Just over four years ago, a friend messaged me asking if Iwas free the next day. I hedged. They then

Just over four years ago, a friend messaged me asking if Iwas free the next day. I hedged. They then clarified that due to a travelscheduling mix-up, they had a spare ticket to Hamilton at the Public. I was then free as of an hour previous.I’d been excited about the show since I’d first heard aboutit, since Lin-Manuel Miranda was clearly an extremely talented creator and I’dgrown up being interested in revolutionary history (both American and French)and also Alexander Hamilton in particular. On top of being drawn to the themesof both that period of time and Hamilton’s life, it was just part of being aNew Yorker and having it be local history – hell, during my teen years, I spentone summer in an interactive murder mystery afternoon tea theatre (we couldn’tafford dinner) play performed in Schuyler Mansion.(I was an Anti-Federalist. Sorry, Alex.)(For what it’s worth, I was also the murder victim.)The Hamilton runat the Public had sold out far too far in advance for me to know what myschedule would be in order to purchase tickets, so I’d resigned myself to notseeing it. But then all of a sudden, there I was, halfway into previews. Itturned out that Javi was on that night – his very first night performing therole for an audience. Lin was, by deductive reasoning, somewhere in the housewith us. There were no reviews. There were no recordings. It was all completelynew.Two days after walking out of the theater, I created a newtumblr because I feared that the commercial theatre scene might not understandthis weird, whip-smart, heart-full show about things that I loved and I wantedto hype it the fuck up as much as I could. I’d been using tumblr for a wholethree months (and it would take me about another year to figure out how to usethe ask box), but I went full-on white man and acted based on what I wanted tobe rather than what I had proof of already having accomplished, all so that Icould shout this show to the rooftops and do my small part in getting groundsupport going.I honestly also didn’t want fans of the show to end up withsome whack-ass cutesy fandom name and, well, to the founders go the spoils.It was clear within a matter of months that this weirdmusical didn’t need my help. But I wanted to keep shouting.Subject matter aside, it’s rare that I’ve seen a moretightly crafted piece of theatre, with every single note and word and tinymovement and detail of design telling a story with power and clarity, often onmultiple levels. It spoiled me for a number of shows that I saw in thefollowing months, with entire bars’ worth of wasted lyric space and messydramaturgy and unrealized potential. The brilliance of all of the artistsinvolved was inspiring to me as a professional.But as for the story itself: it was a legitimate turningpoint in my personal journey, accelerating my way around a curve toward myeventual first return to my birth country and the fullness of my own experienceas someone from somewhere else. I entered the theater hoping for a good show,and I exited it with something reverberating inside of me in a new and powerfulway, some shared frequency discovered.Hamilton isn’t theentirety of musical theatre or of “diverse theatre” (whatever thefuck that means), and nor should it be. I hope to hell that people keep pushingfor the Hamilton effect to increase the size of the pie for everyone ratherthan for it to be a swirling vortex that attracts new resources but sucks themall into itself. I hope that space is held for those whom the show causes pain,whether by reason of inclusion or omission, and that a wider chorus of voicesis amplified to sing out.For me, however, the energy of creation and questions oflegacy resonated. And my mind was blown by how simultaneously traditionallyinspirationally and yet slyly subversive the show was. The United States ofAmerica has none of the creation myths of older peoples or nations. What wehave instead is relatively recent politically history that has beenmythologized and enshrined as our national civic religion. Hamilton declared that the manifestations of these nationallyworshipped figures, whom our streets and schools and cities are named after,are to be found in the faces of people of color and immigrants. Hamilton made it so that you can’tworship the flag, as so many like to do, without worshipping these people.Of course, people’s powers of compartmentalization arepretty strong, so there are those whose walls inside are so strong that apopular musical will never be enough to topple them. Or who put themselves inrageful opposition to the show for all of these very reasons. Hamilton isn’t going to save a countryor the world. But the show has still turned out to be an amazing force, and Ido believe that that force pushes for good.All of which is to say: it’s been a joy and privilege to beable to experience this phenomenon with so many of you. While I stay largelyhands-off in my larger internet life for the sake of my sanity, it’s beenamazing to have even just this glancing connection with more people than I everwould have imagined. If I had the time and energy to keep up this unpaid secondjob that I haven’t been able to spin onto my resume yet, I would. But as timehas passed, I’ve been having less and less space for this, and I wanted tobring this leg of this wild ride to an end in a satisfying way.I’ll be working on cleaning up tags and otherwise makingthis a place that you can come back to get your fix of the first four years ofthis show’s history, through Lin’s returning as Hamilton in Puerto Rico. Therewill be a couple of summary posts as the waves of updates are completed. Butthe regular postings from MC Publius have reached the end of their run.So thank you for the past four years. And maybe see you on theother side. -- source link

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