Hamilton: An American Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the son of Puerto-Rican immigrants, wrote and starred in Hamilton: An American Musical. It is the retelling of one of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton’s, life through contemporary music. The unique selling point of this musical is the diverse cast. This Broadway musical is a key example of the assimilation of African Americans into society.

By using the diverse cast to portray the white founding fathers, some of whom had slaves, Lin-Manuel Miranda is purposefully reflecting the contemporary America of today. It may not be historically accurate to cast people of colour as the founding fathers, but it is a good cultural representation of who America is made up of now. It also allows people of colour and immigrants like him, to feel included in the story of the founding of their country. He utilises rap and R&B, pairing it with the diverse cast, by doing so, we get a feel of how varied in terms of race New York feels in this century.

The main thread that runs through the story of the award-winning musical is Hamilton’s desire to prove himself worthy of his position. This runs parallel to racial attitudes today that somehow, African Americans are inferior to whites and as such, they have to constantly battle with that prejudice and prove themselves to the rest of society. Miranda has done well to appropriately reflect issues of race in a political society that struggles to even acknowledge the issue, let alone explore it.

The legacy of this musical is that people of colour will feel more confident in auditioning for roles in which they would play a ‘traditionally white’ figure, leading to more effective assimilation into society.