Posted on 01/14/2017 9:45:23 AM PST by OddLane
I don't think there's a slight bit of hyperbole or exaggeration involved when I say that Hamilton, the awful musical that millionaire New Yorkers are required by law to throw away thousands watching, represents everything that was wrong with America in 2016. Allow me to make the case.
First, there's the music. I'm admittedly not much of a hip-hop aficionado, but I know shit from Shinola. From my perspective the art form has more or less been going downhill since Strictly Business (the EPMD record, not the Tommy Davidson vehicle), but there have been some highlights worth mentioning, mostly thanks to Ice Cube and an army of Wu bangers.
The point I'm trying to make is that, even to untrained ears such as mine, Hamilton is particularly bad. On first take, I thought it sounded a bit like a University of Iowa freshman—the kind who only listens to "real hip-hop"—attempting his first mixtape. One of my Twitter followers corrected me, however. It's closer to a Braintree elementary school making a rap song for parents' night. The latter description hints not merely at the simple, formulaic quality of the material, but also the cloying, bourgeois quality of it all. From the reference to "ten-dollar Founding Father without a father" to "when the British taxed our tea we got frisky," the whole affair sounds more like something made by precocious children than a professional composer...
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Good story, great game.
How much does this author’s opinion mean when he confesses that he has “untrained ears”?
This review is admittedly ignorant. The author admits as much.
If you haven’t seen it, or listened to it in its entirety several times, and especially if you are musically illiterate, please don’t express strong negative opinions about Hamilton.
Many of us, and by “us” I mean “artistically informed conservatives,” consider it among the greatest pieces of art to be created in our nation in decades.
A good number of artistically informed conservatives/Christians consider Hamilton to be among the greatest musicals produced in years.
Please withhold judgment until you’ve at least seen it in its entirety, or listened through the entire show several times.
I didn’t realize that it was even set to TS Eliot’s poems. Shame on me.
First of all Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar was great. Probably the best musical I ever saw. The man who played Judas singing a capella showed me what real talent was. I couldn’t believe that a man could just belt out a song like he did with no musical instruments and just sound so beautiful.
As for TS Eliot....”Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky “.... as a teenager with short attention span at the urging of an old Army artillery officer I read it and because of immaturity and stupidity refused to let it “take me” or “show me” anything. As I grew older and revisited it, it almost brings me to tears reading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Some things just can’t be understood by the young.
I don’t like rap music. It’s just not my thing. Like I said I love almost all forms of music in Western Society including some nifty Norteno mexican music, Cool Jazz (Chet Baker and the west coast style), rock, folk, country etc...but I just think that Hamilton and a lot of the “hits” on Broadway remind me of the French farting geeks that were thought to be oh so amazing by the elites but were just a marker to be used to show which “class” of person you belong to.
I think that’s what Hamilton has turned out to be. I saw a video of some of the performance and once I saw the race, gender and music.... I must admit I was just thinking, “this is going to be a PC rewrite of the founding fathers”. Art is propaganda...long live art.
“Hamilton is a rarified bit of pietistic foppery intended for the liberal/progressive elite.”
Did you see it in New York, or in Chicago? If neither, then you would be wise to withhold such a strong opinion.
Maybe you’re trashing it for the same reason many liberals praise it, because it’s what liberals/conservatives do. Maybe wait until you’ve experienced it before expressing such a strong opinion.
I saw Cats in NYC, and have the same opinion. The actors have dancing/acting/singing skills, but the show itself was definitely not something I’d pay to see again. Meh.
I appreciate your restrained and balanced perspective. Lots of uninformed opinions on this thread; you’re isn’t one of them.
FWIW, I saw Hamilton in Chicago with my 11-year-old daughter (8th row center), and my daughter also saw it in NYC. We’re an arts-loving family (my daughter is in an 8-month national Broadway show right now), and we’re also social/fiscal conservative Christians. I’ve listened to the music straight through dozens of times. It really is an amazing work of art, in so many ways, and those who dismiss it are missing out on something profound ...
