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00:00:30I know there are certain actors who are like, once I get the wig, once I get the shoes, I know who the character is. I don't know that I'm like that. I do know that my posture certainly changes when I'm in the clothes, but it really doesn't start for me until I see everybody else in their costume. And you get that moment of community where we're all agreeing to just create this world for people.
00:00:58There's the part of my brain that works really hard on making Hamilton historically accurate and exciting and high stakes. And then there's the charge and the adrenaline that comes from performing something and hearing a response.
00:01:10Places, please. I'll cast to places.
00:01:17Oops, I'm still married. Thank you.
00:01:20President, I'm...
00:01:26In New York you can't be a new man. In New York you can't be a new man. In New York.
00:06:09Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis.
00:06:12Nevis is a very beautiful and colorful volcanic island in the Caribbean, but the day-to-day reality was very brutal and violent.
00:06:20Like most of the Caribbean islands at that time, it was dominated by sugar and cotton plantations.
00:06:26Most people in America think of the slave trade as Africa to North America, but most of them went to the Caribbean.
00:06:33And so Hamilton was right in the middle of this huge market, even people who were not terribly well-to-do could have one or two slaves in Nevis, and his family did.
00:06:43Hamilton's mother, Rachel had just fled an unhappy marriage when she met his father, but under the terms of her divorce, she wasn't able to remarry, which meant that Hamilton and his brother had to grow up with this stigma of illegitimacy, which was very real in those days.
00:06:58And so Hamilton goes through some really rough between birth and getting out of the island.
00:07:03When Hamilton was 11, James Hamilton abandoned Rachel and the two sons on the island of St. Croix.
00:07:11Not long afterwards, Rachel contracted a lethal fever, which she then communicated to Alexander.
00:07:17Hamilton suddenly found himself at the age of 13, an illegitimate orphan in poverty.
00:07:45And so he immediately had to go to work.
00:07:48He worked for a trading charter as a kid, so he's getting firsthand economic education because the people who actually own it are off on ships trading.
00:07:57And he's in charge of the books back home.
00:08:00When I was 17, a hurricane destroyed my town.
00:08:05I didn't drive.
00:08:08I couldn't seem to die.
00:08:11A hurricane destroys St. Croix.
00:08:12He writes a letter about the destruction he saw, and it's so beautifully written that a newspaper publishes it.
00:08:21It was impressive enough and eloquent enough that people got together a charitable fund to send him to North America, to the North American colony, so he could get a real education.
00:08:30And that's how he gets off the island.
00:08:31He literally writes his way out of his circumstances.
00:08:33And it's so much the quintessential immigrant story of redefining yourself when you come to a new place.
00:08:39And the sense I got really early in Ron Chernow's Hamilton biography was the sense of, I know this guy.
00:08:46The fact that Hamilton left the Caribbean to come to New York to get his education, I always tell people, I'm just playing my dad in the show, down to the hair.
00:08:58Tell me about coming to New York for the first time.
00:09:01What brought you here?
00:09:02I got a great opportunity to come and study at NYU.
00:09:07I left Puerto Rico when I was 18.
00:09:10I always thought Puerto Rico is just too small.
00:09:15I, I gotta see more.
00:09:18I graduated, then I was involved in advocacy, but I realized that I wanted to do something different.
00:09:25So I joined the Itcatch administration, mayor of New York City in 87.
00:09:30You know, in my experience, immigrants are never the lazy ones.
00:09:36They're not the stupid ones.
00:09:38They're the smart, hard workings, because they have to work so much harder to make sense of the reality and succeed in that reality.
00:09:48I always saw my time here as a temporary thing.
00:09:53But then I realized that this is where I was going to raise my children.
00:10:00Then we stay here forever.
00:10:02Hi, Puerto Rico.
00:10:03And that was it.
00:10:03And then you were a New Yorker.
00:10:04Alexander Hamilton is in New York just at the time as the tremendous ferment of the American Revolution is starting.
00:10:14On the common, what is today City Hall Park, Alexander Hamilton is delivering fiery speeches.
00:10:21He also had established his bona fides as one of the most feared polemical writers in New York.
00:10:27I really keyed into how much of a New York story it was.
00:10:31These blocks that I've passed all my life have all along been these incredible sources of rich American history.
00:10:37I don't think a lot of people know that.
00:10:39We think of the founding fathers.
00:10:41We think of them in some room in Philadelphia.
00:10:43You know, hashing it out.
00:10:44It's like a John Trumbull painting.
00:10:46But they were here.
00:10:47They were uptown.
00:10:47Like the Grange in Hamilton Heights on 141st Street, which is where Hamilton and his wife lived for the last few years of his life.
00:10:55This was Hamilton's study.
00:11:00The right color.
00:11:01Right.
00:11:01Bunny green.
00:11:03This is a reproduction of Hamilton's lap town or his traveling desk.
00:11:06He would write everywhere and anywhere.
00:11:09He rode under trees.
00:11:09He rode on horseback.
00:11:12He rode in carriages.
00:11:13I mean, the tonnage of his writing.
00:11:14Exactly.
00:11:15The sheer amount that he had, he must have had something with him all the time to be writing on because it never would have produced the amount that he did.
00:11:22Yeah.
00:11:23Oh, my goodness.
00:11:25All right.
00:11:25Can I touch the desk?
00:11:26No.
00:11:27No.
00:11:27Okay, I won't.
00:11:28That's cool.
00:11:31This just makes me feel like I had to go home and write.
00:11:36I started writing that first song that's just about his childhood.
00:11:40I wanted to sort of encapsulate that in two hip-hop verses.
00:11:44The strongest candidate is the candidate who wins the most elections.
00:11:48Barack Obama has won 29 contests.
00:11:51Hillary Clinton has won 13 contests.
00:11:53And I worked on it for about a year in the Heights while I'm still doing eight shows a week.
00:11:57Lynn didn't say I was writing a show.
00:11:59Lynn said I'm writing a song.
00:12:00So he said, I read this book and I think there's something there.
00:12:04I think I might do a series of songs.
00:12:06I said, great.
00:12:07Go.
00:12:07Write.
00:12:08I had only written this one song when the White House called and said, we're doing an
00:12:12evening of the spoken word.
00:12:14But if you have anything on the American experience, that would be great.
00:12:17I said, I got a hot 16 about Hamilton.
00:12:21How does a bastard orphan son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten
00:12:29spot in the Caribbean by Providence impoverished and squalor grow up to be a hero and a scholar.
00:12:36The first day Lynn brought the opening number of the show to me.
00:12:39I'm like, it's about history, but it's rap.
00:12:41Uh, okay.
00:12:42Is it serious?
00:12:43Uh, sure.
00:12:43Whatever.
00:12:43I, I remember it wasn't until I actually heard it all the way through.
00:12:46I'm like, wow, this is real.
00:12:48There would have been nothing left to do for someone less astute.
00:12:50He would have been dead to destitute without a cent of restitution.
00:12:54Started working, clerking for his late mother's landlord.
00:12:57Trading sugarcane and rum and all the things he can't afford.
00:13:01When they posted videos of the evening, my performance went viral and we were sort of off to the races
00:13:06after that.
00:13:07We realized there's a show here.
00:13:09I'm the damn genius that shot him.
00:13:17So I started writing songs at the amazing pace of a song a year.
00:13:21After two years of working, I had two songs to show for it.
00:13:24So you've written two songs in two and a half years.
00:13:26We're going to be very old by the time this is actually going to be complete.
00:13:30So why don't we expedite it a little bit?
00:13:32And so I'm, you know, I'm writing as fast as I can, but, but that's how it gets done.
00:13:36You know, you, you set these deadlines and, and you meet them.
00:13:39I have more than once compared Lynn to Shakespeare and I do it without blushing or apologizing.
00:13:45Lynn in Hamilton is doing exactly what Shakespeare did in his history plays.
00:13:50He's taking the voice of the common people, elevating it to poetry, in Shakespeare's case,
00:13:56iambic pentameter, in Lynn's case, rap, rhyme, hip hop, R&B.
00:14:00And by elevating it to poetry, ennobling the people themselves.
00:14:05He is bringing out what is noble about the common tongue.
00:14:09And that is something that nobody has done as effectively as Lynn since Shakespeare.
00:14:14Yeah, I said it.
00:14:15How do you handle our financial situation?
00:14:18Are we a nation of states?
