Young Writers Society

So, I know a lot of people on the site enjoy listening to Hamilton or have heard Hamilton, so I asked myself, "Why not make a topic for it?" And, here it is. Did you like Hamilton like I did? Did you dislike it? I sure enjoyed it. Nonetheless, discuss!

I have a friend on FB and in our messenger we sing Hamilton songs to each other all day

This musical ruined my life.

Seriously, I listened to Hamilton and *nothing else* for a solid three months.

I was so, so excited to hear it was coming to London, and was ready to book tickets and flights to go see it in January when the tickets went on sale... but when I logged on about three hours after tickets went on sale they were sold out until about May 2018, and that was just way too far in advance for me to buy them. So I guess I'll have to wait a while longer - but I so badly want to see it on stage.

Anyway. It's great. I learnt so much about American history - I keep impressing people with my knowledge these days, little do they know...

Also the line "we were at a revel with some rebels on a hot night" inspired my NaNo which, you know, didn't last long BUT STILL.

@StellaThomas I have the problem of accidentally writing Hamilton lines down thinking that they're my own and then later I look back at them and I'm like "Woops that's Hamilton isn't it". I would also love to see it live, though I don't think I'll ever really get the chance...but maybe someday. I have a Hamilton shirt that I love.

Questions to you, and everyone else who has heard it. What's your favorite song and why? Who was your favorite character throughout the musical, if you have one? I was always a big fan of thinking that Hamilton and Laurens totally had a thing, and Burn is at least one of my favorite songs of the whole musical, but it's not the only one.

@Nikayla - "Satisfied" is almost certainly my absolute favourite, but there are so many good ones. I also love "Non-Stop" for the way it gets all the elements of the other songs into it, and I love the Cabinet Rap Battles - especially #2 for that line: "Should we honour our Treaty, King Louis's head? Uh, do what ever you want, I'm super dead" omg I cried.

Okay, so

I have many, many feelings about Hamilton. @Lareine once tried to ban Hamilton for something like... 48 hours? I couldn't do it, haha, I kept on trying to keep myself from dropping references and I kept on failing.

Typically, the music that runs through my head on repeat are specific lines from Hamilton songs. The current lyrics right now are:
"Angelica? All the way from London? [Dang.]"
"Angelica, thank god someone who understands what I'm struggling here to do."
"I'm not here for you."
On repeat, for maybe a couple of hours until my brain switches to another portion of the musical.

Other gems have been:
"Angelica!"
"Eliza!
"The Schuyler sisters!"
"Alexaaaander. It's good to see your face."

On repeat for hours.

As far as favorite songs go, uh dang that's pretty difficult. I used repeat Aaron Burr, Sir so much that my brother got sick and tired of it, but I wouldn't call that my favorite. I really love Satisfied, but I don't know if that qualifies as a favorite. Burn is like, ohmygod, really good. Stay Alive is really good but the reprise tugs at my heartstrings.

Okay, picking one is like trying to pick a favorite child. This isn't possible.

I think I've managed remove most Hamilton references from my general bucket of phrases, but they still manage to jump in somehow. (I wanted to add in a reference right there, but I honestly can't think of one right now. D: )

OKAY ONE LAST TIME IS REALLY GOOD OKAY I LOVE THIS

I love Eliza and Laurens and Lafayette and Angelica and gah. Okay, I think Eliza is definitely one of my favorite characters and Angelica and Hamilton himself and surprisingly Aaron Burr

Also Farmer Refuted is sooo fun to try and sing by myself.

As far as going to see Hamilton live goes, I... don't know if I'll ever be able to. My mom said she wanted to take me, but I now doubt that ever actually happening. It's a fantasy of mine, haha, but I'm happy just listening to it and watching animated bits on Youtube.



I have so many more thoughts but honestly I think I'm incoherently rambling at this point.

