My HuffPost Live Segment on *Hamilton*

As far as I can remember, I've never participated on a live online discussion before, but that changed yesterday when I appeared on HuffPost Live's daily segment to discuss Lin-Manuel Miranda's remarkable new Broadway biomusical Hamilton: An American Musical, which currently is playing at the Richard Rogers Theater.

The segment host

A HuffPost producer, Felicia Kelley, had read my VICE review--praise song--of the musical, and invited me to join several veteran theater critics--Jesse Green, senior theater critic for New York Magazine; Suzie Evans, senior editor at American Theater; and journalist and playwright Michelle Williams in discussing why Miranda's creation is so popular and important. We connected on Google Hangout, which I've heard people mention before, but this was the first time I'd ever used it, and I highly recommend its simplicity and functionality.

The set-up in my office

I was extremely nervous, though, and despite the fact that we'd been prepped a bit about the direction of the conversation, we had no idea what questions the segment host, Caroline Modaressy-Tehrani, would ask. It also was live and unedited, so what we said was exactly what viewers saw and heard. I think I acquitted myself decently under the circumstances, and did remember to mention US history, immigration, race and casting, the musical's relevance in relation to the current presidential campaign, and the fact that it includes multiple styles of hip hop, including beat box, chopper and freestyle moments. Otherwise, it was a blur, but a fun one, and I loved hearing what the theater critics had to say about Miranda's masterpiece.

A few hours after that I gave an evening reading at the university, without a hint of nerves. I'll be posting on that tomorrow. Enjoy the discussion, and above all, if you can, go see Hamilton!

My screen grab during the conversation

Reviews: Lee's Go Set a Watchman & Miranda's Hamilton: An American Musical

Harper Lee and her novel cover for Go Set
a Watchman (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/
Getty Images. Courtesy of VICE & HarperCollins)

As I wrote yesterday, during my quiet stretch here I have been writing for other publications, and just before my last July blog entry, the double obit for E. L. Doctorow and Ornette Coleman, I posted a review of Harper Lee's new (old) novel at VICE, "Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman Reveals the Limits of the Liberal Imagination." Two paragraphs:

As a counterpoint and complement to the compelling fantasy of Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman possesses real value. What was often latent in the later novel is on full display here, ranging from the middle-class whites' classism, self-absorption, and entitlement to a racial-epithet-packed screed that would not appear out of place on a forum like Stormfront. Reading Go Set a Watchman also made me wonder how it might have been received by critics and the public if it had appeared in the late 50s, and whether there exists another work of fiction from these years by a young white Southern writer that so baldly lays bare the complicity of the mass of white Southerners, particularly the social elites and middle class, in maintaining white supremacy.

In its focus on liberalism's limitations, and its conclusion in Jean Louise's sentimental emotional accommodation with her father's and family's views—"I can't beat him, and I can't join him"—the book also feels very contemporary, since we still encounter unironic invocations of America as a "post-racial" society in the public discourse, despite constant  indications to the contrary.

There's more at the link above. Oh--and I definitely recommend reading Lee's new (old) book.

***

Ensemble and Lin-Manuel Miranda (at right)
in Hamilton (photo by Joan Marcus)

Recently I had the excellent fortune to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's masterpiece, Hamilton: An American Musical, which has made a smooth transition from the Public Theater, where it debuted to acclaim, to Broadway, at the Richard Rogers Theater. I could rhapsodize about Miranda's artistry at length, but VICE fortunately has word limits and editors, so you can read my distilled thoughts about this work at "The Best Musical of the Year Is a Hip-Hop Show About Alexander Hamilton."

Not only do I talk about all the kinds of hip hop (from freestyle to chopper) Miranda manages to incorporate, but I also devote a few paragraphs to the multiple political implications of this work. It's not a long review so please do check it out.

One quote:

Hamilton also offers one of the best and most compelling counternarratives to the increasingly extreme conservative rhetoric around immigration. Alexander Hamilton, Miranda never lets the audience forget, was an immigrant from a small island, with a sketchy education, no money, and few prospects, and became the target of constant social and political antagonism. Even factoring in the neoliberal undercurrent of the hardworking, self-made man the musical espouses, Hamilton artfully hammers away at the idea that power should be concentrated in the hands of an elite, or that opportunity should not be extended as widely as possible, repeatedly connecting this thread to larger ideas about race and class. Many of the musical's catchphrases, including "We are a movement," "Rise up," and "The world turned upside down," would sound as fitting at a protest as they do on Broadway.

Above all, GO SEE HAMILTON! It just may rock your bells, and your world.