00:14:19What's the state of our nation?
00:14:21I'm fast patiently waiting.
00:14:22I'm passionate.
00:14:23He's smashing every expectation.
00:14:24Every action's an act of creation.
00:14:26I'm laughing in the face of casualties and sorrow.
00:14:28For the first time, I'm thinking past tomorrow.
00:14:30And I am not throwing away my shot.
00:14:33I am not throwing away my shot.
00:14:35I write everywhere.
00:14:37I write on trains.
00:14:38I write wherever I can.
00:14:41And sometimes, a couple of days, I've written in Aaron Burr's bedroom.
00:14:45It's pretty amazing to be in the space where he was in the later part of his life.
00:14:50Talk about artists in residence, literally.
00:14:53This is my Hamilton writing desk.
00:14:56I sit here, I sit on the floor.
00:14:57I don't sit on the colonial furniture.
00:15:00Keep shooting off at the mouth.
00:15:03There's a song in the show called My Shot.
00:15:05And it's Hamilton's big sort of I Want song.
00:15:08It's the second song in the show.
00:15:09We see him make his group of friends.
00:15:12The Marquis de Lafayette.
00:15:13John Lawrence.
00:15:15Hercules Mulligan.
00:15:16And Aaron Burr, who is a colleague and a friend.
00:15:19And I'm sort of putting him into the song.
00:15:21Because these are guys who are oil and water.
00:15:23But they come up together.
00:15:24They're revolutionaries together.
00:15:25They're soldiers together.
00:15:26They're lawyers together.
00:15:27They're elected officials together.
00:15:29And at some point, one shoots the other.
00:15:32Yeah, I come out in the first three minutes of the show.
00:15:36And I say, I'm the damn fool that shot him.
00:15:39And so what that tells me as an actor is that that is not a secret that we're keeping.
00:15:47That's not a piece of the puzzle that we are hiding behind our back.
00:15:52So then what it's about is about, it's about the fracture.
00:15:56It's about watching where exactly the moment is that it all changes.
00:16:04Whereas Alexander Hamilton was an illegitimate orphan kid from the Caribbean who was born into shame and misery.
00:16:10Aaron Burr was really born into American aristocracy.
00:16:13It looks like he's going to have this very luxurious life.
00:16:16By the time Aaron Burr is two years old, his mother's died, his father's died.
00:16:21He's farmed out to relatives who bring him up.
00:16:24He then goes to Princeton College, graduates by the time he was 16.
00:16:28So that Burr was as much of a prodigy as Hamilton was.
00:16:33And so it's the first of many strange parallels in the lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
00:16:39A lot of the revising process is continuing to check in on that relationship.
00:16:44It is the most important relationship in the show.
00:16:46So right now I'm working on lyrics, working Burr into the second song in the show.
00:16:51There's a section where they're doing shots and saying what they would do with their shot.
00:16:56So Lafayette, whose command of English is not so great, goes with my shot.
00:17:01I dream of life without monarchy, the something stress in France will lead to anarchy.
00:17:08Anarchy, how you say?
00:17:10It's all anarchy.
00:17:11When I fight, I make the other side panicky with my shot.
00:17:15And then Hercules Mulligan, who was a tailor's apprentice, says,
00:17:18My shot, yo, I'm a tailor's apprentice and I got young knuckleheads and local parentis.
00:17:23I'm joining a rebellion, because I know it's my chance to socially advance.
00:17:27Instead of sewing some pants, I'm going to take a shot.
00:17:30Um, and then Lorenz, who is a fierce abolitionist, goes,
00:17:34But we'll never be truly free until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me.
00:17:38You and I do or die, wait till I sally in on a stallion with the first black battalion of another shot.
00:17:44And so now I'm working on Burr, sort of jumping in on this, going,
00:17:49Geniuses, lower your voices.
00:17:50If you keep out of trouble, then you double your choices.
00:17:53Shooting off at the mouth, shooting from the hip, shooting the shit,
00:17:57or something, shooty, shooty, shooty, shooty, shooty, shooty shot.
00:18:00I haven't figured out how it works yet.
00:18:01Geniuses, lower your voices.
00:18:03You keep out of trouble and you double your choices.
00:18:06I'm with you, but the situation is fraught.
00:18:08You've got to be carefully taught.
00:18:10If you talk, you're gonna get shot.
00:18:13And then Hamilton comes in and, as was his genius, synthesizes it all.
00:18:19Bro, check what we got, Mr. Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot.
00:18:23I think your pants look hot, Lorenz, I like you a lot.
00:18:25Let's hatch a plot, blacker than the kettle, call in the pot.
00:18:28What are the odds that God should put us all in one spot?
00:18:31Pop, let's pop in conventional wisdom, like it or not.
00:18:33A bunch of revolutionary man, you wish you an abolitionist.
00:18:36Give me your position, show me where the ammunition is.
00:18:40And then I want him to sort of stun his friends into silence.
00:18:43Oh, am I talking too loud?
00:18:44Sometimes I get overexcited, shoot off at the mouth.
00:18:47I never had a group of friends before.
00:18:48I promise that I'll make y'all proud.
00:18:51A little beat of silence.
00:18:53And Lorenz goes,
00:18:54I've got this guy in front of a crowd.
00:18:56And then we go into the chorus.
00:18:58And I am not going away, my shot.
00:19:01I am not going away, my shot.
00:19:03And you're more just like a country.
00:19:05And you're not scrappy and hungry.
00:19:06And I'm not going away, my shot.
00:19:09We're going to rise, so time to take a shot.
00:19:11We're going to rise, so time to take a shot.
00:19:14We're going to rise up, rise up.
00:19:16It's time to take a shot.
00:19:17Rise up, rise up.
00:19:19It's time to take a shot.
00:19:20It's time to take a shot.
00:19:22Rise up, take a shot, shot, shot, shot.
00:19:24We're going to rise, so time to take a shot.
00:19:26Time to take a shot.
00:19:27And I am not going away, my shot.
00:19:29I am not going away, my shot.
00:19:34Hamilton didn't really meet Lafayette, Lorenz,
00:19:36and Mulligan all at once in the same bar.
00:19:39But we're going to meet them all at once because we've got to go.
00:19:41We've got a lot of story to tell.
00:19:44And we want to get you out before Les Mis gets out next door.
00:19:48I'm a big fan of musicals that attempt to wrestle history to the stage.
00:19:52And everyone writing a musical about history is standing in the shadow of Sondheim,
00:19:57standing in the shadow of John Weidman.
00:19:59Why do we go to history?
00:20:01Why is real life more interesting than whole cloth?
00:20:04It's interesting because what happens is when you live through history,
00:20:06you don't know it's history.
00:20:07You have to talk to John.
00:20:10John's a historian.
00:20:11I only write historical shows with John because I love going to school and learning.
00:20:15But history, I couldn't get into it, as we say.
00:20:18And I think maybe John was the person who got me interested in history very late in life.
00:20:23In all the shows that Steve and I have written together, including Assassins,
00:20:26you reach a point, I think, where the research is over
00:20:29and you then invent the character who actually existed in history.
00:20:33But they're still partly defined by what they did.
00:20:35That's the advantage.
00:20:37Absolutely.
00:20:37And that's what the audience will bring into the theater with them.
00:20:40So you have to be aware of that.
00:20:41But they live in a kind of a penumbral area where they are who they were,
00:20:45but they are also who you want them to be.
00:20:47Well, that leads me to a really good bit of advice you gave me early when I was writing Hamilton.
00:20:52I was drowning in research.
00:20:54And what you told me was, just write the parts you think are a musical.
00:20:58And that forms its own spine.
00:21:02You'll be back, soon you'll see
00:21:05You'll remember you belong to me
00:21:09You'll be back, time will tell
00:21:13You'll remember that I served you well
00:21:17King George just sort of showed up in my brain.
00:21:20It doesn't make sense on paper that he should be a character in this musical.
00:21:25He's all the way across the ocean, far from the events he and Hamilton never met.
00:21:28At the same time, to give him these moments throughout the show
00:21:31robs the American Revolution of its inevitability.
00:21:34Each piece of music is specific to an emotion and a character.
00:21:39Even though it's about history,
00:21:41Lynn has found a way, lyrically and musically, to connect it to now.
00:21:44And so having the King George psychology be like a breakup song from Britain to America,
00:21:51I feel like makes it really relatable.
