Currently Hooked: Hamilton

I think this is what's next for me after deep diving into Greek Mythology these past months 🤓.

In the last 3 weeks, I've rewatched the Hamilton film 3 times. #noragrets

Satisfied

Last year, after mama died, my little sister always had our cousins here for a sleepover so that she won't be lonely. They played the song Satisfied (a song from the musical) on repeat for days and eventually had me singing along to this very hard and fast song.

During those times all of us were already a bit curious about Alexander Hamilton and wanted more than just this song but we couldn't find any material. 

Hamilton Musical

When it was announced that the Hamilton Musical will be released in Disney+, I got very excited only to find out that it's not available here in the Philippines 🙄. I eventually still found a way to watch it (thanks, AJ ✨) and now my life has changed.

Story

The first time I watched it, I liked it. I thought it was a normal film (where I cry of course) where I get over it immediately after watching and wow was I wrong 👻. The next day I tried to play the album in Spotify while at work and slowly fell in love with some of the songs that I now have more questions:

• Who was Lafayette? Why does he look like the guy who played Thomas Jefferson?
• Was the Angelica-Alexander forbidden love real?
• How accurate was the story? How problematic are they in real life?
• John Laurens 

One of the first things I did as well, which I think is the same with the other new fans of the musical (as confirmed by my bestie), was check the accuracy. Findings:

• Angelica was married when Eliza met Hamilton, they were indeed very close
• There is solid proof that Hamilton, John Laurens and even Lafayette were all gay for each other
• Eliza never met John Laurens
• Thomas Jefferson was at work in France during the war, the musical had portrayed that all he did there was play
• Thomas Jefferson resigned and even if it may be his plans to run for president, it wasn't publicly announced by him, everyone just assumed (and they were right)
• It was not Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Aaron Burr who went to accuse Hamilton of being corrupt to only find out about the affair

Talent

I would've given up everything right now to be one of the backup dancer/cast of the show. It's one of my alternate life choices 💃🏼. I just wish there'd be a version of the film where the camera was in front to see the dances better.

And when I finally saw Satisfied, it did not disappoint! The way I could never sing it because it's too fast but in the play Angelica seemed to have no problem with it 🙄. It did not shock me when I read that Renee Elise Goldsberry received awards for this play 👏🏼.

When I found out that the same actor, Anthony Ramos, who played John Laurens also played Philip Hamilton, and then saw in the comments that he wasn't the only one who played 2 roles, that's when I knew I had to rewatch it. The rewatch was so much fun because now I know the songs 👌🏼.

Fandom

I now get to deep dive into Twitter, Youtube and Instagram with Hamilton musical content. Apparently, this has been a thing for a while now and so content is readily available for consumption 🥰. 

My Dear Hamilton, a novel

Like I said we were a bit desperate to find out Hamilton's story and when we didn't find anything when we went through the history books in Big Bad Wolf book sale, I decided to check Amazon and found My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. Basically it is a novel with Eliza's point of view/story.

Ahhh, the sad reality of the second child 🙋🏻‍♀️

Reading it now, of course after watching the musical, what I noticed (and loved) was how the words chosen for the novel were the same words in the musical (and how they both included a bit of greek mythology in it 🕊). Both the musical and the novel had been heavily based from the actual sources and it captures the story perfectly. This book had me sleeping way past my bed time at a time like this when I struggle with reading for long periods of time.

The book depicted how problematic those times were, which I think wasn't shown as much in the (already 2 hour long) musical. 

How bad was it?

• Slavery was alive and okay and normal 🙄
• Even though Hamilton and Eliza were against slavery, they did benefit from it. 
• Even when Hamilton and Eliza decided to not own slaves anymore, everyone around them still did (Washington, Angelica, etc)
• You will get hanged for being gay 🤯🤬
• White supremacy seemed alive because Hamilton was an immigrant and the other people in power did what they can to keep him out
• Self serving politicians were already a thing
• Duels were normal because men had fragile egos
• Women were seen as less

Other than that, there's more content in it! Here's more of the Schuylers/Hamiltons:

• Eliza was called Betsy in her early life.
• Once the enemies attacked the Schuyler household, the family ran upstairs but they forgot their youngest sister below. Peggy went straight to their sister (because Eliza and Angelica was pregnant so Peggy decided it has to be her) but an enemy confronted her thinking she was a house help asking for Philip Schuyler. 
• America had been neutral in the war in France and Lafayette was in prisoned for a long time.
• The Reynolds Pamphlet was 90 pages long 👻
• Peggy died of illness the same year of Philip's death 🥺
• There were rumors that Aaron Burr spent the last 3 months practicing to kill Alexander.
• Eliza and Alexander's second child, Ana, had a mental illness after the death of Philip Hamilton. She was put into an institution when Alexander passed away and stayed there until her last days.
• President James Monroe personally went to Eliza to ask for forgiveness and reconciliation years after Alexander's death. She asked him to apologize for all of his involvement in bringing Hamilton down but he did not apologize.

---

The musical did its job with sparking an interest in me to figure out more and despite the fact that the founding fathers are problematic, there was no way I would've known more about it if I didn't watch this musical. And to think I'm not even an American.

Who would've thought history was this fun? And here I am about to rewatch the musical again 😇.