More pietistic foppery.
LOL.
“More pietistic foppery.”
Pietistic: “pious sentiment, especially of an exaggerated or affected nature.”
Foppery: “a man who is concerned with his clothes and appearance in an affected and excessive way; a dandy.”
The phrase “pietistic foppery” sounds like a highbrow insult until you break it down into its meaning. In this conversation, in this context, it’s really pretty irrelevant. Nobody is acting “pious.” Nobody is talking about appearance. We’re talking about a well-crafted musical, well-performed and well-produced.
Maybe hold back on expressing your arrogantly uninformed opinion. You might be educated in a lot of areas, but about this particular show you seem to not know much. Having strong opinions about things you’re ignorant of makes you look kinda stupid.
TS Elliot...OK
CATS version of him...not so great! LOL!
I suppose one could do a “musical” of Walt Whitman or Elizabeth Barret Browning as well, but that doesn’t guarantee success! LOL!
I had to prep my student for her role, and i didn’t even enjoy THAT!
However, another student was getting ready to play Mama Rose in “Gypsy”, and although they had no scenery and few props, it was BETTER!
Personally, growing up my favorite show was A Chorus Line (Marvin Hamlisch/Michael Bennett), which won a Pulitzer. That was until I saw Les Miserables (in San Jose). That show is now my all-time favorite musical.
-PJ
I guess I have bad taste. I took Cats for exactly what it was - a bunch of actors singing and dancing in fancy costumes on an expensive set. I treated it like it was a concert and I enjoyed it.
Still, my normal reaction to the lyrics in a musical is, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Meaning, that it’s become accepted wisdom in the liberal and arts communities, that “Hamilton” is a priceless work of art, a classic masterpiece of the theater arts.
And, liberals being the way they are, are afraid to voice dissenting opinions, for fear of being ostracized by their “tolerant” liberal friends, if they voice a dissenting opinion about “Hamilton”.
So, nobody is willing to come out and say that “Hamilton” is not a good play, that their “Poetic license” having only members of minority groups cast as white people doesn’t work, that the “rap” soundtrack doesn’t set well with them, etc.
In short, to be a good liberal in good standing, you have to say that you loved “Hamilton”, and parrot back the opinion that it is indeed a national treasure and a classic play.
Excellent analysis. Liberals don't say anything bad about Hamilton for the same reason they voted for Barack Obama. To suggest that black people are anything but super duper awesomely stupendous is simply contrary to a major tenet of their super anti-racism philosophy.
They aren't allowed to recognize flaws in any minority because they are so virulently anti-racist that to admit a flaw in a minority is d@mn near committing a hate crime. At least it is in the opinion of the kook hive mind of the liberal social circles.
I believe someone once described this mindset as the "soft bigotry of low expectations.
They don't judge people as individuals, they judge them as groups, and certain groups are beyond reproach.
This is why they joyfully and fervently supported an unqualified, inexperienced idiot who had never accomplished a noteworthy thing in his life for President. He was just super duper awesome because he was black, but could speak with what sounded like a reasonably intelligent voice.
That he was a no-nothing imbecile didn't matter to them, he sounded good and he checked a very important box on their list. He made them feel so very very anti-racist for supporting him.
And they won't say a word about his series of blunders (or how bad "Hamilton" is) because to do so might imply in the minds of their friends that they are "racist."
I found a couple of his bits on Cracked.com. What an insufferable a-hole. (Please don’t give him any extra clicks.)
Not “bad taste”, just different.
That is why there are so many different kinds of music!
Wouldn’t a musical imply that there is actual music?
I LOVE “Cats”. I love Eliot and I like Andrew Lloyd Weber.
“Cats” is one of my wife’s favorite musicals.
Phantom is a great show too, and the longest running show in Broadway history. When it opened, Ronald Reagan was still in the White House.
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