00:21:53When you're gone, I'll go mad
00:21:57So don't throw away this thing we heard
00:22:01Cause when push comes to shout
00:22:05I will kill your friends and family
00:22:08To remind you of my love
00:22:15None of the shows we're talking about are documentaries.
00:22:17None of them are book or poets with songs added.
00:22:20I mean, ultimately, they're an artist's inventions.
00:22:24Yeah.
00:22:24I got into the history through the characters.
00:22:26John got into the history that surrounded the characters
00:22:29And then we met there.
00:22:31He sparks me and I spark you.
00:22:33Or as George Firth said,
00:22:34I collabore him and he collabores me.
00:22:36One, two, three.
00:22:45Is it less to freedom?
00:22:48Maybe it's sad.
00:22:49Something can never take away.
00:22:50And then go to the chorus and then go to Laurence.
00:22:53I may that live to sea of love.
00:22:55Right, and Laurence was the bringer of that.
00:22:57The cabinet meetings are really my favorite part of the process.
00:23:01They are when I bring in a song to my collaborators.
00:23:04Let's say the story of tonight.
00:23:05et je m'envoie ce que j'ai écrit et puis on l'aise
00:23:10je ne veux pas le
00:23:12ça c'est worth saving
00:23:14ça ne dit pas
00:23:16pas ça
00:23:17je me
00:23:22je me
00:23:24j'ai un hot
00:23:26à Hamilton
00:23:26je me le directeur
00:23:28je m un arrangé avec Mamanuelle
00:23:30je m'en
00:23:31je m'en
00:23:32je m'en
00:23:32je m'en
00:23:33je m'en
00:23:34Je prends tous ces duties parce que je sens que j'ai une bonne opinion sur ce que je pense que c'est ce que je pense que c'est ce que c'est.
00:23:41Mais aussi parce que je sens que je sais ce que Linne est looking for.
00:23:44Je sens que je sais comment c'est que je peux exercer sa vision.
00:23:47Je ne pense pas que c'est qu'il y a une autre chanson,
00:23:50si tu penses que c'est qu'il faut.
00:23:51Non, je ne pense pas qu'il faut qu'il faut.
00:23:52Mais je pense que Andi va avoir un million de choses qu'il faut.
00:23:56Choreographie, pour moi, est la idée de l'idée,
00:23:59l'idée de l'émotion, l'idée de l'émotion,
00:24:01c'est qu'il faut exagerer à une certaine state,
00:24:04et il devient physicalisé.
00:24:07Ce qui est amazing de notre équipe,
00:24:09c'est qu'on finit les sentences de l'émotion.
00:24:11Ce que Linne écrit et Alex arranges,
00:24:14fonctionne pour moi, choreographiquement.
00:24:15Et ma ideas meet Tommy's sensibilité.
00:24:19Donc, c'est pourquoi l'émotion peut être seamless.
00:24:21C'est pourquoi il fait que l'émotion se trouve un autre.
00:24:23Anything else with the Hamilton-Washington back-and-forth?
00:24:25You guys good?
00:24:26I'm good, OK.
00:24:27All right, moving on.
00:24:28As a very mediocre American history major,
00:24:31I was exposed to a lot of these kinds of stories told in very different ways.
00:24:35And what I wanted to try to do
00:24:38was remove any of the black-and-white nostalgia, sepia tone
00:24:44and make this feel vital and vibrant.
00:24:46Here comes the General!
00:24:48Ladies and gentlemen!
00:24:49Here comes the General!
00:24:51The moment you've been waiting for!
00:24:52Here comes the General!
00:24:54The pride of Mount Vernon!
00:24:55Here comes the General!
00:24:56George Washington!
00:24:58We are outgunned!
00:24:59Outmanned!
00:25:00Outnumbered!
00:25:02Outplanned!
00:25:03We gotta make an all-out stand!
00:25:07Yo, I'm gonna need a right-hand man!
00:25:10We're meeting Washington at the crux of the entire conflict.
00:25:16Boston is over, he's just lost New York.
00:25:18His army is as close to being annihilated in that moment as you could imagine.
00:25:22To meet him that way suddenly takes us out of the history books.
00:25:26It takes us into the urgency of, oh, we might not win.
00:25:29Initially, when the war begins,
00:25:31there's a lot of retreating on the part of Washington.
00:25:33And what he's trying to do, really, is just keep the war going.
00:25:36He's juggling how to get all of these soldiers out of harm's way
00:25:40and away from all of the ships that are still in New York Harbor.
00:25:43He has no one to turn to a Pops Hamilton.
00:25:46Have I done something wrong, sir?
00:25:48On the contrary.
00:25:49I called you here because our odds are beyond scary.
00:25:52Your reputation precedes you, but I have to laugh.
00:25:55Sir?
00:25:56Hamilton, how come no one can get you on their staff?
00:25:58Sir?
00:25:59Don't get me wrong.
00:26:00You're a young man of great renown.
00:26:01I thought you stole British cannons when we were still downtown.
00:26:04Nathaniel Green and Henry Knox wanted to hire you.
00:26:07Yeah, to be their secretary.
00:26:08I don't think so.
00:26:09Now, why are you upset?
00:26:10I'm not.
00:26:11It's all right.
00:26:12You want to fight.
00:26:13You've got a hunger.
00:26:14I was just like you when I was younger.
00:26:17A head full of fantasies of dying like a martyr.
00:26:20Yes, dying is easy.
00:26:21Young man living is harder.
00:26:23It's really fair to say that without Washington,
00:26:26Hamilton would not have had someone to enable him
00:26:29to achieve the things that he achieved.
00:26:31Conversely, without Hamilton,
00:26:33Washington wouldn't have had someone there
00:26:35to help him and advise him.
00:26:37When you're in someone like Washington's position,
00:26:39you don't, there aren't many people that you can truly trust.
00:26:41Hamilton had distinguished himself multiple times,
00:26:44as a warrior.
00:26:46It's probably one reason why he was frustrated
00:26:48that he was not then promoted as a warrior,
00:26:50but then was promoted as a secretary
00:26:53and made the camp to George Washington.
00:26:55I write to Congress and tell him you need supplies.
00:26:58You rally the guys.
00:26:59Master the element of surprise.
00:27:01Who?
00:27:02Rise above my station, organize your information
00:27:04till we rise to the occasion of our new nation, sir.
00:27:07Here comes the general.
00:27:08Rise up.
00:27:09What?
00:27:10Here comes the general.
00:27:11Rise up.
00:27:12What?
00:27:13Here comes the general.
00:27:14Rise up.
00:27:15What?
00:27:16Here comes the general.
00:27:17Here comes the general.
00:27:19What?
00:27:20And his right-hand man.
00:27:21Boom.
00:27:22It's rare that you do a show
00:27:31where you have so many literal touchstones,
00:27:33places that support the research that you've done.
00:27:35It's helped keep the fire burning, you know,
00:27:37day after day doing the show, eight shows a week,
00:27:39and being able to imagine yourself in a very real way
00:27:42in those same footsteps.
00:27:44That would have been Mr. and Mrs. Washington's room.
00:27:47You're looking at just as they would have seen him.
00:27:50I can't even imagine how much stress
00:27:51he must have been under.
00:27:52I can't either.
00:27:53All of them, all those guys, like,
00:27:55how much stress they must have been constantly,
00:27:57every day, just...
00:27:58You got 20,000 people out,
00:28:00just right outside your door who are constantly,
00:28:02you know, trying not to die.
00:28:05Trying not to die.
00:28:06Trying to figure out how to stay alive, like...
00:28:08Literally trying not to die.
00:28:10The front parlor would have been used
00:28:12by General Washington's aide-de-camp,
00:28:14Hamilton, along with John Lawrence.
00:28:16They were the two prominent secretaries
00:28:18that worked for Washington here.
00:28:19All the paperwork it took to administer
00:28:21the Continent Army is being done in this room here.
00:28:24As Washington's aide-de-camp,
00:28:26Hamilton's doing everything from sorting through intelligence
00:28:29to carrying out prisoner exchanges.
00:28:31He's writing essays.
00:28:33He's writing letters.
00:28:34He's teaching himself about foreign currencies.
00:28:36So he was really using the American Revolution
00:28:39as a kind of crash course in history and politics.
00:28:42Just being in Valley Forge,
00:28:45you realize how much ground they had to cover.
