The entrepreneur label might seem at first blush to be a stretch for the founding father whose face is on the ten-dollar bill. After all, he was a soldier, a politician, and a lawyer, not a businessman. But the best and scrappiest of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs will recognize plenty of themselves in Hamilton. An immigrant, an orphan, and a striver of the first degree, Hamilton saw what he wanted, a new kind of country, and he went for it. Or, in the melodically memorable words of lyricist, composer, and title-role actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton took his “shot.”
6 comments:
I LOVE HAMILTON ARTICLES! (And this is no exception)
I am so interested in the business side of theatre; thinking about what will sell, what stories are accessible, and what are the creative ways to market a show. Miranda encompasses so many of the ideals that help to make theatre accessible to vast audiences, aside from his ticket prices. In the near future, Hamilton is said to air live on TV. The soundtrack is also said to air on the radio. This musical is taking over. What an exciting time, this musical breaks the barriers of which "type of people" enjoy theatre.
Miranda writes stories and music that can be enjoyed by many. His stories usually follow the underdog, and see his or her rise to success.
Like Hamilton, he goes out of his way to advocate for himself, and see his vision through. This ideal is expressed when he stars in his own productions. This could also be seen similarly to Hamilton's self-indulgent attitude, doing anything he could to rise to the top.
I am so excited to see this show in New York, and agree with the article that this play should be seen by all.
This article kind of points out the obvious. For anyone who has seen Hamilton or done a quick google search of Alexander Hamilton's life, they know he made some remarkable accomplishments. Of course, I love that there is a musical out there about this "scrappy entrepreneur," but I think there are also so many other entrepreneurial practices about the production itself for us to learn from. For example, the producers of Hamilton and Lin Manuel Miranda have made a huge splash in their pre-lottery performances "Ham4Ham." The Hamilton lottery shows have attracted anywhere between 200-700 people to the Richard Rodgers theater for lotteries. While I don't know the specific data of patrons who show up for other lotteries, I think it is safe to say Hamilton's Ham4Ham shows are attracting a significant number of people compared with its competitors. This is not the only "new" style of marketing Hamilton has used. Another example is the early release of their cast album on NPR. Clearly, Hamilton is a unique story told through innovative storytelling. But to me, the most valuable lessons here are in how their team has marketed it and created such a powerful buzz.
I was hoping that this article was going to be talking about what other production companies can learn from the Hamilton business model, but alas, I digress. I want to see Hamilton desperately. To be totally honest, I really want to see it just because the hype for it has been so ridiculously out of control that I can't really be uninterested and still call myself a theatre artist. I'm the most surprised by the fact that the play chose to focus on a historical figure like Alexander Hamilton in the first place. If there was to be a hit Broadway musical based on an important white man in America, I would pretty much suspect that it would be something along the lines of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, just because their figures are so familiar to us. I couldn't tell you what Hamilton looked like, and I think that lack of recognizability is what makes Hamilton such a surprise success, from a marketing and publicity standpoint.
At this point it has gotten hard for me to gage how big of a deal Hamilton really is. I love the music and the story, and I hope the music style as well as the diverse casting will catch on in Broadway and eventually more variety will become the new standard. However, I also think that, because I’m in the bubble that is CMU school of drama, and that bubble is very into Hamilton, I honestly don’t know if it really is as revolutionary as it feels. I think that is something that will be revealed by the test of time, specifically if the new choices made in Hamilton will catch on in theater in general. That being said, I think Hamilton is really cool, and I hope I get a chance to see it. Also, one side note, I think it is a bit odd to say he died at the “tender age” of 49 given that, unless I’m mistaken, the life expectancy at the time was somewhere in the mid 30s.
Yet another brilliantly written article on the inner workings and themes of Hamilton... not. This article was downright disappointing. Yes, Alexander Hamilton was one of America's first capitalists, but show me how. Give me some information, make me enthralled with the mechanisms that link him and entrepreneurs today, don't just clickbait me using the show title. It also amazes me how much people are obsessed with the hip-hop nature of Hamilton. Everyone and their brother is absolutely freaking out that they actually enjoy hip-hop. "This is good hip-hop!" they say. Hamilton is not the first musical to utilize hip-hop. In my opinion, it is the best, but stop acting like this is the first instance of good hip-hop. I guess my standards are too high when it comes to people talking about Hamilton because most of them are written by people who obviously haven't listened to it. If they did, there would be quotes up the wazoo, not that half-assed My Shot "quote". Honestly, this article seems like it's written like I used to write comments: filling up the word count with nothing real to say.
Like Katie, I found this article underwhelming. I was hoping for some background information about the production, maybe a comment or two about the extremely successful business model and how it is successful since it appeals to such a wide audience. Instead, the article was just some guy posting on what I believe was his LinkedIn account about a show he had just seen. All the actual information he provided can be found in the shallowest of google searches. Hamilton is a huge historical figure who is too often forgotten. most of our economic culture is based off this man. He founded the concept of national debt (his theory was that a reasonable debt would force the countries we are indebted to to have an interest in aiding the United States become financially stronger). He was one of the founders of the Federalist party, which has since transitioned into the Democratic party. Miranda does an excellent job of retelling this story and making it more accessible to a non-academic crowd. This article explains nothing and has no depth or purpose. It does not inform a large audience about Alexander Hamilton (in fact, it only has 6,322 views). It isn't even well written. Honestly, this article is just a placeholder on this blog so we all have an excuse to talk about a popular show (which, of course, deserves to be talked about). No matter how excited we all are to see an article about Hamilton, we should not excuse bad writing simply because it focuses on our favorite subject.
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