CMU School of Drama


Monday, April 18, 2016

Historians are criticizing Hamilton, and fans should be thrilled.

www.slate.com: In part thanks to this Q&A between Slate’s Rebecca Onion and Rutgers professor Lyra Monteiro, a conversation is finally brewing about how Hamilton, the brilliant musical phenomenon, approaches history, the factual record, and its real-life subjects. If, like me, you work in theater and spend a lot of time procrastinating on social media, you’ve probably seen many of your friends ranting about small-minded academic quislings fact-checking every minute of the show from their ivory towers.

2 comments:

Jake Poser said...

This was a great article that brought up many important topics.
I really enjoyed reading about Hamilton as a great piece of theatre, while simultaneously reading about it's weaknesses and oversights as a historically accurate musical.
I agree with most of the world when I say that Hamilton is one of the best pieces of art that I have ever seen/heard but I do think that analyzing it, whether we love it or not is important. It tells Miranda's version of the story of Alexander Hamilton. A real historical political figure. Therefore, I feel that though the musical is art and art has the right to say whatever the artist wants to say I also believe that there is a responsibility to represent what you are talking about in some type of accurate way. I think that Hamilton will, and should be talked about in years to come, and maybe even centuries but I think that it might be too early now to break it down scene by scene, or song by song.

Alex Kaplan said...

I think that this article brings up a really interesting point. I thought that it was a great comparison of how the writer called Hamilton a fan-nonfiction. This term fits the show very well and explains some of the historical inaccuracies within the show, which people are now bringing up and critiquing.I think that the critiquing this sow is a good thing, because it means that people are talking about it and debating about a period of history we have all learned about in elementary school. The author of this article was right when he said that this show really doesn’t need protecting from this criticism, as it is steamrolling through many awards and is expected to continue to do so for years and years to come. I am expecting this run of Hamilton to last for a long time no matter what the critics and historians say about it.