00:28:47When he was like,
00:28:48Retreat, attack, retreat.
00:28:49We're moving our men back.
00:28:50It's like...
00:28:51That's like miles.
00:28:53That's like crossing state lines
00:28:55without a car or a horse and carriage.
00:28:57Those are soldiers that are like foot soldiers.
00:28:59The scope of it was just so much bigger
00:29:02and far more real.
00:29:04Yeah, I'll be having reenactments out there.
00:29:06Yeah, we do it every now and then.
00:29:07We'll do cannon firing and that kind of thing.
00:29:09Will they let us fire a cannon?
00:29:11We'll get you on a musket, however.
00:29:12You know?
00:29:13There.
00:29:14That's good.
00:29:16That's good.
00:29:17Yeah, you know.
00:29:17I fired a cannon musket.
00:29:19Hamilton, by all accounts, was girl crazy.
00:29:25And so throughout the Revolutionary War,
00:29:26he's not only searching for military glory,
00:29:28but he's searching for the woman of his dreams.
00:29:31Where are you taking me?
00:29:32I'm about to change your life.
00:29:34Then by all means, lead the way.
00:29:37Elizabeth Schuyler, it's a pleasure to meet you.
00:29:39Schuyler.
00:29:40My sister, thank you for all your service.
00:29:43If it takes fighting a war for us to meet,
00:29:45it will have been worth it.
00:29:47I'll leave you to it.
00:29:49Eliza and Alexander essentially met during a war.
00:29:54Hamilton was camped a couple of miles away
00:29:56from the house that Eliza was staying in.
00:29:59This is the house where Elizabeth Schuyler
00:30:03came to visit with her uncle and aunt.
00:30:05Her aunt realized that, you know,
00:30:07it's hard to find a boy during wartime.
00:30:09They've all gone to the front.
00:30:11Go visit Auntie and meet her guest.
00:30:14And she met the guy who was staying next door,
00:30:17Alexander Hamilton.
00:30:19I am so into you.
00:30:22I am so into you.
00:30:25I am so into you.
00:30:27I'm down for the count and I'm drowning in a...
00:30:32Everyone immediately noticed that Hamilton
00:30:34and his future sister-in-law, Angelica,
00:30:37were very enamored of each other.
00:30:39Hamilton met Angelica first.
00:30:41And oh, their connection is actually really strong
00:30:44and intense and intellectual.
00:30:46Lynn actually credits Angelica with being
00:30:48the smartest person in the show.
00:30:50What she could do with her pen,
00:30:52what she could probably do with the look,
00:30:55was very, very potent and probably had to be.
00:30:59I've been reading common sense by Thomas Paine.
00:31:01Some men say that I'm intense or I'm insane.
00:31:03You want a revolution?
00:31:05I want a revelation.
00:31:06So listen to my declaration.
00:31:08We hold these truths to be self-evident
00:31:10that all men are created equal.
00:31:12And when I meet Thomas Jefferson,
00:31:14I'ma compel him to include women in the sequel.
00:31:17What?
00:31:18In this period, women were still very much assumed
00:31:21to have a certain role.
00:31:22But that said, it's also important to note
00:31:24that the revolution politicized women.
00:31:27It politicized enslaved people.
00:31:28It politicized people who were there at the time
00:31:30living the revolution.
00:31:32It's important to remember,
00:31:33that's not just men who assume that.
00:31:35The wives of the founding fathers
00:31:37also really had a place in history.
00:31:39They worked as hard as the men did.
00:31:41And Abigail Adams asked her husband
00:31:44to not forget the ladies.
00:31:46Look around, look around,
00:31:49and how lucky we are to be alive right now.
00:31:52History is happening in Manhattan
00:31:54and we just happen to be
00:31:56in the greatest city in the world.
00:31:58In the greatest city in the world.
00:32:01Angelica
00:32:03Eliza
00:32:05The Skylar Sisters
00:32:08We're looking for mine
00:32:10In the greatest city in the world.
00:32:14In the greatest city in the world.
00:32:30I'm going to fix myself a gin and tonic
00:32:32because the only thing in my fridge
00:32:35is tonic water and some ketchup.
00:32:38There are three major projects happening right now.
00:32:41It was our first day of rehearsal.
00:32:43There's my infant child,
00:32:44who turned two weeks old today.
00:32:46And then there's the apartment,
00:32:48which is finally ready,
00:32:50but now doesn't have people to help unpack it.
00:32:53We worked really hard all weekend,
00:32:54and this is as far as we got.
00:32:57We start staging next week,
00:32:59so we have the week to learn all the music.
00:33:0152 songs, not including the ones
00:33:03I haven't written yet.
00:33:05Today, second song we taught was Yorktown,
00:33:07and Hamilton's line.
00:33:08Then again, my Eliza's expecting me,
00:33:10not to mention my Eliza's expecting.
00:33:12So, you know, we got to go.
00:33:14We got to get the job done.
00:33:15We got to start a new nation.
00:33:16We got to meet my son.
00:33:17Like, Hamilton in that moment
00:33:19is actually where I'm at in my life.
00:33:21It's like he's got one more battle to fight
00:33:26before the war is over.
00:33:28But he's also got a kid on the way,
00:33:30and his status depends on how he does.
00:33:34I'm in exactly the same place,
00:33:37which is nuts.
00:33:39But I'm, yeah, I'm basically near the end of Act One.
00:33:42The Battle of Yorktown.
00:33:461781.
00:33:50Monsieur Hamilton.
00:33:52Monsieur Lafayette.
00:33:53Intermand where you belong.
00:33:54Now you say no sweat.
00:33:55We're finally on the field.
00:33:56We've had quite a run.
00:33:58Immigrants, we get the job done.
00:34:03Hamilton keeps badgering Washington
00:34:05until Washington gives him
00:34:06his first field command at Yorktown,
00:34:09and Hamilton does not waste the opportunity.
00:34:12He bled a bay net chart.
00:34:13Hamilton and his men rose out of the trench
00:34:15under the glare of shells exploding in the sky above them.
00:34:19They charged to the parapet of this fortification,
00:34:22and within 10 minutes, he had taken this fortification.
00:34:25So Hamilton, who had dreamed of battlefield glory from the time that he was in his early teens,
00:34:30suddenly has it big time at Yorktown.
00:34:33There were still skirmishes going on, but for all intents and purposes, the war ends with Yorktown.
00:34:38It's clear at that point who will be the victor.
00:34:45We booked a slot to open the show at the public theater,
00:34:49home of Hair and Chorus Line, Runaways, Passing Strange,
00:34:54and countless other landmark musicals.
00:34:55This is one of those nights where you feel the Earth shake a little bit.
00:35:00You'll feel the world start to change.
00:35:02This is opening night of Hamilton.
00:35:05Congratulations to all of you.
00:35:07We've been working on this for five and a half years,
00:35:10and here we are pushing it off into the world,
00:35:13and to see people react to it and respond to it and be moved by it,
00:35:16it's all you could ever hope for, so we're thrilled.
00:35:18My parents saw Runaways on their wedding night.
00:35:23This is in my blood.
00:35:27I have never in my life witnessed a musical
00:35:31that has penetrated the American culture faster than Hamilton.
00:35:35It's called Hamilton. It's about Alexander Hamilton,
00:35:37and it was at the public theater.
00:35:39Tariq, you saw it too, right? Quest, you saw it?
00:35:41Yeah.
00:35:42How amazing is this play?
00:35:44It's life-changing.
00:35:45After the first two songs, you...
00:35:48I looked at my wife, and we were like,
00:35:50this might be the greatest thing, like, we've ever seen, ever.
00:35:54And you kind of look around at other people,
00:35:56and you're like, are we right?
00:35:57Like, this is the best thing that's right?
00:36:00We're all on the same...
00:36:01But you can't say that,
00:36:02because people are acting and performing,
00:36:03but you're almost in tears.
00:36:06We sell out our extensions as quickly as they go on sale,
00:36:09and the decision is made pretty quickly.
00:36:11We're going to Broadway.
00:36:13On Sunday, tickets go on sale for Broadway.
00:36:17And Hamilton, Richard Rogers Theatre, be there.
00:36:21Thank you for coming this afternoon.
00:36:28Our show opened on Tuesday, and the world blew up.
00:36:30This is crazy.
00:36:33I don't know what the future holds.
