Posted on 11/19/2016 12:27:26 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
As someone who has grown up around artists and liberals my whole life: I want to say, “Hamilton” is an incredibly well-written, well-produced, true-to-history feat! The phenomenon is cause for hope that liberals and young generations of "minority" Americans will identify with our founders after years and years of being conditioned to view America as fundamentally a bad place and our founders as fundamentally hostile, racist people -- and not for the great, complex, robust characters they were!
Give it more time, and eventually more will eventually be drawn to conservatism, which ideally leads to embracing the Judeo-Christian principles and our Creator God which underpin them.
Regardless,
I think a basic rule of thumb is to not enter hostile, traditional “enemy” territory (in this case, Broadway/Hollywood) JUST after a battle while the blood is still wet on the ground from defeat so to speak. Hence why I think the timing for the VP-elect's attendance was not right.
Abraham Lincoln understood this! This is why Civil War reconstruction was such a disaster because he died before being able to oversee it. The North did not give the South enough time to sort of recover itself from the initial war itself! (A far more extreme example, yes, but the idea still applies!)
"Making America Great Again" will not just happen in a day and President-elect Trump did a great job in reaching out to groups of people considered traditionally opposed to the conservative message: African-Americans, et al. It's a start!
AARON BURR: 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, impoverished, in squalor Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
JOHN LAURENS: The ten-dollar Founding Father without a father Got a lot farther by workin’ a lot harder By bein’ a lot smarter By bein’ a self-starter By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter
THOMAS JEFFERSON: And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted Away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter
JAMES MADISON: Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned Our man saw his future drip, drippin’ down the drain Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain
BURR: Well the word got around, they said, “This kid is insane, man!” Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland “Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came, and The world’s gonna know your name! What’s your name, man?"
ALEXANDER HAMILTON: Alexander Hamilton My name is Alexander Hamilton And there’s a million things I haven’t done But just you wait, just you wait
ELIZA HAMILTON: When he was ten, his father split, full of it, debt-ridden Two years later, see Alex and his mother, bed-ridden Half-dead, sittin’ in their own sick The scent thick
COMPANY: And Alex got better but his mother went quick
GEORGE WASHINGTON and (COMPANY): Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide Left him with nothin’ but ruined pride, somethin’ new inside A voice saying "(Alex) you gotta fend for yourself" He started retreatin’ and readin’ every treatise on the shelf
BURR and (COMPANY): There would’ve been nothin’ left to do For someone less astute He would’ve been dead or destitute Without a cent of restitution Started workin’, clerkin’ for his late mother’s landlord Tradin’ sugar cane and rum and other things he can’t afford (Scammin’) for every book he can get his hands on (Plannin’) for the future, see him now as he stands on (oooh) The bow of a ship headed for a new land In New York you can be a new man
COMPANY and (HAMILTON): In New York you can be a new man (Just you wait) In New York you can be a new man (Just you wait) In New York you can be a new man
WOMEN: In New York MEN: New York
HAMILTON: Just you wait
COMPANY and (COMPANY): Alexander Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton) We are waiting in the wings for you (waiting in the wings for you) You could never back down You never learned to take your time Oh, Alexander Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton) When America sings for you Will they know what you overcame? Will they know you rewrote the game? The world will never be the same, oh
BURR and (COMPANY): The ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spot him (Just you wait) Another immigrant comin’ up from the bottom (Just you wait) His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him
MULLIGAN/MADISON AND LAFAYETTE/JEFFERSON: We fought with him
LAURENS/PHILLIP: Me? I died for him
WASHINGTON: Me? I trusted him
ANGELICA SCHUYLER, ELIZA, MARIA REYNOLDS: Me? I loved him
BURR: And me? I’m the damn fool that shot him
COMPANY: There’s a million things I haven’t done But just you wait
BURR: What’s your name, man?
HAMILTON & COMPANY: Alexander Hamilton!
Good grief. I didn’t even know what a hamilton was till today, sorry i ever heard of it.
The democRATs are still crying because Abraham Lincoln (R) took their slaves.
Barf. The only thing stupider than ignoring history altogether are these childish attempts to make it “hip.” If we have to resort to this kind of cheesy doggerel to get the message across, then maybe it’s a message best left unsent.
I have heard of it and applaud the creativity of the show. However it is not the place for some arrogant SOB actor to state his political views.
They paid to see the show just like everyone else.
Ok but look what happened to him when he went to the theater!
