What Inspires Me: Hamilton
As you can tell by the title, this week’s inspiration is a what rather than a who. Let me explain...
When I was a little girl my dad introduced me to my first musical, Les Misérables. Back when we had to listen to music on CDs, and the Les Mis cast album came with two, there was a little booklet inside with all the lyrics. He came home from work one day with a packet 40 pages thick- he had copied each and every page, single-sided, so I could read the tiny, tiny text. I carried this packet with me everywhere, memorizing all the songs and imagining the scenes in my head. When I was in third grade, my mom took me to see Les Mis on Broadway. It was my first time riding a train, going to New York City, and sitting in the audience of a Broadway theatre. As the overture began I knew I was hooked. Over the years my dad and I would constantly recommend new musicals to each other. He played for me classics like Man of La Mancha and The Sound of Music while I introduced him to more contemporary pieces such as RENT and Next To Normal. Then, one day in 2015, I made him listen to the newly released cast album of a show that was making history. That show was Hamilton: An American Musical. To my surprise (my dad was not hip-hop music’s biggest fan) and delight, my dad loved it and would listen to it with me time and time again.
I lost my dad not long after the cast album came out. As I grieved, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s music and lyrics became my solace. I would listen to the album on repeat and escape into a world that wasn’t my own for 2 ½ hours. Like Alexander Hamilton, I wanted nothing more than to make my family proud. I was determined to tell my story, take my shot and make a difference. I hope that through this blog, through my advocacy, I’m doing just that.
Watching the show for the first time, I was instantly mesmerized by the intricate choreography, the ever-changing set and impassioned performances. The show rendered me speechless. I knew the story backwards and forwards from listening to the album so many times but watching it...I felt so incredibly moved. I knew art had the power to inspire and ignite real change but had never really witnessed it until the curtain came up. My favorite song and, in my personal opinion, the most impactful is “Wait For It”. Hearing love/life/death doesn’t discriminate as someone who had just lost her father, who was trying to find her way again, it made me realize that if I keep waiting for something good to happen, it may never come. I had to fight for the change I wanted to see in the world. As Aaron Burr sings, “I am inimitable I am an original.”
In 2016 I seized an opportunity to take a masterclass with a member of Hamilton’s ensemble. It had been a while since I stepped into a dance studio, a place where, as a child, I could always let my mind and body be free. I was one of the oldest students in the class but once the music started I didn’t care. Performing the now iconic choreography to “My Shot” I kept asking myself why I gave up on my childhood dream to perform on Broadway. Here I was, a little person, dancing my heart out, and no one was telling me I couldn’t.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, when summarizing Hamilton, says “This is a story about America then, told by America now.” America is incredibly diverse as seen on stage eight times a week. But, I do have a question for Lin: Could any of these roles be played by an actor with a disability? I say yes. On Broadway, anything is possible.
