Hamilton does not miss its shot

Watching Hamilton live on stage is probably the single most rewarding theatrical experience of my life. Seated two rows from the front in the Victoria Palace theatre it was an absorbing, stirring, moving experience.

Watching Hamilton on Disney + is not the same but it remains a remarkable cultural experience. This recording of an original Broadway cast performance from 2016 is a powerful piece of work and now it is available to a much wider audience via the streaming platform.

Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury, effectively the founder of the US economic system. It’s a show that attempts to answer one question:

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore
And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot
In the Caribbean by providence impoverished
In squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

The central tension is between Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr). There is a Mozart/Salieri vibe to their relationship as Burr, the coming man, is overtaken by the young tyro coming up on the inside. This dynamic fuels the whole  story.

Whether live or on-screen Hamilton is a masterpiece. For me one of the definitions of genius is that the form is never the same afterwards and that is certainly true here. But one other hallmark of genius is the way it speaks to individual audiences regardless of time or place.

George Washington’s comment to Alexander Hamilton: ‘Dying is easy, living is harder’ was a good line in 2015 but it has a much more powerful resonance now. That for me is the genius of Hamilton.

The book, the music, and the staging are all impeccable and the show has the awards to prove it. What is remarkable for me is how the filming has brought it to life and given it a fresh dimension. In a lot of filmed stage shows the camera is a nuisance and the performers are often unsure of where to pitch their performance. Not here.

Thomas Kail, who directed the stage production as well as the film, never allows the camera to intrude, instead it illuminates. The general point of view is that of someone in a good seat in the stalls but there are about half a dozen sequences that have been restaged to give more emotional heft.

Kail does two clever things. The first is that he doesn’t go in for flashy cinematography; for the most part the camera only pushes in for medium close ups which preserves the basic theatricality. The second is that he retains the stage spacing for these staged sequences which allows the cast to maintain their original performances.

The bonus is in what these small cinematic interludes provide. We see the sweat glistening on Christopher Jackson’s stubbly head in One Last Time, the spittle-flecked spite of King George in You’ll be Back, and the sheer majesty of Renee Elise Goldsberry’s singing throughout. All of these are enriched by the filming process and makes it more than just filmed theatre.

The one surprise for me is the genius behind this work of genius. Lin-Manuel Miranda does not have the most remarkable of voices nor is he the most charismatic of actors. However, this is a performance unlike anything we have seen; this is a man who knows every note, line, and gesture of the show. The consequence is that he does not perform in the show so much as owns it. This is authorship at its finest and Miranda strides through the show with a performance littered with grace notes of which only he is capable.

Already there are strong suggestions that Hamilton, which was originally destined for a theatrical release, should be an Oscar frontrunner. A lot depends on the position that the Academy takes on the eligibility of streaming releases. Even if they give it the nod, I’m not sure that it is original enough to qualify as Best Picture. But Best Documentary would be a whole other discussion.