Well, credit where it’s due. Some words from liberal Tom Hanks this week:
“America has been in worse places than we are at right now. In my own lifetime, our streets were in chaos, our generations were fighting each other tooth and nail. Every dinner table ended up being as close to a fistfight as human families are allowed. We have been in a place where we have looked at our leaders and wondered, ‘What the hell they were thinking of?’ We’ve had moments with the administrations and politicians and senators and governors in which we have asked ourselves, ‘Are they lying to us or do they really believe in this?’ That’s all right.
We have this magnificent thing that is in place. It’s a magnificent document and it starts off with the phrases that, if you’re smart enough, you’ve memorized in school or just read enough to that you could put it by heart, or you watched those things on ABC where they taught you a little song in order to sing. And the song goes, ‘We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,’ and it goes on and on. That document is going to protect us over and over again, whether or not our neighbors preserve, protect and defend it themselves.
We are going to be all right because we constantly get to tell the world who we are. We constantly get to define ourselves as American. We do have the greatest country in the world. We move at a slow pace. We have the greatest country in the world because we are always moving towards a more perfect union. That journey never ceases, it never stops.
Sometimes, to quote a Springsteen song, it’s ‘one step forward, two steps back,’ but we still aggregately move forward. We, who are a week into wondering what the hell just happened, will continue to move forward. We have to choose to do so, but we will move forward because if we do not move forward, what is to be said of us?
This is the United States of America. We’ll go on. There’s great like-minded people out there who are Americans first and Republicans or Democrats second. I hope the president-elect does such a great job that I vote for his reelection in four years.”
Oh dear...I thought about that too. So we should be grateful all that Pence was got was a few boos and hippie lecture.
Indeed and Booth was an actor.
I think you excuse unacceptable behavior too readily. A ttheater is oobviously not hostile tterritory and actors are not eventitled to harass or lecture those who purchase a ticket and seat themselves appropriately. Why must there be greater allowances made for liberals as if the have emotional disabilities requiring aaccommodations, ,?
These people aren’t children. The left is brutal in power and demanding when lacking it. Moreover, there is nothing more off putting than hearing the high profile types claiming victim status.
90% of it is jibberish and unlistenable.
yes one of the greats...along with his brother — American masters of Shakespeare apparently.
The last time the Democrats cried this much was when the Republicans ended slavery.
It was not Dixon and the cast’s place to lecture VP-elect Pence, and call it a “conversation.” They had the stage, the spotlight and the mic. Pence bought a ticket to a Broadway show. So far as I’ve ever heard, nothing like this has been done before. It wasn’t up to VP-elect Pence to anticipate this boorish behavior; he was entitled to enjoy the show for which he paid a pretty penny.
Let’s say I am in the audience, celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary with my spouse. It’s a big, big night for us. We paid over $1000 for the tickets, we had dinner at a nice NYC restaurant to the tune of $300; we parked our car for $50; paid $20 in tolls to get into NYC, and paid a babysitter $120. Can you imagine how ticked off we would be if some self-centered actor decides to ruin our night because he doesn’t like a member of the audience and his and his running mate’s political views?
Yes, but in all fairness, the content of the show is extremely heated. May I remind people this is a re-enactment of the American Revolutionary era! Hamilton died in a DUEL against Aaron Burr — and I guess the one comfort we can take away from this fact is that there is nothing new about the intensity of the current political climate. This is America.
So yes combine the content of the show plus the polarization of the country plus the ridiculous damage the media has done by falsely painting conservatives as racist-devils and it’s the perfect recipe for such a moment.
This isn’t “Cats.”
These people are paid to entertain. If you step out of character to lecture the audience, be prepared to hear some adverse opinions in return. Trump’s whack across the snout with a rolled-up newspaper is the appropriate response.
And his brother Edwin caught hell for it.
Trump had every right to respond the way he did. Mike Pence is one of the most morally upright men in leadership, period. A true carrier of the Founders legacy that the musical is supposed celebrating.
I am defensive of Pence (and his family!) and that’s why I wish he didn’t have to subject himself to the show...but I would have seen it coming, knowing the context. That’s all I’m saying.
My father went to Alexander Hamilton High School in NYC.
It was closed by the city in 1983.
So much for their respect for one of our Founders.
This play is written for morons, and they love it.
90% of them never heard of Hamilton, and leave the theater thinking he was some kind of Puerto Rican rapper.
This nonsensical play might have some redeeming value if it brought dueling back to national politics.
When flat out lying about your opponent might result in a bullet in the head, a lot less of it went on.
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