00:36:36I know that our show opened, and everyone freaked out.
00:36:39That's where we're at.
00:36:40The world turned upside down.
00:36:47Freedom for America, freedom for rest!
00:36:49Down, down, down.
00:36:52Gotta start a new nation, gotta meet my son!
00:36:54Down, down, down.
00:36:57We won! We won! We won! We won!
00:36:59The world turned upside down!
00:37:05Down, down, down, down.
00:37:07Down, down, down, down!
00:37:09Down, down, down, down!
00:37:10Down, down, down, down!
00:37:24Six years of labor, these are the fruits!
00:37:57What immediately drew me in to Hamilton was this was someone who, you know, was an MC in his own right.
00:38:07Sometimes in hip-hop we say real, recognize real.
00:38:10So I could recognize immediately that Lynn was a real one and that this was a real story.
00:38:16There's double and triple meanings and layers upon layers.
00:38:20I mean, I've had to see Hamilton eight or nine times to get references that I didn't get the first eight times that I saw it.
00:38:28What Lynn was able to do is create different styles for each character.
00:38:32So George Washington raps in this very sort of metronomic way because that is similar to how he thinks.
00:38:38It's all right on beat.
00:38:39You know, Lafayette has to figure it out.
00:38:43Lafayette is rapping in a real like simple sort of like early 80s rap cadence at first and then by the end is doing these crazy double and triple time things.
00:38:52Lafayette
00:38:52I'm taking this horse by the reins making red hooks redder with blood stains
00:38:55Lafayette
00:38:56And I'm never gonna stop it till I make a drop or burn them up and get it that remains out
00:38:59Lafayette
00:39:00Watch me engaging them, escaping them, enraging them
00:39:02Lafayette
00:39:02I go to France for more fun
00:39:04Lafayette
00:39:04I come back with more guns
00:39:06In just two to four hip-hop bars, you know, sometimes there are more lyrics than in a whole, you know, classical song.
00:39:18That's the crunchiest sound you'll ever hear on the beatbox
00:39:22And both those lips are in detox
00:39:23Yeah, slapping the bass right now
00:39:25Freestyling up in your face right now
00:39:28Oh, yeah, because I'm gasping something
00:39:30Because I'm right next to the ass of Jasperson
00:39:32I grew up in the 90s and I think that's a golden age for hip-hop
00:39:37The lyrical dexterity of artists like Mobb Deep and Biggie and Nas was just incredible
00:39:43When I was writing Hamilton, I listened to Takeover and Ether on a loop, on a loop, on a loop
00:39:49Word
00:39:50Hip-hop storytelling, like, like, where do you start?
00:39:53Do you start with the story? Do you start with the lyric?
00:39:55Does it sort of unlock something else?
00:39:57Really, I saw, like, a hole in the rap game
00:40:00You know, all the rappers I looked up to were megastars
00:40:03And, um, so if I wanted to put my little two cents in the rap game
00:40:07Then it would be from a different perspective
00:40:09I thought that I would represent for my neighborhood
00:40:12Yeah
00:40:12And tell their story, be their voice
00:40:15In a way that nobody has done it
00:40:17And I love the idea of telling the stories
00:40:20That you haven't heard told before
00:40:22And suddenly making that fair game
00:40:24Because I think that's such an important part of
00:40:26Expanding sort of the real estate that hip-hop can cover
00:40:30Yeah, you know, when it was my time, it was like the phrase keep it real became the thing
00:40:35Right
00:40:35So it was like, tell the real story
00:40:37These things are my thoughts
00:40:39And let me express them
00:40:40It gives you freedom
00:40:42In hip-hop, no one can tell you you're wrong
00:40:44Unless the rhymes are whack
00:40:45But, but no one can tell you you're wrong because it's your truth
00:40:50Yeah
00:40:50The hip-hop in the musical has gotten the most attention
00:40:53Because it's the most novel
00:40:55And because Hamilton sings in hip-hop
00:40:58If there's jazz, soul, R&B
00:41:00And just plain Broadway show tunes as well
00:41:03Hamilton doesn't hesitate
00:41:05He exhibits no restraint
00:41:07Takes and he takes and he takes
00:41:10And he keeps winning anyway
00:41:12Changes the game
00:41:15Plays and he raises his stakes
00:41:17And if there's a reason he seems to drive
00:41:19And so you survive the goddamn end
00:41:21I'm ready to wait for it
00:41:23I'm ready to wait for it
00:41:26Wait for it speaks to Burr and how he sees the world
00:41:29Um, a world in which he's seeing contemporaries
00:41:33Who started further back than him, lapping him
00:41:35This is a man who lost his entire family really
00:41:39And then lost even extended family
00:41:43I mean, he had one sister, he even lost her
00:41:45If Hamilton's response to loss is to go as fast as he can
00:41:48Burr's response to loss is
00:41:51I'm not going to do anything until I know it's the right move
00:41:54I'm alive, other people I love are dead
00:41:57There's a reason for that
00:42:00Life doesn't discriminate
00:42:01Between the sinners and the saints
00:42:03Takes and he takes and he takes
00:42:05Me to live in any way
00:42:07You rise and fall through faith
00:42:09You rise and fall through faith
00:42:10There's a reason I'm still alive
00:42:13It's only a lie
00:42:14And I'm gonna look
00:42:16Wait for it
00:42:20After the war, Hamilton and Burr qualified to be lawyers
00:42:24At almost exactly the same time
00:42:26They then moved to opposite ends of Wall Street
00:42:30And they are the two rising young men
00:42:33In the New York legal establishment
00:42:36It was Alexander Hamilton who personally issued the call
00:42:40For a constitutional convention in Philadelphia
00:42:42In May 1787
00:42:44And gave a six-hour speech
00:42:46In which he proposed his own form of government
00:42:48In which he says that there would be a president
00:42:51Who would serve for life on good behavior
00:42:54For Hamilton to stand up and say, you know
00:42:56Hey, let's get this guy in
00:42:58And sort of make him look pseudo-king-like
00:43:00You know, having just finished the revolution
00:43:01That was really controversial
00:43:03It's really after the Constitutional Convention
00:43:06That Hamilton has his major impact on this debate
00:43:10And that is with what becomes known as the Federalist Essays
00:43:13It's going to confront people's biggest fears
00:43:15About this new Constitution
00:43:16It's a commercial advertisement for the Constitution
00:43:19I've read the Federalist Papers many times over
00:43:21As an elected official
00:43:23As a person who takes office
00:43:25By swearing oath to the Constitution
00:43:27I pretty much want to know what that means, right?
00:43:30And so it's important not only to understand
00:43:32What the Constitution is
00:43:33But to understand what the principles are behind it
00:43:37And that's why you look at Hamilton
00:43:38That's why you look at the Federalist Papers
00:43:40That is the cornerstone of this beautiful idea
00:43:43We call the American Experiment
00:43:44Here we are, back at the scene
00:43:48It's been a long way since 2009
00:43:52Yeah, it's nuts
00:43:53The First Lady tweeted last week
00:43:55Alexander Hamilton, we are waiting in the East Wing for you
00:43:59It's incredible, it's incredible
00:44:00It's crazy
00:44:01It's very weird to have FLOTUS quote your lyrics
00:44:04Are you all excited?
00:44:06Yes!
00:44:07I am, I'm so excited
00:44:10Well let me start by thanking the extraordinary performers from Hamilton
00:44:16I saw the off-Broadway version of Hamilton
00:44:23And it was simply, as I tell everybody
00:44:26The best piece of art in any form
00:44:29That I have ever seen in my life
00:44:31So thank you for taking the time out
00:44:33To spend an entire day here
00:44:35And to bless us with another performance
00:44:38Today they've come here to spend the day with all of you
00:44:41I want you to take advantage of this time
00:44:44I'm not a really bright student in the history department
00:44:47I've learned so much from this musical
00:44:50That I wouldn't have normally learned in a history class
00:44:52And for you guys to convey history
00:44:55In the manner that you did
00:44:57Was that your initial goal?
