Monday, March 19, 2018

Hamilton

Eighteen years ago, I read Dave Eggers' tongue-in-cheek titled memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Two days ago, I saw Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical, and that book title from long ago kept popping into my head. This piece of theater is IN FACT, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. The performances were astounding, the detail of the single set was impressive, the acting, singing, and dancing were all top-notch, but what I kept (and keep) coming back to is the astonishing intellect of Lin-Manuel Miranda who conceived of and so fantastically depicted the early history of America, from the Revolutionary War to the Constitution, through rap music, hip-hop dance, and the use of a multi-cultural cast. Lin Manuel Miranda won a MacArthur 'Genius Grant' in 2015, I think he should have won two.
The single-piece set.