I got into Hamilton when we were studying the revolutionary/early presidents time periods in my US history class, and our teacher played some songs for us to help us understand. Naturally, I went home and listened to the entire thing, and because obsessed with it. And it was especially fun drawing connections between some of the later songs and things we studied-- "Hey, that line was about the whiskey rebellion!" Now it's about the only music I listen to, lol. Since there's so much I love that it makes it hard to just narrow it down to one song or one character, here's an inordinately long list of little random things I love:

- the sinister cello at the beginning of Say No to This
- "Angelica, tell my wife John Adams doesn't have a real job anyway"
- how it sounds when A Winter's Ball goes directly into Helpless
- listening to the things the company shout in various spots of the Cabinet Battles ("Not my alcohol!")
- how Washington on Your Side starts out pretty mild, but by the time it gets to "SOUTHERN *************** DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS" you're about ready to go get in the weeds and look for the seeds of Hamilton's misdeeds with Jefferson
- how pure and sweet the cast is
- the cut songs. all of them. especially the cut John Adams rap omg
- the salt in Your Obedient Servant, especially the sudden cut to sarcastic baroque-style strings when they go "I have the honor to be your obedient servant"
- the role of strings in general throughout the musical, I just love how prominent they are
- Chris Jackson's voice
- everyone's voice actually every time I think I have a favorite I hear someone else and I'm like "NO WAIT THEY'RE MY FAVE"
- just the level of genius and care and thought that went into all the lines, all the instrumentation, all the little themes that you hear crop up it's just sooooo good

aghhh okay this is the end I just have a lot of feelings

I should be sleeping, but HAMILTON TAKES PRIORITY OVER HUMAN NECESSITIES!

My mom teaches American history, eigth grade (I have the other History teacher, so since they didn't trust her grading me), and the focus is the Revolutionary War. She heard of Hamilton and purchased the soundtrack to maybe use for lessons, and though she soon realized it wasn't school appropriate, I had heard and became obsessed with it.

I have 80% of this show memorized, and for a school monologue project I did Hamilton's death soliloquy. I've also gotten a few kids in my school into it, a few of which are nearly as obsessed as me. It is by far the best musical I've ever listened too.

Everything about the show is perfect. Characterization, historical accuracy, humor, catchy tunes. It's spot on.

The unique style of music is something that caught my eye, or ear, I guess. Other than In The Heights, musicals never used pop/rap styles unless it was related to the content, like the story was about a rapper (for example). But Lin-Manuel Miranda used rap as an art form, not a content, and his boldness paid off.

I've also made fan art of it, and when I make fan art of something, I truly enjoy it.

So yeah, Hamilton. Best show. Ever. <3

Most of the lines that involve John Adams are gold, for whatever reason xD

I also love the musical styles that change depending on where the person is from. Like the King's songs all sound like Brit-pop, like McFly. And What'd I Miss is a lot more blues-y (at least to me?) It's just so cleverly written.

I also really love the deep bass notes like "here comes the general!" and "boom goes the canon" in Right-Hand Man.

Leslie Odom Jr, Philippa Soo, Renee-Elise Goldberry and Chris Jackson all have such beautiful voices.

I was so excited when Hamilton was announced to be coming to London but I was in class when they went online and once I came out they had all sold out (obviously) until May 2018 and the system was really stupid so I gave up but its just so sad.

As a musical theatre buff, I appreciate the amount of barriers Hamilton broke, from being a predominately african american/hispanic cast, to the rapping instead of traditional musical theatre music. I also really love the dancing, as a dancer, because it's not musical theatre dancing. It is straight up modern technique, which has NEVER been seen before. That, coupled with an American in Paris featuring all ballet, it's wonderful to see musicals branching out into other dancing styles to tell their story better.
I haven't gotten to see it live, yet, but I have seen the bootlegged version of the original cast at least five times and every time I die a little at how talented they are.

I don't know if any of you watched it, but PBS did a documentary on the making of Hamilton, and Lin actually discussed why each character has a certain sound. Jefferson's song, for instance in "What Did I Miss" features a genre that is a couple of generations back from the style of the rest of the musical. The point of this was to showcase how out of the times Jefferson is in comparison to the rest of the cast.
In the beginning, during My Shot/Story of Tonight, Laurens' rapping is very simplistic, and then he goes into Guns and Ships, which was designed to showcase his growth as an American citizen as the war continues.

Honestly, this musical taught me so much about american history, and I'm an american history buff. And the great thing is, the majority of it IS historically accurate. As for my favorite song, it is most definitely either Say No To This or The Schuyler Sisters.