Hamilton the musical has finally arrived on
Disney Plus, bringing the much-loved cultural phenomenon right into our homes in glorious HD.
And packed into the revolutionary stage production are tons of incredible details that even
some ardent Hamilfans may have missed!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this
video I'm revealing 22 crucial things that will make you love the Hamilton movie even more!
Jonathan Groff's deliciously fun performance of King George's break-up song "You'll
Be Back" is a great comic moment.
♪ Da-da-da-da-da
Dat-da-da-da-dai-ah-da ♪
And the British monarch's very particular walk
when he first arrives on stage has a curious origin which Groff attributes to the incredibly
heavy crown he initially had to wear in the role.
Adding to the difficulty of his stage
entrance was that Groff had to balance the weighty headpiece while advancing forward
in heels one foot in front of the other as if walking on a tightrope, all while wearing
an incredibly thick and heavy royal gown.
The song's cheery sensibility and musical style, which is a clever hat-tip to the Beatles
and the 60s British Invasion, deliberately contrasts with the rest of the musical to show
how King George is intruding on events.
The song also squeezes in some neat
references to both the Boston Tea Party and the King's future mental illness.
And funnily enough, the track's inspiration came from British actor Hugh Laurie who
Lin-Manuel Miranda worked with previously.
When Miranda explained he was writing
"a break-up letter from King George to the colonies," Laurie wagged his finger
and said: "Awwww, you'll be back".
A detail that many fans didn't miss in
the Hamilfilm is the profuse amount of spit that emerges from King George as
he threatens his ex-colonial subjects.
♪ And, no, don't change the subject ♪
Now, some might have thought it was a nod to the British king's insanity later in life,
but it's actually because Jonathan Groff is a "spitter" whenever he performs on Broadway.
In an interview with Variety, Groff explained
"I've always been a spitter...
I start sweating.
I just get wet when I perform onstage.
It is just what happens."
Interestingly, when this production of
Hamilton was filmed back in June 2016, Groff was no longer playing King George.
So, Rory O'Malley, the actor who'd taken over the role, very nobly stood down so
Groff could temporarily reign once more, and the film crew could capture the magic of
the original Broadway cast together again.
And that's why you'll see
O'Malley's name pop up in the 'Special Thanks' during the movie's credits.
"Satisfied" is one of the musical's most popular numbers, in particular thanks to Renée Elise
Goldsberry's breath-taking delivery of some incredibly fast lines.
♪ ..so this is
What it feels like to match wits ♪
♪ With someone at your level
What the hell is the catch? ♪
And the innovative way the song pauses time, then rewinds, is also a perfect
set-up for time stopping later in the show when Aaron Burr fires his
gun in his duel with Hamilton.
But one of the most intriguing things about
watching the Hamilfilm versus seeing the show live in the theatre is that the way the movie is
shot and edited creates a different experience.
When editing "Satisfied" for the movie, director
Thomas Kail revealed that they could be
"more subjective with the camera so it feels
like we're going inside Angelica's brain.
The cut pattern is quite accelerated and
the camera angles are quite varied."
So for me, watching at home, what this
does is that it creates a real sense of the confusion Angelica feels as she
deals with her conflicting emotions.
Kail also added that this cinematic technique of
rapidly cutting between different perspectives is similar to how the song "breaks the form of
the theatrical language in the theatre".
By the way, the movie is edited with footage from
recordings of two live performances together with a third day when the cast was filmed in an empty
theatre to get all of those great close-up shots.
Oh, and if you watch very closely, you
may spot the odd, tiny continuity error.
For example, in "Satisfied" the flowers
on Angelica's dress are sometimes present, while other times they just disappear as the film
switches between footage from different days.
A sweet reminder that Hamilton was made
by human geniuses and not robots!
Hamilton isn't just a musical about a revolution;
its musical style itself is also revolutionary in terms of musical theatre because it
packs such an incredible number of words into its two-and-half-hour story.
Writer Leah Libresco calculated the speed of the show's songs and discovered the
fastest ones clocked in at an amazing 200 words per minute, with an overall
average of 144 words per minute.
Goldsberry expertly delivers
121 words in just 24 seconds for Angelica's fastest verse in "Satisfied".
♪ The conversation lasted two minutes
Maybe three minutes ♪
♪ Everything we said in total agreement ♪
♪ It's a dream and it's a bit of a dance ♪
While in "Guns and Ships", Daveed Diggs
squeezes 19 words into just 3 seconds.
♪ Lafayette ♪
♪ And I'm never gonna stop
Until I make 'em drop or burn 'em up ♪
♪ And scatter their remains.. ♪
In fact, Libresco found that if Hamilton were sung
at the pace of other comparable Broadway shows, it would run for somewhere
between 4 and 6 hours!
Another example of Miranda playing with tempo is
the opening number which recounts the first two decades of Alexander Hamilton's life.
The song runs at a steady pace as the protagonist is introduced.
♪ Well, the word got around
They said, "This kid is insane, man" ♪
But when Hamilton discovers the way out of his predicament is to double-down
on his education, the tempo of the rap picks up, doubling in speed.
♪ There would've been nothing left to do
For someone less astute ♪
♪ He would've been dead or destitute.. ♪
It's not just the speed of the songs
in Hamilton that's fascinating though, but also as Daveed Diggs pointed out, Miranda
has each character perform in a different style.
For example, "George Washington raps in a very
metronomic way which is similar to how he thinks, all right on beat."
♪ Now, I'm the model
Of a modern major general ♪
♪ The venerated Virginian veteran ♪
And Diggs's character Lafayette progresses
from "a simple 80s rap cadence at first"
♪ I dream of life without a monarchy ♪
♪ The unrest in France
Will lead to "on-archy" ♪
and "by the end, he's rapping in double and triple time."
