Hamilton (2020)
About this episode
This episode explores the cultural phenomenon of the Hamilton musical and its significance in American history and identity.
Happy 250th birthday to the United States of America! 250 years ago, you became independent from us Brits. We're the King George III in this relationship, and we know it. Alexander Hamilton . You know the name, but you probably didn't before the musical debuted in 2016. On 3rd July 2020, as America protested the murder of George Floyd, and locked itself indoors simultaneously, Disney+ dropped something that made the world look again at the ten-dollar founding father, his story, and the country he helped build. As the United States turns 250, it seems a good opportunity to tell the full story behind the Hamilton phenomenon; from Lin-Manuel Miranda reading Ron Chernow's biography on a Mexican holiday and realising that he was not throwing away his shot to adapt it, to the Broadway explosion that made tickets worth more than a month's rent; from the non-stop creative engine of a show that rewrote what musical theatre could be, to the $75 million Disney deal that brought it to homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. What does it mean that a show about America's founding myths, performed by the people that founding excluded, has become the defining cultural text of the American…
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