My wife and I were talking about seeing this, if* it comes out on July 3rd. I probably will: most of my objections to HAMILTON were frankly based on a rare (for me) sense of class outrage. I’m from a blue-collar background, and while I don’t mind it that there are $800 theater tickets out there I do mind the suggestion that anybody who can’t afford one is some sort of cultural barbarian.
So we’ll probably watch it, if it comes out. I do hear that the songs are nice.
Moe Lane
*Well, at the time of the conversation the word we used was ‘when.’
A few points, made from experience with Hamilton (my job let me see the show over 90 times) and Big Musicals in general (75+ other shows seen multiple times).
It’s a good show, it isn’t a great one. The few female roles are wholly subpar and at least two of them are superfluous.
The creator (LMM) is an irredeemable monger and purveyor of racial division.
No show is worth the prices Ham charged.
Filmed versions of musicals are a spectacle unto themselves, and are never a good substitute for live theatre – simplest reason being all decently staged musicals have a few big ensemble song and dance numbers. When viewed live, they are a whirlwind of sound and movement that make re-watching enjoyable because there is always a different character or motion to focus on. Filming a show takes this discretion away from the viewer and forces you to see only the film directors choices, not the range of options a stage director offers(and often with a frantic editing that constantly distracts as well); this makes it a fundamentally different experience.
All that aside, it is, for better or worse, a cultural touchstone now, so experiencing it isn’t a waste of time. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
” The few female roles are wholly subpar and at least two of them are superfluous.”
Apropos of this (and my apologies for threadjacking) did you see the recent Rick & Morty episode where they brought up the Bechdel test, and used it as a plot device? I was cracking up, but I wonder how many people who watched the episode know what that was.
I know this one – it’s that test designed to identify poor screenwriters who include superfluous scenes for political brownie points rather than concentrating on an entertaining plot and snappy dialogue.
One assumes there’s far too much money to be made making and releasing movies for it not to continue in some fashion or another.
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To what extent that includes them being shown in a theater is another question.