did to the meaning. I think my window into Hamilton was through neurodivergence, of people looking at you like you’re crazy and being simultaneously condescending about your forwardness and obsessiveness but also in awe of a lot of your output and endurance. That said, I keep finding examples of ways that perspective falls short, so I appreciate you being sincere and sharing that.

      • MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        Not trying to sway your opinion, you’re entitled to it. From a certain perspective though, having black folks play slave owning founding fathers is sweet justice in the sense that true racists would turn over in their graves to know that a black man was playing them.

        There also are not an abundance of opportunities for black opera singers. Tossing aside the race of the characters is a statement. Listen to Leslie Odom Jr, Aaron Burr’s actor, thank Lin-Manuel Miranda deeply for creating opportunities and providing “a new vision of what’s possible” as he accepts his Tony for best actor. That old white slave owners indirectly led to the success of some crazily talented black folks in my time is something I can dig. You’re free to disagree.

        Anyway, give it a watch.

        https://youtu.be/WbkjsnMEiqE?si=w-6HMrtQq_8RWdja

        • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          7·
          1 year ago

          true racists would turn over in their graves to know that a black man was playing them.

          ah yes, the old riddle. is putting harriet tubman on the 20 dollar bill based because it would make andrew jackson angry to be replaced by a black woman? or is it cringe to put harriet tubman on the currency that was used to purchase her?

          the answer is actually that we should keep andrew jackson on the 20 dollar bill because he hated the federal reserve

          • MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Lol, a fair point. I think this somewhat cements this being a matter of perspective. Neither perspective is wrong or right, just different angles while everyone is still wanting whatever is worse for the slave owners, and whatever is best for the black folks. I’m open to having my opinion changed about whatever is the most just outcome.