Even if you’re not a musical theatre fan, chances that the critically acclaimed musical “Hamilton” has snuck its way into a conversation or onto a playlist at some point over the past ten years are high.
This weekend, over a decade after the hit show first opened under the bright lights of Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theater and five years after its Disney+ streaming debut, a recorded version of the production was made available to an even wider audience through a national theatrical release.
“Hamilton” tells the story of the nation’s Founding Fathers, including Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. But why did this particular story grab the attention of the nation? And why has it remained culturally relevant even today?
At the heart of this phenomenon sits one man: Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Puerto Rican NYC native, who has cemented himself as a quickwitted lyrical genius with his original music on Broadway and beyond, including “In The Heights,” “Moana,” “The Lion King,” and, of course, “Hamilton.”
Miranda’s answer to the question of “Hamilton’s” cultural relevance is that “history always informs the present”, he shared in a 2020 interview with NPR.
Political commentator William H. Young offered his own explanation. “[Hamilton] is consummate art and a national phenomenon with a timely cultural and educational influence on America,” Young wrote in an article for The National Association of Scholars in 2018.
Through contemporary Afro-Latin musical forms and a multi-racial cast, “Hamilton” makes a historical period that may feel unrelatable for most youth today entertaining and, most importantly, relatable. It allows every viewer to see themselves reflected in the human stories of notable historical figures: the stories of loss, grief, love, and ambition.
“Lin is telling the story of the founding of his country in such a way as to make everyone present feel they have a stake in their country,” wrote Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater in New York City, in The New Yorker in 2015. “By telling the story of the founding of the country through the eyes of a bastard, immigrant orphan, told entirely by people of color, he is saying, “This is our country. We get to lay claim to it.”
The musical has been claimed by social movements in return. Lyrics from the show can be seen on signs at Black Lives Matter protests, like “I’m past patiently waiting” and “History has its eyes on you.” In Broadway and movie theaters alike, “Immigrants, we get the job done” is met with thunderous applause.
The quiet power of Hamilton is that, when thinking of figures like Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, a whole generation will hear Lin-Manuel Miranda’s enticing narration or Daveed Diggs’ satisfying verses. When one googles “Aaron Burr,” half of the images will be of Leslie Odom Jr., a Black man.
Miranda dared to rewrite history when he started working on “Hamilton” in 2008, and his risk still pays off in 2025 as longtime and new fans alike crowd into movie theaters to witness the cultural phenomenon.
Popline News 