The American Revolution lasted seven years. “Hamilton,” the groundbreaking musical about one of its unsung heroes, has now outlasted it.
It has also spawned a revolution of its own. Little on Broadway looks the way it did on Aug. 6, 2015, when “Hamilton” opened; that’s what happens when a show runs 10 years, sells more than four million tickets and earns more than $1 billion — not counting tours, international productions and the 2020 movie.
And though some predictions about “the ‘Hamilton’ effect” have not panned out, the ones that did have dramatically altered musical theater, affecting casting, content, marketing, pricing, outreach and even stardom. Here are nine ways of looking at the changes that Lin-Manuel Miranda and his colleagues wrought; please share your own insights in the comments section. After all, as “Hamilton” says, “History has its eyes on you” — and now vice versa.
Race-Conscious Casting
To study the portraits of our founding fathers and their known associates is to face an unceasing parade of white men. “Hamilton” had other ideas. Burnishing the bona fides of the musical as a hip-hop narrative and making a place in the show (and in American history) for the likes of Miranda and friends and collaborators such as Daveed Diggs and Christopher Jackson, the production cast actors of color in the roles of America’s forebears and some of the women who loved them. This casting underlines the idea of the United States as a nation of immigrants (even though the lead actors were not themselves immigrants) and questions the inclusivity and exclusivity of what these white men accomplished. “Hamilton” is certainly not the first show to employ race-conscious casting (a “photo-negative” “Othello,” starring Patrick Stewart, is an early example), but this move has proved unusually influential, even as its playful, trenchant achievement has rarely been equaled.
— Alexis Soloski
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The post The ‘Hamilton’ Effect: 10 Revolutionary Years on Broadway appeared first on New York Times.
