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| Natalie Smith Class of 2016 |
If you’ve ridden in the passenger seat of my car recently,
chances are high that I played for you the soundtrack to the musical Hamilton, against your will or otherwise.
I’m a huge fan of musicals, and like most other McConnell Scholars, the
American founding fascinates me, so I suppose it’s no surprise that this one
particularly struck my fancy. However, I am far from the only one to have
become a major fan—tickets for the hit Broadway show are nearly impossible to
obtain without paying exorbitant prices (much to my personal disappointment).
The musical’s creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda,
seamlessly tells the life story of Alexander Hamilton by weaving together a
combination of hip-hop, rap, pop, R&B musical styles into a stage
production. It sounds like a ridiculous and quite frankly, a laughable concept,
and I have to admit that I thought that it sounded like a definite failure when
I first heard of it. And yet, I can guarantee that within one listen you’ll also
be jamming along to the rap battle over the establishment of the First National
Bank.
Alexander Hamilton is a founding father whose story I knew
very little about previously, but having learned more, I have to admit that I
am surprised that no one has previously attempted other creative portrayals of
his life. Miranda admits that he stumbled upon a biography of Hamilton and was
immediately struck by how much his story encapsulates that of the uniquely
American spirit and promise, even in contemporary society. Born in the
Caribbean and orphaned, Hamilton makes it to America as a young man, becomes a
Revolutionary War general under George Washington, writes 51 of the Federalist Papers, and serves as
Secretary of the Treasury, among other accomplishments, mostly through sheer
will and constant hard work. As he sings in the show, “Hey yo, I’m just like my
country / I’m young, scrappy, and hungry / and I’m not throwin’ away my shot!”
Hamilton could not
hit the stage at a more prescient time, given the political climate of the
country in the months leading up to the presidential election. Garnering praise
from those on every side of the political and cultural spectrum, Hamilton reminds listeners of all the
turmoil our nation faced and continues to face, and yet delivers the
exceptional hope that the U.S. continues to provide even in difficult times: “a
place where even orphan immigrants / can leave their fingerprints.”
Natalie Smith is a senior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. She studies English and political science.