The Musical “Hamilton”

In the cast of Hamilton, people with color play the role of a caucasian person. This idea helps the society because it shows race, color, or religion does not matter. Courage and bravery come along with presenting the unfamiliar roles. All human beings deserve equal rights, respect, and to be treated the same.

First, Hamilton 'reclaims' the history of America's founding by placing people of color at the center of it. It allows people of color to see themselves as a part of history--not just as slaves and servants, but as men (and women, to a lesser degree) of power and influence. 'Hamilton' succeeds as a work of art because it's more than just a musical. It's cultural criticism done with the utmost grace and cleverness. One of the main reasons of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s idea of the reverse roles was to portray the story of America from its historical past through the eyes and voices of America now. Miranda has expressed his desire to write shows for male Latinos. He struggled in the theatre to find lead roles that he could fit, so he wrote them. With using modern music like rap and soul, Lin-Manuel Miranda wanted to use Hamilton to convey the heart and soul, as well as the diversity, of modern America. Although using a non-white cast is not representative of the Colonial/post-Revolution United States, it is representative of the present state of our country. The musical is designed to be relatable, and the fact that all races are represented makes it a more relatable production.

He also talked about the fact that people of color often get passed up for big roles in general. He wrote a show to give people of color the opportunity to shine.

Next, Miranda’s decision comes to be a very artistic choice as much as it is a political one. If your production of Hamilton features the founding fathers who look like the real ones, you're doing it wrong. The multiracial cast of Hamilton is important because it's a representation of the innovative immigrant culture that provides to the growth of America. Not only does Hamilton provide meaty roles for performers of those backgrounds, but it proves that a show starring people of color can be enormously successful. Miranda's revolutionary musical gets people thinking about race, history, and theater in ways they're probably not used to. He educates audiences about an important a piece of American history through rap and hip-hop in a work of art so ingenious that it would be brilliant even if there were no message behind it. Like the rap and hip-hop sounds that drive the musical, the social sensibilities of the characters are very much of our time, not of a time long gone. Miranda is not trying to re-create the past; he is trying to highlight commonalities between the founding generation and today's upcoming generations. He creates a historically accurate picture of Hamilton as a brilliant young man, born out of wedlock and orphaned at a young age, who immigrates to America with a driving ambition to make a name for himself. Keeping mind, he is someone with whom young people with an immigrant background can particularly identify. Miranda's key decision was to make the race of the actors irrelevant. In the Pantages cast, for instance, the actors playing Hamilton, Burr, Washington and Jefferson are all African Americans. This break with factuality quickly becomes irrelevant in the context of a show that, otherwise, tries to get the major historical details right. Miranda wants his audience; especially the non-white, youthful segment of his audience; to connect with the story of America's creation, so he gives them hip-hop instead of harpsichords and diversity instead of literal representation. Common principles of liberty and justice and the timeless striving of succeeding generations to reshape their world will be the important thing.

Some folks, however, may have more difficulty overlooking the fraught issue of race.

The fact that the young, hot-blooded revolutionaries and the brave women who contributed to the makings of America are performed by mainly black and Latino actors against the army of a white monarch, is very much a political statement. It's a salute towards the oppressed and marginalized masses of our country today, who take their cause to the streets and yet are dismissed by the media for rebelling against the system.

After all, Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant from the West Indies himself, and this vital theme of immigration and the American identity helped Lin-Manuel Miranda in the creative process of his works, which are significantly directed towards people like him (his family is from Puerto Rico). So this theme of immigration - of various people coming to this country from various places - opens up an awesome door that reveals a theater stage which has diversity running through its veins. As the son of Puerto Rican immigrants, Lin-Manuel Miranda undoubtedly understood Alexander Hamilton’s struggle to rise above expectations and prove himself in a new place. Within the musical, Alexander Hamilton’s life is lauded as the ultimate immigrant story, and yet we also witness how no matter how much he thrives, men who fear his power and vision of the future continue to hold his roots against him by taking cheap shots at his heritage. At his boldest Hamilton facetiously declares, “Immigrants: we get the job done.” But on a personal level, the line that is most striking is one of his first— “He looked at me like I was stupid; I’m not stupid.”

That incessant struggle to prove one’s own self-worth is at the heart of the Founding Father narrative, and with Hamilton’s diverse cast, it becomes a parallel to the struggle that every immigrant goes through as well, especially when living amidst a political climate that still struggles to address the uncomfortable issues surrounding race. Hamilton is about taking back the original narrative to universalize it for the kind of America our country has grown into today.

American history is always being refined and rewritten. The reputations of the various Founding Fathers have risen and fallen and risen again over more than two centuries. Hamilton represents something of an anomaly in American history, a founding father who never transferred from official histories into popular mythology. There are many reasons for this, not least that Hamilton’s positions were incompatible with many of our myths – he was avowedly elitist, for example, and supported the idea of a president for life – while his expansion of the federal government prompted the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, which he brutally suppressed. Miranda creates a myth for Hamilton by celebrating him as a symbol of immigrant inclusiveness, egalitarianism and meritocracy: historically it’s a stretch, but theatrically it’s genius.

Personally, I agree with the idea of placing people with color in the center of attention because it gives them equal rights and shows that everyone should be respected the same. It can also cause some controversy as well. Some people believe this idea can be identified as racism towards the white people. Obviously, Miranda’s intention is no where near being racist but in some ways, the colored people have more power because of the roles they played. The play gives an understanding of the world we live in and how we contribute to keeping it a place where everyone is treated equal.

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