00:44:58To inspire kids like me
00:45:00In my high school we didn't have a theater program
00:45:02History was my drama program
00:45:05I saw each and every moment in history
00:45:07As the most dramatic moment ever
00:45:08Which it was to the people who were taking part in it
00:45:11You might just take a second and look at it
00:45:13From the perspective of who's the protagonist
00:45:15Who's the antagonist
00:45:16What's at stake
00:45:17You might find a world there to unlock
00:45:19Here we are performing not just the opening number
00:45:25But an hour worth of material
00:45:27With our full company and our full band
00:45:30It feels like this sort of homecoming
00:45:32A full circle closing
00:45:34Hey man
00:45:36Mr. President
00:45:36Good to see you
00:45:37Thank you for making time for us
00:45:39Absolutely
00:45:39This is so much fun
00:45:40The first time you had me here was in 2009
00:45:43Right
00:45:43I was just supposed to sing something from In the Heights
00:45:46I sang Hamilton instead
00:45:47When you told us
00:45:49Well I'm going to do a rep about Alexander Hamilton
00:45:51We said well good luck with that
00:45:53Right
00:45:54Yeah that's the typical reaction
00:45:56And after the performance
00:45:58I think all of us understood
00:45:59Not only how much potential it had
00:46:02But what it did was capture the fact that
00:46:05You know the founding fathers
00:46:07Were to some degree
00:46:09Flying by the seats of their pants
00:46:11And making it up as they went along
00:46:12Yeah
00:46:13And the fact that the experiment worked
00:46:15Was a testimony to their genius
00:46:18And you can draw a direct connection
00:46:20Between what the founders were doing
00:46:22And what we do today
00:46:23Yeah
00:46:24Even today we really do follow
00:46:29The model of the executive
00:46:30From what Washington established
00:46:33You know so many years ago
00:46:35The two term presidency
00:46:37Establishing a cabinet
00:46:38Washington sitting at the head
00:46:40Allowing for everyone to have
00:46:41Their own influence in policy
00:46:43Is uh
00:46:44Is pretty significant
00:46:46He's going to have a very small cabinet
00:46:48And will turn out to be
00:46:49Alexander Hamilton
00:46:50As secretary of treasury
00:46:51Henry Knox as secretary of war
00:46:53Edmund Randolph as first attorney general
00:46:56And that Thomas Jefferson
00:46:57As secretary of state
00:46:58I think of Jefferson as Bugs Bunny man
00:47:01I you know I think of him
00:47:03As this indefatigable winner
00:47:05Who kind of comes in with
00:47:07Incredible confidence
00:47:08Um gets home
00:47:10He's already secretary of state
00:47:11And he's like
00:47:13Alright well let's go
00:47:14Friends is following us to revolution
00:47:17There is no more status quo
00:47:20But the sun comes up
00:47:22And the world still spins
00:47:24Thomas Jefferson has a lot to catch up on
00:47:27So when we meet Jefferson
00:47:28He's still singing jazz songs
00:47:30And the rest of the United States
00:47:31Has moved on to rap music
00:47:32And he doesn't
00:47:33He doesn't know that
00:47:34Nobody told him
00:47:35So what did I miss
00:47:38What did I miss
00:47:41Virginia my home sweet home
00:47:44I want to give you a kiss
00:47:45Come on
00:47:46I've been in Paris
00:47:48Feeding lots of different ladies
00:47:50I guess I basically missed the late 80s
00:47:52I travel the wide wide world
00:47:55And came back to this
00:47:56He misses the whole war in France
00:48:00And comes back and is made secretary of state
00:48:02He was the perfect person to do this
00:48:04Having come back from this diplomatic mission
00:48:06So it was his job
00:48:07To try to represent the United States
00:48:09And to let Washington know about what he knew
00:48:11Mr. Jefferson welcome home
00:48:14Sir you belong to
00:48:16Dallas
00:48:17For so close
00:48:21So what did I miss
00:48:23In Jefferson's absence
00:48:30Alexander Hamilton has soared from obscurity
00:48:33To one of the top posts in government
00:48:35Alexander Hamilton as treasury secretary
00:48:39Was deputy president in many ways
00:48:42Hamilton has to create much of the federal government from scratch
00:48:46First budget systems
00:48:48First tax systems
00:48:49First custom service
00:48:50First coast guard
00:48:51First monetary policy
00:48:53First central bank
00:48:54Which was the direct forerunner of the federal reserve
00:48:56Hamilton had the core idea
00:48:59About an aggressive role for government
00:49:02To help build an economy
00:49:05Hamilton created financial instruments
00:49:08That enabled people to trade
00:49:10And therefore facilitate the movement of capital
00:49:13While Hamilton was treasury secretary
00:49:17There were only five securities traded on Wall Street
00:49:20Three of them were treasury securities created by Alexander Hamilton
00:49:23The fourth was the stock of the bank of New York created by Alexander Hamilton
00:49:27The fifth was the stock of our first central bank created by you know who Alexander Hamilton
00:49:33I look at Alexander Hamilton as the patron saint of Wall Street
00:49:39We're on the floor this is
00:49:41Yeah
00:49:41We're living in Hamilton's world here
00:49:43It's true
00:49:44And you know as I was coming down to meet you this morning
00:49:47I got the chills
00:49:48When you're actually here and you just visualize what was taking place 200 years ago it's quite extraordinary
00:49:53The problem was Hamilton was the ultimate elitist
00:49:57He came from very humble background
00:50:00But he built an institution that concentrated wealth
00:50:06If you've lived through a period where the financial system has caused a lot of damage to the economy
00:50:12There's this fear
00:50:13Fear over concentrated power and wealth
00:50:16And fear of the unfairness that might bring
00:50:19And Hamilton's defining strength was to try to figure out
00:50:23What was the pragmatic solution in the interest of the most people
00:50:27What happens here has a direct impact on all of our lives
00:50:32We're all connected
00:50:33And the fact is is if you want that bridge built around the block from that school in your neighborhood
00:50:39You've got to raise money to do it
00:50:41More often than not it's going to be raised right here
00:50:43Hamilton is picturing this robust strong central government
00:50:49That is the engine of finance and engine of democracy and unites our states
00:50:53Jefferson is picturing this agrarian paradise
00:50:57Where farmers are left alone and do their thing
00:51:00One could say that Jefferson was
00:51:02Could represent the populist interests at the time
00:51:05The small farmer
00:51:07The people living out in the country
00:51:09But were they forecasting a philosophical divide?
00:51:13They run throughout a political system? Absolutely
00:51:15It becomes really clear
00:51:17And Washington realizes this finally in 1792
00:51:20Things are not going so well
00:51:23Between the two members of his cabinet
00:51:24So we're in the mansion's dining room
00:51:30And it's set for the 1790 dinner party of George Washington and his cabinet
00:51:35It's set for that now?
00:51:36It is set for that
00:51:37Just if they walked in right now
00:51:39They would be ready
00:51:40A lot of people don't know that the fight over the debt plan
00:51:44And establishing a national bank
00:51:46It happened here
00:51:47The issue on the table
00:51:49Secretary Hamilton's plan to assume state debt
00:51:52And establish a national bank
00:51:54Secretary Jefferson
00:51:56You have the floor, sir
00:51:57The states had borrowed heavily
00:52:00From the French
00:52:01From the Spanish
00:52:02From domestic lenders
00:52:04To fund the cost of the war
00:52:05And there are these big debts
00:52:08There was $50 million in outstanding federal debt
00:52:11$25 million in state debt
00:52:13And Hamilton wanted the federal government to assume responsibility for the state debt
00:52:18Ow!
00:52:19But Hamilton forgets
00:52:20His plan would have the government assume state's debt
00:52:23Now place your bets as to who that benefits
00:52:25The very seat of government where Hamilton sits
00:52:28Not true!
00:52:29Ooh!
00:52:30If the shoe fits, wear it
00:52:31If New York's in debt
00:52:32Why should Virginia bear it?
00:52:34Uh, our debts are paid, I'm afraid
00:52:36Don't tax the South
00:52:37Cause we got it made in the shade
00:52:39Jefferson's position is the southern states have ways of making income
00:52:44It doesn't make sense for us to bail you guys out
00:52:47Hamilton's point being that a lot of the reason that you're okay
00:52:50Is because you don't pay for labor where you are
00:52:52And, uh, you've got slaves working your farms
00:52:55Hamilton insisted as a matter of national honor
00:52:58And to establish America's, you know, future greatness
00:53:01That it was imperative to pay off that debt in full
00:53:05If you assume the debts, the union gets
00:53:07A new line of credit or financial diuretic
00:53:10How do you not get it?
