hamilton + dear evan hansen lecture

Question 1

hamilton billed as

Answer 1

american musical

Question 2

is hamilton a mega musical

Answer 2

yes

Question 3

Hamilton is…

Answer 3

■ A musical about how history is written and the importance of “who
tells the story”
■ A hip hop musical
■ A gateway musical for people who are new to musicals
■ In Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s words, Hamilton is “a
love letter to both hip hop and musical theatre

Question 4

What is Hamilton about?

Answer 4

Hamilton is about history and race. Its cast, originally made up of
mostly Hispanic, Black, and Asian actors, offers a different version of
the story of the founding of America. Miranda: “It’s the story of
America then told by America now”

Question 5

Carefully taught”: American
history through musical

Answer 5

Show Boat
■ Oklahoma!
■ Love Life
■ South Pacific
■ 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
■ Assassins
■ Hamilton.

Question 6

Lin-Manuel Miranda (b. 1980)

Answer 6

American composer, lyricist, and
performer
■ Wesleyan University, B.A. where he
founded Freestyle Love Supreme, a rap
improv group
■ Supply teacher
■ Composer, lyricist, bookwriter, and star
of Hamilton
■ MacArthur Fellow (2015)

Question 7

Ron Chernow

Answer 7

Author of biographies
including Alexander
Hamilton (2004), Titan:
The Life of John D.
Rockefeller, Sr.,
Washington: A Life (won
Pulitzer Prize for
Biography)
■ Recipient of 6 honorary
doctorates
■ Consultant for Hamilton for
6 years

Question 8

Alex Lacamoire

Answer 8

Cuban-American musician, composer,
orchestrator, arranger, musical director
both on and off Broadway
■ Experience with Miranda: In the Heights,
Bring It On, tick…tick…BOOM!
■ Sesame Street, including “First Second
Third”
■ Also orchestrated Dear Evan Hansen

Question 9

Alexander Hamilton”

Answer 9

sung by the company

no overture

Opening number and establishing number that sets out many of the main
characters, themes, and the type of music that fills so much of the score: hip
hop

The characters function as narrators and sing directly to the audience, which
makes the number diegetic

takes place in limbo bs unspecified

Question 10

Lyric motives in hamilton

Answer 10

Miranda uses lyric motives as a
unification device across the whole
Hamilton score
■ “Just you wait” (also My Fair Lady)
■ “Wait for it”
■ “Blow us away”
■ “Isn’t this enough?”
■ “Never be satisfied”
■ “Helpless”
■ “Look around…”
■ “Not throwing away my shot”
■ “History has its eyes on you”
■ “Rise up”
■ “I wrote my way out”
■ “Talk less, smile more”

Question 11

Musical styles and pastiches

Answer 11

Hamilton is through-sung with 34 numbers and little dialogue
■ Hip hop including references to Biggie, Mobb Deep, Eminem, DMX,
Beyoncé…
■ Broadway ballads, love songs, production numbers, including
references to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan,
Stephen Sondheim…
■ Jazz (“What I’d Miss”), soul (“One Last Time”), pop (“Helpless”)
■ Note: Several reprises help hold the score together
“

Question 12

My Shot”

Answer 12

Sung by Hamilton, Laurens, Lafayette, Mulligan, Burr, and Company

“I am/I want” song
– Production number
■ Rap as the language of revolutionaries
– Compare Hamilton’s use of language vs. other characters
■ What is the significance of Burr’s reference to “You’ve Got To Be
Carefully Taught”? “Geniuses, lower your voices. // You keep out of
trouble and you double your choices. // I’m with you, but the situation
is fraught. // You’ve got to be carefully taught: If you talk, you’re
gonna get shot!”

Question 13

Diversity hamilton

Answer 13

The original Broadway cast included Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians;
only King George and the Tories were played by white actors
■ Criticism: Hamilton’s casting practices have been selectively
diverse
– Where are the Asian and south Asian actors?
– For interest: In January 2019, actor Marc delaCruz (top) became the
first Asian American to play Alexander Hamilton. In January 2024,
Trey Curtis (bottom) took over the role
■ Politics of cultural access
– The cast performs for a mostly white, middle-aged, affluent
audience
– There are low-cost options and a nightly lottery

Question 14

Hamilton’s Women

Answer 14

■ Despite its
revolutionary approach
to storytelling and form,
Hamilton falls into the
trap of having too few
women (Eliza, Angelica,
Peggy/Maria), and they
play largely
stereotypical roles
■ Hamilton barely passes
the Bechdel test (see
next)

Question 15

The Schuyler Sisters”

Answer 15

Sung by Eliza, Angelica,
Peggy, Burr, and
Company (with lyrics)
■ Counterpoint song (starts
at 2:14) when layers of
previously heard musical
material sound
simultaneously (recall
“Getting Married Today”)
– Angelica’s “I’ve been
reading…” rap
– Eliza and Peggy’s “Look
around” theme

Question 16

You’ll Be Back”

Answer 16

Sung by King George III
(with lyrics)
■ “I am/want” song
■ Pastiche number that mixes the
Beatles with Mozart (harpsichord)
■ Metadramatic effect of
mismatched music and lyrics

Question 17

Satisfied”

