When I bought tickets to Hamilton last October, I immediately put myself on Hamilton hiatus. I wanted to go into the musical fresh and be able to experience it without the official recording going through my head or being distracted by things I’d read or watched. Now that I’ve seen the musical, it’s time to gobble up all the Hamilton things. First on my list was Hamilton: The Revolution.
Hamilton: The Revolution is basically the history of the musical from the very beginning to opening on Broadway. This book isn’t just Miranda and McCarter cashing in on the Hamilton phenomenon with a hastily compiled history, this is a well-written, thoughtful, beautifully made book with fans in mind. Listen, if you’re a fan, you must check it out from the library or pick yourself up a copy. With gorgeous deckle pages and high-quality pictures of the production on almost every page, you’ll spend hours just admiring how beautiful the book is.
Diving deeper, interesting sections about the musical’s history, the cast, the production, and historical figures are interspersed between full lyrics of each song, notated by Miranda. This in-depth look only heightened my appreciation for the musical. You get to take a trip into Miranda’s creative brain in the same way that the musical takes you on a trip into Hamilton’s brain. You’ll also get to learn how many moving parts there are in making a great musical and meet all the characters who helped put Hamilton together.
I can’t believe you were on a Hamilton hiatus for that long. I haven’t been able to go longer than two weeks since December 2015 without at least listening to one of the songs.
It was rough going for a while, not going to lie
I loved this book. The pages were thick and had those great irregular cut edges. And the pictures are so wonderful. From the viewpoint of a fan and a person obsessed with the creative process this book hit all the good bits.