♪ ..he knows what to do in a trench
Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean ♪
Actors try to put themselves in the shoes
of their characters, so Chris Jackson who plays George Washington wrestled with the
fact that Washington was a slave owner
and that the country's first president along
with the other Founding Fathers failed to abolish slavery when they created the Union.
In the book "Hamilton: The Revolution", Jackson says that
"it didn't keep him from getting to the heart of who Washington was,
and trying to portray the truth in that."
And he even found a way to address
this conflict in the musical.
At the very end, when Eliza sings
that Hamilton would have done more to end slavery if he'd lived longer,
watch Jackson just behind her carefully, and notice how he "bows his head in shame",
which was his way for Washington to "accept responsibility for what he did and didn't do."
By the way Alexander Hamilton's anti-slavery credentials have been questioned by some
historians who say the musical paints him in an overly positive light, something I go into
in detail in my Hamilton Fact or Fiction video.
Links will be here and in the video
description as soon as it's ready.
The musical's set design is also packed with
lots of details that reflect both the pre- and post-revolutionary era of the United States.
As Hamilton's Creative Director and Designer, David Korins has explained,
"this is the story of the people who built the scaffolding upon which the country was built,
so you see wooden period scaffolding up around a half-made wall to show
a kind of aspirational space,"
giving it the feel of a "Colonial
era building under construction"
And during the musical's intermission, the
brick walls get bigger, growing 8 feet taller
"to represent the continuous work being done on
the country" and how the foundation is growing.
By the way, fun fact, those
brick walls aren't brick at all,
but a "pressed pattern board that is then
cut up and treated with goop and texture, paint, and layers of distressing on top."
Korins has also said that the use
of turntables on the stage is
"inspired by the whirlwind of
history that sweeps up Hamilton,
as well as the literal hurricane that hits
the Caribbean island where he was born."
And it also matches the "cyclical
relationship between Aaron Burr and Hamilton,
where they were basically spiralling around
each other their entire careers and lives."
Like the line "Immigrants. We get the job done",
which always gets huge applause in the theatre,
the show's set design also has its
own way of honouring the immigrants that helped build America.
Korins has said that since many immigrants arrived via boat,
they wanted to feature nautical elements in their set designs which is why
there's lots of ropes and pulleys and the wooden structures are built using the same
elements used in shipbuilding of the era.
The show's choreography also plays a crucial
part in creating subtle effects to complement the story at any particular time.
For example, when Hamilton arrives in "Helpless", both Angelica and Eliza
are positioned along his line of sight, and in this moment he locks eyes with Eliza.
When the moment is rewound in "Satisfied", Hamilton's position switches over, and
this time he's looking at Angelica.
The direction in which the turntable
moves also communicates a subtle meaning.
For choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler,
counter-clockwise motion like that in "Helpless" suggests time passing.
The opposite direction, however, implies there is "resistance to the inevitable"
going on, which is why the turntable reverses its motion during "Satisfied".
Blankenbuehler explains that many in the audience won't "consciously register his choices
like the fact that Burr moves in straight lines, because he sees no options,
and Hamilton moves in arcs, because he sees all possibilities",
but that viewers still feel it intuitively.
Again this small detail helps to communicate
the difference in worldview of two of the most important characters in the show.
Now, Hamilton the movie doesn't exactly have a post-credits scene, but there is a
little bonus for anyone who sticks around to very end of the 10-minute long credits.
In the film's final two minutes, you get to hear the "Exit Music", which is a medley of Hamilton
songs that isn't on the official soundtrack.
This musical piece is a "jam session recorded
live with most of the original band members"
which plays for the audience as they
leave the theatre and is a delight for any Hamilfans who haven't had the pleasure
of hearing this until the movie came out.
And check out the 'Special Thanks'
part of the credits and you'll see Lin-Manuel Miranda's included all the curious
places he wrote Hamilton over the years,
including the 'A Train' where he wrote
'Wait For It', Hamilton's birthplace Nevis where he composed Non-Stop, and on his
honeymoon where he wrote You'll Be Back.
Of course, one of the joys of Hamilton
arriving on Disney Plus is that not only can Hamilfans watch it on repeat, but those of
us who couldn't experience it live can finally see the much-talked about musical!
But even now, Disney Plus or other streaming services, like Netflix or YouTube, are
sometimes blocked in the country where you live, which is why I want to thank the
sponsor of this video NordVPN.
A VPN, or virtual private network, helps you
bypass geo-restrictions or censorship on content not available to view in your country.
With a VPN you can just pick a server in another location and browse the
internet as if you were there.
Here at Flicks And The City, we've tested several
VPNs and Nord is one of the best and fastest.
It has over 5,000 servers to
choose from in over 60 countries, and when connected to Nord we were still able
to get blisteringly fast download speeds.
A VPN also helps protect your privacy by
encrypting your internet connection and preventing your ISP, government agencies or malicious
hackers from reading your emails, private messages or knowing which websites you're visiting.
Unlike many free VPNs, Nord has a no-log policy meaning it doesn't record or retain
details of your online activity when you're connected to its service.
NordVPN also works with Netflix, Disney Plus and other TV streaming services
like Amazon Prime to help you connect to those and work around geo-restrictions.
For a limited time, NordVPN are offering all our viewers up to 70% off new subscriptions.
Just visit NordVPN.com/FLICKS or tap the link in the video description to access the offer.
So, what are your favourite moments and songs in Hamilton?
And did you notice any other interesting details?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Tap left to learn about everything the musical changed about the real history of
Alexander Hamilton or tap right for something else you're sure to like!
And thanks so much to all of you for helping me reach a million
subscribers since I last uploaded.
I really hope you're all keeping
safe during these tough times.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!
