Behind the Song: Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Alexander Hamilton' from Hamilton

Previously, on ‘Behind The Song’… We began this particular word-fuelled thread two editions ago with Meredith Willson’s ‘ Ya Got Trouble’, the song that introduced the spoken lyric (dare we say early rap?) to Broadway audiences in The Music Man; we then progressed to ‘ The Rap’ from Starlight Express – family connection noted. The only logical step on the theatre rap-ladder leads us to a guy who came from Washington Heights and ended up in Washington. In the White House.

In The Heights was a gamechanger itself – a colourful, brash romantic piragua of a musical stuffed with Latin rhythms, hip-hop-inspired machine-gun lyrics, salsa – a musical about growing up in a largely Dominican neighbourhood of Manhattan, with its inherent ancestry, cultural roots and music. So, he’d already brought rap back to the theatre, but his next move was the biggie. The child that got all the attention, the bigger slice of the cake (and the one that knew all the words).

On 12 May 2009 Lin-Manuel Miranda is invited by Barack and Michelle Obama to perform songs from In The Heights at a poetry-and-song event at the White House. Miranda chooses instead to perform a completely new composition from a show that doesn’t exist yet. Just him and collaborator Alex Lacamoire on piano. Here’s how it starts:

‘How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a / Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten / Spot in the Caribbean by providence'

Lin! This is the opening of a musical. You’re supposed to ease people in… All we get at the top of the show before this explosion of exposition and lyrical ingenuity is one bar – that bolero-style riff and that famous three note violin line. Then we’re off. Hold on to your wigs.

Hamilton UK 2024 Tour (Image credit: Danny Kaan)

As with all the most successful stage shows, the piece that was to become Hamilton went through a gestation period of almost six years from that point before it landed at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on 46th Street (where In The Heights had been). There were workshops, tryouts, tricky recording sessions, despair and worry from the investors, and often a complete disbelief that somebody, anybody, would want to write a hip-hop musical about the white guy on the American $10 bill. Alexander Hamilton was a distant figure in most average Americans’ memories, let alone the rest of the world. Yet, here we are, with this show and this style of storytelling part of our culture.

‘Alexander Hamilton / My name is Alexander Hamilton / And there’s a million things I haven’t done / But just you wait...’

We meet the guy, the epicentre of it all, less than three minutes into the show. There’s a partially engraved rule in theatre that exposition in the opening number is a killer for audiences. You have to set the scene, as I said earlier, to ease people in. There’s no overture here, no curtain. We learn the nooks and crannies of the set as we sit down, no secrets hidden within those wooden beams – because Miranda loves getting straight to the point.

This is a story about big ideas, big dreams and huge historical importance and we’ve a lot to get through. The real killer would have been to start with a scenesetter and then introduce the history lesson later on.

Though known to be a hip-hop musical, this number is actually all on the note. Nothing is rapped – this is Miranda bringing the forms together. A disciple of all the theatre greats, not only Richard Rodgers, whose building his show still occupies, but also importantly Lionel Bart (see page 11). He has stated before that Oliver! is the main inspiration behind his writing, the best example of the form. I have to agree with him – there’s no flab in that show, nothing that doesn’t drive the characters and the story along.

‘We are waiting in the wings for you.’ The whole company joins onstage – a suggestion of a Greek chorus; as we get further into the meat of the song, they’re singing ‘ In New York you can be a new man’ while Hamilton repeats his portentous ‘Just you wait’, two huge statements and ideas that drill into your brain. We’re being implored to ingest these words, and even if the still wriggling audience (’MY PHONE, MY PHONE, I CAN’T TURN IT OFF’) might not realise it, the power of the music and the insistence of the orchestration has already secured the stakes of the action and the import of the story.

So, in a brilliant mix of musical styles we have a rap song that isn’t rapped, that rattles through decades of history and pins us to our seats – all delivered by a diverse young cast celebrating the ability to dream, to climb up the ladder that signified everything the man was about. ‘What’s your name, man?’

‘Alexander Hamilton.’

Hamilton is at the Victoria Palace Theatre until 29 March 2025 and touring the UK until 25 October 2025 – visit hamiltonmusical.com; the filmed version of the original Broadway production is available to watch on Disney+

This article originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Musicals magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today