Is anyone else not impressed with Hamilton? UPDATE

CT Yankee

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
I know this is a very unpopular opinion, and am not looking to change anyone's mind, but I just don't get the fascination with this musical. In all fairness, I am not a huge fan of musicals to begin with, but this just came across to me as a history lecture set to a beat. I love history, and I enjoy all types of music from rap to bluegrass, but after a while it sounded like every song was an exposition number. To me it just does not seem worthy of all of the hype. Just curious if anyone else had a similar view.

Also, Hamilton did indeed throw away his shot. I know, it's supposed to be ironic and foreshadowing and all, but this choice of words in the song just does not make sense to me.
 
My husband and I could not even get beyond the first 35 minutes. It was laughably bad. Like, we were seriously cracking up at the ridiculousness of it all.

My husband LOVES history. I love rap music. This was just not it.

Maybe I just am not a fan of Lin Manuel's style. Moana similarly irked me with the overuse of "fast lyric exposition songs." It was overkill there too.

We keep saying we should watch the whole thing so we can see if it gets better, but so far we just can't bring ourselves to care that much.
 




Also not trying to change anyone’s mind but I loved the stage show. I’ve seen it three times (not in NY as can’t afford that) and would see it again when it is safe to do so. I hate rap, I’m not the target demographic. That said, I wasn’t blown away by the film version. I joined Disney + just to watch it and I did watch it once but probably won’t watch again. It just doesn’t have the same impact.
 
Also not trying to change anyone’s mind but I loved the stage show. I’ve seen it three times (not in NY as can’t afford that) and would see it again when it is safe to do so. I hate rap, I’m not the target demographic. That said, I wasn’t blown away by the film version. I joined Disney + just to watch it and I did watch it once but probably won’t watch again. It just doesn’t have the same impact.

When you see it in person, can you understand what they are saying? We had to turn on the captions in order to be able to follow along with the songs. That seems like it should not ever be necessary. I have also heard MANY people say "you should listen to the soundtrack before you see the show." Like...what? No. Not doing that. I've seen plenty of musicals and never listened to soundtracks ahead of them and was able to follow the story just fine.

And since I'm probably not going to finish watching, let me ask you: is there any actual ACTING in this musical? Or is it just a 2:40 long song?
 
LOL you must not be a fan of opera or opera-style musicals. "Actual acting" can occur in a song just as much as in spoken dialogue.

Nope. Don't really like operas. I like musicals with songs that help move the story along, but not when the whole story is a song. I didn't see much actual acting in the first 35 minutes of Hamilton. It was just songs and dance number after song and dance number.
 
We did sit down as a family and jump into it. Made it about 30 minutes then my 6 yo lost interest. We have not gone back to watch it. That is saying something - I was really looking forward to it. It's one of those things you really need to sit down and get invested in - no doubt better in person.
 
We did sit down as a family and jump into it. Made it about 30 minutes then my 6 yo lost interest. We have not gone back to watch it. That is saying something - I was really looking forward to it. It's one of those things you really need to sit down and get invested in - no doubt better in person.
Not really saying much at all. The material is not geared towards 6-year-olds.
 
LOL you must not be a fan of opera or opera-style musicals. "Actual acting" can occur in a song just as much as in spoken dialogue.
That's the odd thing with my own personal preferences - I do like opera, but for some reason have never been a big fan of musicals. Even with musicals that I do sit down to watch, there is at least one song that gets stuck in my head and that I want to hum along to. That was not the case with Hamilton. Just nothing stood out to me as particularly entertaining or moving.
 
That's the odd thing with my own personal preferences - I do like opera, but for some reason have never been a big fan of musicals. Even with musicals that I do sit down to watch, there is at least one song that gets stuck in my head and that I want to hum along to. That was not the case with Hamilton. Just nothing stood out to me as particularly entertaining or moving.

I hear you - having spent much of my life in musical theater I've done more than my fair share of defending against the idea that musicals aren't "real" acting, and my hackles may have gotten up a bit prematurely LOL.

In terms of Hamilton, it's definitely going to appeal to some and not others, but I think that's true of any theatrical style whether it's a musical or not. I do think that in the future Hamilton will be representative of a shift in the kind of musicals that take the stage. Rent is similar in the overarching history of musicals - groundbreaking at the time and became a pivot point...but it's not really high on my list of favorites for other reasons.
 
When you see it in person, can you understand what they are saying? We had to turn on the captions in order to be able to follow along with the songs. That seems like it should not ever be necessary. I have also heard MANY people say "you should listen to the soundtrack before you see the show." Like...what? No. Not doing that. I've seen plenty of musicals and never listened to soundtracks ahead of them and was able to follow the story just fine.

And since I'm probably not going to finish watching, let me ask you: is there any actual ACTING in this musical? Or is it just a 2:40 long song?
It is a sung-through musical, like an opera. I often have trouble understanding the words in musicals that I’m not familiar with so I had listened to the songs beforehand. I still frequently listen to the soundtrack album. It is a dense storyline. That factored into Lin-Manuel Miranda’s choice of rap. Hamilton was a prolific writer and it is a complicated story so rap was chosen to be able to include a lot of information in the musical.
I wouldn’t worry about it if you don’t like it. There’s enough room in the world for people with different tastes.
 

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