Answer 17

Sung by Angelica (with lyrics)
■ “I am/I want” song
■ Plays with time (“Rewind!”)
■ Use of repetitive textual devices help characterize Angelica as highly-
educated and affluent
■ What is the musical form? Does it follow standard AABA popular song
form?
– Literary model: basic structure of an essay with an introduction, thesis
statement, 3 points, and conclusion

Question 18

Critical Reception of
Hamilton

Answer 18

Hamilton has received nearly unanimous praise:
“I am loathe to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their
children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But Hamilton might
just be worth it—at least to anyone who wants proof that the American
musical is not only surviving but also evolving in ways that should allow
it to thrive and transmogrify in years to come.”
–Ben Brantley, New York Times

Question 19

Sondheim on Hamilton

Answer 19

Sondheim mentored Miranda;
they worked on the revival of
West Side Story
■ Sondheim: “Hamilton is a
breakthrough…There’s always
got to be an innovator,
somebody who experiments first
with new forms.”

Question 20

What is the significance of
Hamilton?

Answer 20

As a hip hop musical
■ As an example of a diverse Broadway cast
■ As an historical account that will change the way we look back on the
real Hamilton and the making of America
■ As a gateway to American history and larger cultural concerns
■ As an introduction to American musical theatre for a new generation
of audiences

Question 21

Musicals about young people for
young people

Answer 21

• Several recent musicals have put young people front
  and center: DEH originally starred 23-year-old Ben Platt
  as 17-year-old Evan, Mean Girls, The Prom, Be More
  Chill, SIX…
• Musicals about mental health: Next to Normal, Fun
  Home, Dear Evan Hansen…

Question 22

Composers and lyricists for dear evan hansen

Answer 22

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Question 23

book dear evan hansen

Answer 23

steven levenson

Question 24

source of dear evan hansen

Answer 24

orinignal

Question 25

director of deh

Answer 25

michael grief

Question 26

dear evan hansen date

Answer 26

2016

Question 27

choreo for deh

Answer 27

danny mefford

Question 28

deh and social media

Answer 28

there are screens on the stage

Question 29

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Answer 29

American songwriting duo for
musical theatre, film, and TV
* Graduated from the
University of Michigan and
winners of the Jonathan
Larson Award
* For interest: A Christmas
Story, James and the Giant
Peach, The Greatest
Showman, La La Land, live
action Aladdin (selections).
They also helped produce A
Strange Loop

Question 30

Steven Levenson

Answer 30

Playwright and television
writer who also penned the
screenplay for Miranda’s film
adaptation of Jonathan
Larson’s biographical
musical, tick…tick…BOOM!
and the film adaptation of
DEH
* Two years after its Broadway
opening, DEH was turned
into a novel

Question 31

hamilton date

Answer 31

2015

Question 32

Lacamoire won a Tony for his orchestrations
for Dear Evan Hansen (ableton)

Answer 32

which is a piece of
software that plays loops and sound effects
and things that can’t really be replicated by
human beings,” says Lacamoire, Dear Evan
Hansen’s orchestrator, who
orchestrated Hamilton. “I’m very wary of
using synthesizers to replace people. I don’t
love the sound of sampled horns or sampled
strings. There are no sampled strings in
Hamilton, for example; if you hear a string
sound it’s being made by a string instrument.
Computers, though, can be cool. Digital
elements interspersed with live elements can
make a really beautiful hybrid that sounds
contemporary and modern. That sound is the
perfect environment for Dear Evan Hansen.”

Question 33

Anybody Have a Map?”

Answer 33

Sung by Heidi and Cynthia
* Establishing number
* DEH puts a spotlight on moms. As
Rachel Bay Jones, who played Heidi
in the original Broadway cast, says:
“Moms—and moms of a certain age—
we’re forgotten a little bit. We’re
forgotten in the lives of our kids, we
forget ourselves,” says Jones. “So to
have these writers make sure that the
voice of these two middle-aged
women [Heidi and Cynthia] is strong
and present and immediate out of the
gate is something that I feel they are
doing for all of us. To shine a spotlight
on [their pain] is both uncomfortable
and necessary

Question 34

Waving Through a Window”

Answer 34

Sung by Evan and Company
* “I am/want” song
* Covers: Katy Perry and Pentatonix
* A remix topped Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart in
2017 Remix
* Listen for one of the hallmarks of excitement building
available to composers: a step-up modulation at 2:55

Question 35

You Will Be Found”

Answer 35

Sung by Evan and Company
* Ends Act I and is reprised in Act II
* Starts as an imitate solo and builds into an optimistic,
uplifting production number about overcoming
loneliness
* Weaves together digital and live voices
* The number concludes with unresolved, unsettled
chords that suggest that maybe there is more bubbling
beneath the surface and makes us wonder what’s really
going on? How did Evan really break his arm?

Question 36

So Big / So Small”

Answer 36

Sung by Evan’s
mother, Heidi
* The second half of an
11 o’clock spot
complex shared with
Evan’s “Words Fail”
* A down-to-earth,
narrative like “Me and
the Sky”
* Find examples of
repetitive textual
devices

Question 37

hamilton smart chacarters

Answer 37

get to use the hiphop

Question 38

did hamilton win a puliiztewr prize for drama

Answer 38

yes