Plot Summary: Since this musical opts to tell the entire musical through music, instead of most musicals where they there are only like 10 big music numbers that focus on the emotions of the characters, while the storytelling is mostly done through standard acting. Because of this, the plot in Hamilton is a little hard to follow sometimes and probably requires a little description.
Anyway, this song basically tells the story of Hamilton's shockingly depressing childhood and his decision to come to America. It explains that he was born out of wedlock in the Caribbean, his father abandoned him at age 10, his mother died at age 12, he had to move in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide, and his hometown was destroyed by a hurricane. Pretty rough. It then explains that he wrote a beautiful essay about the destruction the hurricane caused, which impressed the community's leaders so much that they raised a fund to send him to the US in hopes of finding a new life. The song ends with Hamilton on a ship headed to New York.
Thoughts: This is always the first song I play for people when I want them to listen to this soundtrack, because it is a great summary of everything I love about this musical and why it's so unique. I'm generally not a big fan of rap, mostly because I just don't think it's as fun to listen to as actual singing, but this musical seems to get that for me. It uses the rap as a build up rather than the highlight of the song.
It starts off with Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.) and John Laurens (Anthony Ramos) rapping softly to a quiet beat. When Thomas Jefferson (Daveed Diggs) and James Madison (Okieriete Onaodowan) come in, the beat in the background begins to get a little more exciting, and their voices start sounding a little more like actual music notes. Aaron Burr comes back in to give a verse to a now very intense beat. It sounds like he's about to sing, but then he goes on to do more rapping. For me personally, this was really building suspense to when the singing was going to start. So when Aaron Burr goes "What's your name, man?", and Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) comes out with the first real singing of the show, I'm super hyped.
Then it goes back to the non-refrain verses, which are now entirely sung. I just love the way the song slowly transitions from total rap, to a little mix of both, to singing, to full ensemble singing. It's a perfect buildup. Even after listening to this so many times, I STILL get chills when the full chorus comes out for the first time to sing the refrain (which is at 2:45 in the video if you're lost as to where I'm talking about now).
A few nitpicks? Well, this show kind of has a weird obsession with New York, which I'm fine with, but I feel like one of the main messages of the musical is that America gave this orphan immigrant an opportunity to rise beyond his expectations, and for that, they focus a little too much on New York and not enough on the whole country in general. There's also the fact that the show's ending is spoiled at the end of this song. I mean, I'm pretty sure most people going to see a show about Alexander Hamilton already know that he got shot by Aaron Burr, but the way it's just thrown onto the end there is a little unnecessary, and totally gives it away for anyone who didn't know already.
Oh yeah, and I guess I ought to talk about this now since some of you are probably a little confused: Yes, most of the major characters in this musical are black. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Aaron Burr, all black. This was an intentional move on the part of Lin-Manuel Miranda (who wrote the musical and plays Alexander Hamilton):
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Our goal was: This is a story about America then, told by America now, and we want to eliminate any distance — our story should look the way our country looks.
I thought the historical inaccuracy was kind of weird at first (usually I'm totally fine with characters like James Bond and Spider-Man being black since they're fictional), and it seemed a little culturally ignorant since race was a really big deal back then, but I warmed up to the idea. The idea of "America Then Being Told By America Now" helps the rapping make a lot more sense and leads to some other really interesting musical choices later on.
In conclusion, this opening number is pure, unadulterated hype. It's use of rapping, solo singing, and ensemble singing is wonderful, and this is definitely one of the most replayable songs in the musical for me. If you like this song, you'll like this musical. If you don't, you probably won't. And I love it.