00:53:11If we're aggressive and competitive
00:53:13The union gets a boost
00:53:14You'd rather give it a sedative?
00:53:16The fights between Jefferson and Hamilton
00:53:18That they had across this table
00:53:20Are the fights we're still having
00:53:22Yes
00:53:23Well, I can't imagine what dinner around that table
00:53:25Would have been like that night
00:53:26Washington, I'm sure, is sitting there stone-faced
00:53:28Trying to placate everyone at the same time
00:53:31Hey, turn around, bend over
00:53:33I'll show you where my shoe fits
00:53:34Alexander!
00:53:37Madison, Jefferson, take a walk
00:53:39Hamilton, take a walk
00:53:40Hip-hop is a way for, you know, young men
00:53:43And young people to still, uh
00:53:45Test each other
00:53:46Yeah, to test each other
00:53:47Without anyone being hurt
00:53:48And everyone, you know, could go back home
00:53:50At the end of the day
00:53:51But the stakes are not
00:53:53Who's the best rapper
00:53:54The stakes are
00:53:55What direction are we going to go in as a country
00:53:58Every rap battle sets a historical precedent
00:54:01That is the highest stakes you could have
00:54:04For a rap battle
00:54:05Higher even than 8 Mile
00:54:09Something that really sort of spoke to me
00:54:11When I was, you know, reading this story
00:54:13And beginning to research and write it
00:54:15Is that moment, uh, when we trade away the capital
00:54:18In exchange for the debt plan
00:54:19Right
00:54:20And we call it the room where it happens
00:54:21Right
00:54:22Um, and what is, what have you learned
00:54:23Being in that room?
00:54:24I mean, we're in that room
00:54:25We're in the room where the sausage gets eaten
00:54:27I'm in most of the rooms
00:54:28Yeah
00:54:29There's no doubt about it
00:54:30And, you know, what you learn
00:54:32Is that everybody who comes to a room
00:54:35To make decisions
00:54:36They're bringing the constraints
00:54:39That have been placed on them
00:54:41By their constituencies
00:54:42Yeah
00:54:43And, uh, the only way anything gets done
00:54:46Is if people recognize the truth
00:54:49Of the person across the table
00:54:51Two Virginians and an immigrant
00:54:53Walk into a room
00:54:54Diametrically opposed
00:54:56Opposed
00:54:57You have to be able to get in their heads
00:55:00And see through their eyes
00:55:01In order for things to happen
00:55:03Here's the problem
00:55:04Mr. President
00:55:06Okay
00:55:07How are we going to solve it?
00:55:09I mean, it's pretty simple
00:55:11They emerge with a compromise
00:55:13Having opened doors
00:55:14That were previously closed
00:55:18Check this out
00:55:19This is the room where it happened
00:55:21Hamilton says
00:55:22You've got to help me pass my financial plan
00:55:24Jefferson goes
00:55:25Oh, well, okay
00:55:26Come over for dinner
00:55:27I'll invite Madison
00:55:28We'll work it out
00:55:29And now it's an office building
00:55:30And this is where the smokers hang out
00:55:32From this building
00:55:36The room where it happened
00:55:37The room where it happened
00:55:38The room where it happened
00:55:39No one else was in the room
00:55:40Where it happened
00:55:41The room where it happened
00:55:42The room where it happened
00:55:43The room where it happened
00:55:44No one really knows
00:55:45How the game is played
00:55:46The art of the trade
00:55:48All the sausage gets made
00:55:49We just assumed that it happened
00:55:50No one else is in the room where it happened
00:55:55A lot of that debate was not really a debate about central banking
00:55:59It was a debate about power
00:56:01It was a debate about power
00:56:02The federal government came in and bailed out the states
00:56:07And so I guess in that sense it was the first bailout
00:56:12Alexander Hamilton
00:56:13What did they say to you to get you to sell New York City down the river
00:56:17Alexander Hamilton
00:56:18Did Washington know about the dinner was the presidential pressure to deliver
00:56:22On paper what looks like a very dry history lesson
00:56:25Hamilton traded away New York as the capital
00:56:27In exchange for the passage of his debt plan
00:56:31But if you tell it from the perspective of Aaron Burr
00:56:37Who is watching all these people leapfrog past him into power
00:56:41It's a thrilling dramatic moment
00:56:43And it's also the turning point for Burr to stop hanging back on his heels
00:56:49And lean forward and say I want in on this life
00:56:52I, I wanna be in the room where it happens
00:56:56The room where it happens
00:56:58He's a super fan of the arena
00:57:01He's watching Hamilton in there making things happen
00:57:04And this is the moment where he decides
00:57:08Oh, oh my god, I gotta get in there
00:57:12I've got to live
00:57:14I've got to live
00:57:16I've got to live
00:57:18I've got to live
00:57:20Baby
00:57:21I gotta be
00:57:22I gotta be
00:57:23I gotta be
00:57:24I'm gonna be
00:57:25In the room
00:57:26Click boom
00:57:28Click boom
01:00:18...how much of what we have today is built on the backs of people whose contribution never gets acknowledged.
01:00:29What we're trying to do with the cast and the larger gesture of this show is say,
01:00:35here's a group of people that you think you can't relate to.
01:00:38Maybe we can take down some of those barriers and allow a reflection to be truer.
01:00:46What I think is that there's something incredibly pure and fun about the casting,
01:00:53that our imaginations really will let us take these leaps,
01:00:58and that we don't have to be so closed-minded, especially in the theater,
01:01:05that it can be about, it can be whatever we want it to be.
01:01:09I anticipate with pleas and expectation that retreat
01:01:13in which I promised myself to realize
01:01:16the Sweden that I'm in a partaking
01:01:19in the midst of my fellow sisters.
01:01:22Washington had an extraordinary American life.
01:01:26I think the most extraordinary thing he did was step down the presidency,
01:01:31ensuring that this American experiment would continue without him.
01:01:35by modeling a peaceful transition from president to president,
01:01:41he puts us eons ahead of every other fledgling democracy on earth.
01:01:46History has its eyes on you, yeah.
01:01:57We're going to teach them how to say goodbye.
01:02:37I think it's so important to take George Washington off the pedestal.
01:02:48These were real people who lived and died.
01:02:51I think one of the things we really try to do with the show is show them all as flawed.
01:02:55There's no one who is, there's no saints in the show, not a one.
01:03:00It's really logical to ask the question, given all of the ways in which he's extreme,
01:03:05what kind of a guy was Hamilton?
01:03:09I would say to a lot of people, a lot of the time, he was an arrogant, irritating ass.
01:03:18His big flaw, his inability to shut up, his tenacity, his drive, they're all great things in the war.
01:03:25It's great when we see him writing to Congress and saying, we need more stuff.
01:03:28But in the absence of a common enemy, that virtue goes inward.
01:03:34They go from assets to flaws.
01:03:36And that explains things, like the Reynolds scandal.
01:03:39This young woman, Mariah Reynolds, shows up at Hamilton's door one night.
01:03:43She gives him this sob story about her husband who abandoned her.
01:03:47She asks him for money.
01:03:48She needs his help.
01:03:49And he felt bad for her.
01:03:52So he ended up giving her some money, but that turned into an affair.
01:03:58Her husband ended up finding out about the affair and decided to make some money out of it.
01:04:05Hamilton forks over the blackmail money and continues the relationship for about a year.
01:04:12The story leaks, but with fuzzy details.
01:04:15And Hamilton gets accused of speculating in treasury securities with James Reynolds.
01:04:20So he decides he's going to write a pamphlet in which he argues, and in his mind this is the truth,
01:04:27that no, no, no, he's a perfectly correct public figure.
01:04:30He's never done anything bad as a public figure.
01:04:32But as a private figure, he just committed adultery and paid blackmail for it.
01:04:36It really reads like a cross between a dissertation and a dear penthouse letter.
01:04:40Um, he's not bragging, but the language is complicated.
01:04:46Eliza was so traumatized by the publication of the Reynolds pamphlet
01:04:50that she never publicly commented on what had happened.
01:04:55What we have is a letter from Angelica to Eliza saying,
01:05:00you married in Icarus, and he flew too close to the sun.
01:05:03I'm erasing myself from the narrative.
01:05:07I love the notion, which is true, that Eliza burned a lot of their correspondence.
01:05:30She wanted Hamilton to be known for his political act.
