Current Events > How is Hamilton the musical?

(+) Yeah! (+)

That shit hit disney + and we're loading it up.

Opinionss?

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I thought it was awesome. Ive been wanting to see it live but I dont think its come here yet (obviously prior to COVID). Mostly because Lindsay Ellis always raves about it.

Ive been struggling through it. Mind you, I typically dont like plays (especially musicals), but I at least want to be able to join in on the conversations about it.

My personal tastes aside, theyre incredibly talented and tell a good story. It just isnt for me.

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It's awesome. I was driven to tears at multiple points.
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Really cheesy. You know those scenes in shows or movies where some history teacher tries to rap to appeal to students? That's the whole play


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I just watched it on Disney+ with the family. Meh. It's alright. Not really my type of thing, though it doesn't help my family loves to blast the soundtrack in the car so not only did I already know most of the songs, I was already annoyed by it.

The choreography is INSANELY impressive though. Props to the cast who probably had to rehearse all of that dozens of times.

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MarbyIsBack posted...

I just watched it on Disney+ with the family. Meh. It's alright. Not really my type of thing, though it doesn't help my family loves to blast the soundtrack in the car so not only did I already know most of the songs, I was already annoyed by it.

The choreography is INSANELY impressive though. Props to the cast who probably had to rehearse all of that dozens of times.

thats whats really cool about musicals. Seeing them live is incredible. Theyre masters of their crafts. The musicians. The singers. The actors and actresses. The people who change the scenes live.

Its an experience. The whole singing to tell a story thing can be odd at times, but there are some incredibly moving stories told via musicals. Rent, Wicked, even Lion King live in person is such a badass experience.

but I still get why some dont like musicals. I just tend to appreciate all the little things about what goes into a production.


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I liked it, but I think it's overrated as a musical.

Also I don't think Lin Manuel Miranda should be in the things he makes.

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Anteaterking posted...

I liked it, but I think it's overrated as a musical.

Also I don't think Lin Manuel Miranda should be in the things he makes.

I think its more than just a musical though. Its kind of genre bending in a way, adding in the rapping. I thought it was super cheesy for like the first year Id sometimes hear my ex gf listen to it. Didnt like it.

Then it grew a ton on me, and I sat down and listened to the whole soundtrack. Fell in love. It tells such a damn good story. But Lin is so popular from other projects, it might be weird seeing him as Hamilton now after all this time in the Disney+ version.

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I play musicals quite frequently as a pit musician, including the Broadway touring run of Chicago. I just hope that people truly appreciate this because we are all out of work for at least the next year, both the people you see in Hamilton, and the hundreds of people behind the scenes of it, and the thousands more across the US in musical theater.

Regardless, I look forward to watching it.

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TheEvilMushroom posted...

I play musicals quite frequently as a pit musician, including the Broadway touring run of Chicago. I just hope that people truly appreciate this because we are all out of work for at least the next year, both the people you see in Hamilton, and the hundreds of people behind the scenes of it, and the thousands more across the US in musical theater.

Regardless, I look forward to watching it.

oh shit, are you really? Damn. All my performer friends are hit hard through this pandemic, too.

Are there any broadway touring members type GoFundMe for yall? Definitely an industry hurting hard right now. Have seen all the cuts to professional symphonies across the US right now, too.

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I was disappointed when I learned that the Disney + version was just a recording of a stage performance and not a true movie version

but I will still watch it tbh

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MFBKBass5 posted...

oh shit, are you really? Damn. All my performer friends are hit hard through this pandemic, too.

Are there any broadway touring members type GoFundMe for yall? Definitely an industry hurting hard right now. Have seen all the cuts to professional symphonies across the US right now, too.

Yup!

Yeah, we're working on it. There's not a single unified source of relief funding, but there are many sources on more local and state levels, some national like Artist Relief Tree. Many cities have their own arts councils and funding groups dedicated to their areas that you can donate to. I know myself and some fellow players and professors are looking for our own relief, but also ways to donate to others. You can look into local resources and see what's going on.

