Hamilton: The Revolution

by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter

I listened to this audiobook through Libby (an app tied to my account at the library). Two things struck me:

First, I have marveled at some of the lyrics in the Hamilton songs, and I wondered, “How did Lin-Manuel Miranda get so good at writing lyrics?” I learned in this book that he spent years performing in a rap improv comedy group that he started called Freestyle Love Supreme. He had already written Into the Heights before starting this group, so he was already very talented. I imagine having to do rap improv (!) regularly would really hone your skills.

Second, I hadn’t thought much about the artistic decision to cast black and latino actors as American’s founding fathers. Obviously, that’s not what, say, George Washington looked like, but it clearly works well. Anyway, the show’s creators heard from a lot of black and latino high school students that Hamilton made them see America’s story as their own story. I thought that was great.