Letters
Lazy Sunday: Hamilton’s America
Dear Kay,
Well, this is the easiest Lazy Sunday ever: settle in for a spectacular hour and a half with the brand-new PBS Great Performances documentary, Hamilton’s America. It streams right out of your computer, voila. Free!
I’m a sucker for going behind the scenes. I’ll go behind the scenes anywhere—a hydraulic dam, a saree factory, a grits mill, the dead bird collection at the Smithsonian? Bring it on. What is striking about this documentary is that it goes all the way back to the moment when Lin-Manuel Miranda is writing the first song of the show, back in 2008, when he thought he was simply writing one song, not an epic musical. His hair is shorter. He looks better rested. As you see him in his vacation hammock reading a copy of Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton: A Biography, you get the rare opportunity to see someone whose life is about to change forever, before it changes.
He’s not an idiot. He knows he’s up to something pretty extraordinary. I love seeing someone in the midst of creating, operating on a lot of bandwidth, confident yet humble about the whole thing.
What on earth will he do next?
Love,
Ann
PS From Hamilton’s America, Aaron Burr checking his email.
(Photos from Hamilton’s America.)
I’m looking forward to watching this as soon as I’m done with my current 7 day stretch of work days. My daughter and I listen to the cast album like we’ve joined a cult!
Saw it on PBS already. What a gem! So thorough – right back to the original story, and involving the cast (many of them African-American) in visiting the historic sites where events actually happened. I was especially impressed with how the authors fitted the tempos to the imagined speech of the characters — Washington regular like a metronome, Lafayette with fractured English. I think this PBS show is the closest we will get to actually seeing Hamilton!
I listen to the Hamilton cast recording and sing/bellow along and marvel at the lyrics and change my favourite lyric with each listen ( Rhyming *a ragtag volunteer army in need of a shower * with *global superpower*! ) In my car I can sing like I’m on Broadway, just like in Zumba class I thought I had some awesome dance moves. I absolutely love Leslie Odom Jr’s voice, what a revelation. Thanks for the link to the documentary, Ann!
For some reason, I find those colonial mens costumes to be really sexy.
oh, yessssssssss.
It’s the ruffles. Or all those brass buttons. Or the boots…..
Or the tight–uh, well fitting–pants?
I watched it Friday night on my local PBS station WETA – it was so inspiring! I’m so glad that it’s available on line.
I watched this just last night! I highly recommend. Now I just have to wait for Hamilton to come to Cleveland.
I, too, enjoy a behind the scenes tour. I have toured a sewage treatment plant. I thought it was great; my children were less impressed.
Drive over to Chicago and see it there! Don’t wait…such an awesome show! 🙂
It was fantastic!!!
I drove past the Schulyer Hamilton house in Morristown last week, with no time to stop. Next visit.
Watched yesterday – it was excellent I was teary at the end and know I will be when I see the show in May! I love the research all involved put into the production.
Wonder what Lin Manuel Miranda will do next (after Mary Poppins that is …) wonder what books are on his nightstand?
This was SUCH a great show…taped it and watched it on air night. I was fortunate enough to see Hamilton with that cast (minus the king…we had the more recent king) and this wonderful presentation by PBS was the closest I’ll get to reliving that amazing night. Absolutely a wonderful creation! Thank you PBS and Lin Manuel!!
I’m with you about the behind-the-scenes love. When I used to watch Mister Rogers with my daughter, I remember loving his tour of the Crayola factory. So fun!
I was lucky to see Hamilton at the Public before it was the phenom it is now. We walked out of the theatre thinking it was amazing. Okay, now I have the opening song in my head.
Happy Sunday.
It was a great special! I am rewatching and crocheting.
I saw the PBS special Friday night. I watched it twice. Lin-Manuel has talent oozing out of his cells. The entire show and cast have done epic work. If they would have taught history like this in school I might have paid attention. I cannot get enough. I listened to the soundtrack at work yesterday. Me? Broadway music?!
You missed a perfect opportunity to end this entry with:
“I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
A. Shayne”
That would have been perfect indeed!
This post should come with a warning: “Your Plans for the Day may Be Altered By This Post.” When I have a lot of writing to do I frequently find all types of things to avoid doing just that. This post facilitated that for me this morning. What a delightful way to spend 90 minutes. Thank you for the break.
So very well done. Enjoyed every moment. Extremely high production values, ab fab content. Kittens and I give it two thumbs and four paws up.
I loved the book, I recommend it to everybody!
Dear PBS, Dear Internet, Pleasepleaseplease make HamilDoc available to view outside the U.S…..
From what I understand, you can view it in Facebook w/o the issues. I can’t guarantee it, but when I was watching (via Facebook), people were commenting on the availability. Hope you find a way to see it.
I watched it yesterday afternoon while knitting (perfect time for both activities, as it was cold and wet outside) and really enjoyed it.
Had the opportunity to watch this Friday evening in our local PBS – such a joy! I’ve been singing, “Alexander Hamilton” all weekend.
Loved it. Glad they did it as a documentary as the common folk aren’t going to be seeing any more of it any too soon with the current Chicago price being around $600 a ticket.
i have a bad case of Hamillaria. Before Rhinebeck, I got to see Hamilton in NYC. Then, on PBS just a few days after I got home, is the Behind the Scenes. Between all this and listening to the music a lot, my family gets most answers from me by a soundtrack from the play! Such fun and such great music. Yes, Lin-Manuel is a darn genius.
Read this, watched the documentary on Saturday. Bought the soundtrack from Amazon, can’t stop listening. It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m ready to watch the documentary again! I think I’m in love … but is it with Alexander Hamilton or Lin-Manuel Miranda?
Have tickets for September 2017 and cannot wait! Thank you for sharing!