Symphonies are getting hit very hard right now, too. So many of my friend, colleagues, and mentors are roughing it right now. I know most orchestra websites right now will also link to a lot of relief funding opportunities. The orchestral world is cutthroat enough as it is.

For me, I applied for the SBA assistance as a freelance worker and have picked up part time work to help out. But, we'll see.

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MFBKBass5 posted...

I think its more than just a musical though. Its kind of genre bending in a way, adding in the rapping. I thought it was super cheesy for like the first year Id sometimes hear my ex gf listen to it. Didnt like it.

Then it grew a ton on me, and I sat down and listened to the whole soundtrack. Fell in love. It tells such a damn good story. But Lin is so popular from other projects, it might be weird seeing him as Hamilton now after all this time in the Disney+ version.

I think that's overstating it. In the Heights was much more "groundbreaking" in terms of the addition of rap, even if it was mainly only Usnavi was the only one who did it. Most of the rap is essentially recitative which yeah it's still fresher than opera but I don't think many people would say "Wow this opera had a lot of parts where they had melodic lines that didn't do much in order to place dialogue".

It's just rap music for white people. Which is fine and maybe it's exposing that to some people who otherwise wouldn't, I just think a lot of people like it because it's gimmicky.

It's still good and I think it's worth seeing, but part of its appeal *is* that you can just listen to the soundtrack because it's mostly self contained (since there are only a few bits of dialogue that aren't contained in a song). If you haven't heard it a hundred times before watching, it's a lot harder to follow because of how it's written.

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I thought the choreographing, line memorization, and syncopation was fantastic. The actress who played Angelica had a phenomenal voice.

I also did think it was really cheesy but I was kinda drunk watching it so I was able to cast that aside.

would recommend

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Is it true there i an Evil Dead musical?

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RE_expert44 posted...

Is it true there i an Evil Dead musical?

Yep. I know people who have gone to it. The first few rows are poncho rows. You get drenched in blood.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Dead_(musical)

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I thought it was ok. Not great. Not bad.

The lyrics are great and clever, with so few exceptions "in need of a shower" that I can't hold them against the whole. I thought Hamilton's a capella bit right before he gets shot was self-indulgent garbo though, ngl.

The tunes. Not my thing, but probably technically brilliant. Some of the more popular songs (Room where it happens, not throwing away my shot, burn) had parts that were pretty grating. I liked the less popular ones more.

The acting, mostly pretty darn good but (preference) I think actors shine a lot more in dialogue scenes, so the acting didn't make as big an impression as it would have if the show hadn't been all musical numbers.

The story... I don't think being based on history is doing it any favors in this regard. It's too disjointed, characters appear and vanish from the narrative in unsatisfying ways, and the plot simultaneously moves at lightning speed and drags. The climax doesn't really build -- you just kinda arrive at it. LMM tried to get that build with the thematic momentum, but it didn't work for me.

The parts where it deviates from history... meh. They seem 90% in the service of (a) making Hamilton a gary stu character. Adding the whole layer to Angelica's character about secretly loving him, for example -- that was pretty much made up for the show. Or (b) making Burr look more like a slimeball. The guy was not, as you might come away thinking, an unprincipled sleaze. Dude made a lot of enemies for being an abolitionist and far more feminist than his peers. And in the show, he just gets clowned on again and again and again even when it isn't plot-relevant and it just seems redundant and hamfisted.

The characterizations, see above. Ham and Burr were flanderized and... well, better than one-dimensional. I'll say two-dimensional. Most of the other characters, again noted above, were victims of the plot. Angelica was good (dropping out of the plot notwithstanding, because she had to go to England). Washington was good too. George does his job, simple as it is. Everyone else is forgettable.

And... is it just me, or is Hamilton arguing for the wrong side in both of the cabinet battles? >_> Way to abandon your buddy in France after promising you'd help him, dude.

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KalimariX8 posted...

line memorization

?

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