Hamilton also grows up to become a Schuyler by marrying into the family. Schuyler is the Dutch word for scholar, giving the line an extra layer of meaning.
— Annotation from Genius.com for the line “grow up to be a hero and a scholar”
i think reading this quote is the first time i’ve really registered the fact that the characters in hamilton aren’t based on their historical counterpoints as people, they’re based on the words they left behind
jefferson is obviously the best example of this because his musical character so clearly doesn’t match up to contemporary descriptions of him as shy, awkward, etc, but equally as clearly DOES match up to the character you would create of him if you only had his words–smooth, cocky, showy.
this is also super important for understanding musical burr, i think: i’ve seen people talk about how hard it is to match historical burr (lights himself on fire, constantly broke, clearly a fucking mess) with musical burr, who’s smooth-talking and put-together and in every way a counterpoint to hamilton’s messy brashness. but lmm literally explains their characters in terms of their writing: “hamilton left behind 27 volumes of written work, burr left behind less that two. and i think that sort of tells you everything you need to know.” (x) that’s fundamentally what their characters are based on.
for this show that’s so fundamentally about the ways we tell stories and the way we all are remembered–and just as fundamentally about words and the power of language–i just think it’s a really fascinating choice to create characters out of words, not just on the craft level but on a greater meta level wrt what we leave behind
(via nightpool)
- Lin-Manuel Miranda: *chopped voice* so I see the 800-page biography and I'm immediately thinking hip-hop musical
This morning’s Hamilton-based verbal thought loop: “he started retreatin’ and provin’ every theorem on the shelf”
What does the line “America forgot him” refer to? Was there a time period when Hamilton was some obscure historical figure?
I think it’s just a reference to the fact that most Americans don’t know much about Hamilton except his name and possibly the fact that he died in a duel.
you strike me as a woman who’s never been satisficed
I know my sister like I know my own mind: my intuitions about her are wildly off-base and I can only predict her behavior marginally better than chance due to the work of Kahneman and Tversky
(via shlevy)
The year has brought Mr. Chernow experiences that he describes as “a biographer’s wish-fulfillment fantasy.”
Outside of the theater one night, actor Anthony Ramos, who plays John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, was signing autographs and spotted Mr. Chernow, “real incognito in the back,” the actor recalled.
“I wanted to give a shout out to Ron,” Mr. Ramos said. “If it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t be here.”
So, putting the author in the stage-door spotlight, he yelled: “Everybody, this is the guy who wrote the book!”
The scrum gasped and swiveled, applauding a man accustomed to tidy lines of fans at book stores.
“I was so startled by the crowd’s reaction, I simply waved and rushed off in a daze,” Mr. Chernow said, estimating there were 150 people. “I had never had a moment like that.”
The moment was unique not only because of the “demonstrative” fans, he said, but also because he had incorrectly imagined the cast would be full of feuding stars and prima donnas: “They’re all so damn nice. There has been very little backstage drama.”
I think what Hamilton’s tapping into is the silent majority of people who like lots of different kinds of shit. A lot of us go to Tumblr and read, like, a Jay Z Parks and Recreation fan Tumblr, or go and see people make Manga versions of Shakespeare. Most of us just like good shit.
— Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s like he KNOWS ME. (via professorfangirl)
(Source: GQ, via andromedalogic)