01:05:33So I recast that burning of the letters as an act of anger and, um, acknowledgement of betrayal.
01:05:42She didn't really have options.
01:05:45She couldn't just leave him.
01:05:48She had eight children.
01:05:50On top of that, there were a lot of hardships.
01:05:53The second act of Hamilton's life centers around the loss of his child.
01:05:58His eldest son, Philip, is gunned down in a duel about Hamilton.
01:06:02The duel began over a disagreement because George Eaker had said unkind things about Philip's father.
01:06:08As ridiculous as it seems that Philip would go and duel for his father and other people would duel anyway back then, you know,
01:06:17it's the same as people going out and fighting somebody or, you know,
01:06:23because they said something about their mother or they said something about their family or their sister or their brother or their dad.
01:06:28Hamilton was absolutely unhinged by the death of his son.
01:06:35And when you see paintings of Hamilton from those later years, he suddenly has aged tremendously.
01:06:42And it definitely is a somber note to his final years.
01:06:44It could be argued that Burr was not a very good politician in that election of 1800 when it's Burr and Thomas Jefferson.
01:07:13And Burr comes really close to becoming the president of the United States.
01:07:17He's backed in that race by two different parties.
01:07:22That is how malleable his beliefs were.
01:07:27People say, boy, Burr is a handy guy to have with you in an election because he doesn't have really strict principles.
01:07:32Hamilton writes a letter saying, he has no principles.
01:07:36Like, why is that good? This cannot be good.
01:07:39It ends up that there's a tie between Burr and Jefferson.
01:07:42gets thrown into the House to be decided.
01:07:44And so there's Hamilton facing the future of one or the other of these men,
01:07:47who he really doesn't like, are going to be president.
01:07:50The people are asking to hear my voice.
01:07:53The country is facing a difficult choice.
01:07:57If you were to ask me who I promote,
01:08:00Jefferson has my vote.
01:08:03Thomas Jefferson becomes president.
01:08:05Aaron Burr becomes the vice president.
01:08:07When Jefferson ran for re-election, Burr goes back to New York State and runs for governor,
01:08:13only to find that he is again thwarted in his ambition by Alexander Hamilton,
01:08:19and Burr loses for governor.
01:08:21You know, at this point, Burr flies into a rage.
01:08:24It seems like at every stage of his career,
01:08:27the man blocking his path of advancement is the same Alexander Hamilton.
01:08:31Alexander Hamilton is the patron saint of our museum.
01:08:41Nice.
01:08:41And so, yes, you're in Hamiltonian country, Leslie,
01:08:44but we'll do our best to try and give a little bit of a balance for you here as we move forward.
01:08:48All around you are original Hamilton artifacts and some others we've brought up,
01:08:53but why don't we take a look at some of the treasures that we have here?
01:08:56Awesome.
01:08:56Lynn, Leslie, this is a book published in 1804,
01:09:01a collection of the facts and documents related to the death of Major General Alexander Hamilton.
01:09:08Do you want to read some of those?
01:09:10Sure.
01:09:10Political opposition can never absolve gentlemen from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor
01:09:18and the rules of decorum.
01:09:21I neither claim such privilege nor indulge it in others.
01:09:24Burr one day reads in an Albany newspaper
01:09:27that Alexander Hamilton at a dinner party has uttered a despicable opinion about him.
01:09:35Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel.
01:09:37Mm-hmm. A reply.
01:09:39It's several pages.
01:09:42Sir, I have maturely reflected on the subject of your letter of the 18th last,
01:09:46and the more I have reflected, the more I have become convinced
01:09:48that I could not, without manifest impropriety,
01:09:50make the avowal or disavowal which you seem to think necessary.
01:09:54Hamilton could have ended the whole affair just by apologizing
01:09:57if he had inadvertently given Burr offense.
01:10:00It is evident that the phrase, still more despicable,
01:10:03admits of infinite shades from very light to very dark.
01:10:06How am I to judge of the degree intended?
01:10:09Or how shall I annex any precise idea to language so indefinite?
01:10:13If you and I were getting into something,
01:10:15I would send you, you know, I might piss you off on Twitter,
01:10:18and then you send me a text, and I send you a text back,
01:10:21and then it's on.
01:10:23I mean, these guys had to, they wrote long letters, you know,
01:10:28an impeccable penmanship.
01:10:30There was so much time for it to cool off,
01:10:33for it to not get to where it got to.
01:10:36And it goes on.
01:10:38Can you imagine getting a letter like this back?
01:10:40You're like, wait, I sent you a paragraph.
01:10:42You know what I mean?
01:10:43I have the honor to be a dot ham.
01:10:46I think from a modern outlook,
01:10:49the practice of dueling makes absolutely no sense, right?
01:10:52Because it means two guys go out onto a field in early morning
01:10:55and shoot at each other because they're angry at each other.
01:10:58What does that accomplish, right?
01:10:59Seemingly nothing.
01:11:00But people didn't duel to kill each other,
01:11:03which is a really hard thing to get your brain around.
01:11:05They went to a dueling ground to prove
01:11:07that they were brave enough to be there
01:11:09and thus were men of merit.
01:11:11Your letter has furnished me with new reasons
01:11:13for acquiring a definite reply.
01:11:15I have the honor to be Sir, your obedient aid that day.
01:11:19Wow.
01:11:20That's great.
01:11:21That's fantastic.
01:11:21Lawyered.
01:11:22It's Burr looking at his life and saying,
01:11:25wow, at every point along the way,
01:11:27my barrier was you.
01:11:29What do you have to say for yourself?
01:11:32Hamilton, smart ass as he is, saying,
01:11:35you're going to have to be more specific than that.
01:11:37I say a lot of shit about you.
01:11:40These are 18th century dueling pistols.
01:11:43The first thing to do is you would pick up your weapon
01:11:46and you would keep it vertical
01:11:48and you would put some powder in
01:11:50and then you would take out the rammer.
01:11:54You'd invert it and ram the powder down.
01:12:00Okay.
01:12:01There's so much time to apologize.
01:12:03At dawn on a July morning in 1804,
01:12:08traveling in separate boats,
01:12:10Hamilton and Burr travel up the Hudson River
01:12:12to Weehawken across the Hudson River
01:12:15from where West 42nd Street in Manhattan is.
01:12:18Hamilton had a lot of insecurities and vulnerabilities
01:12:20about his reputation because of his origins.
01:12:22Over the course of his life,
01:12:2410 times he almost got involved in a duel.
01:12:28All of those times he negotiated his way out.
01:12:31And most affairs of honor, that's what happened.
01:12:34Unfortunately, with Burr in 1804,
01:12:35they don't manage to do that.
01:12:38And we get to his final moments.
01:12:49There's just him and this bullet coming at him
01:12:52and all the thoughts that can ping through his brain
01:12:56between that bullet leaving the gun and hitting him.
01:12:59I imagine death so much, it feels more like a memory.
01:13:03Is this where it gets me?
01:13:04On my feet, several feet ahead of me.
01:13:06I see it coming.
01:13:07Do I run or fire my gun or let it be?
01:13:11There is no beat, no melody.
01:13:14He does a tally sheet.
01:13:16This is Hamilton.
01:13:17He thinks about the things he's done in his life.
01:13:23He thinks about the country he's leaving behind
01:13:26that didn't exist when he got there.
01:13:28He thinks about the people he's going to see
01:13:32on the other side.
01:13:33Lauren's leads a soldier's chorus on the other side.
01:13:35My son is on the other side.
01:13:37He's with my mother on the other side.
01:13:39Washington is watching from the other side.
01:13:41Teach me how to say goodbye.
01:13:44Rise up, rise up, rise up, and rise up.
01:13:49And then the last moment, the snag
01:13:51that keeps him from going there is Eliza
01:13:53because he leaves her behind with a lot.
01:13:57And then he does it anyway.
01:13:57He points his gun up at the sky in that final moment.
01:14:00My love, take your time.
01:14:05I'll see you on the other side.
01:14:15Raise a glass to free.
01:14:18He aims his pistol at the sky.
01:14:20Wait!
01:14:20There's a lot more he could have done.
01:14:36The fact that it went down the way that it did
01:14:40is a tragedy for both of them and for all of us.
01:14:44He was a fighter and a survivor for a long time.
01:14:51He had risen to a certain station in life
01:14:55by the time him and Hamilton
01:14:57ended up on the grounds in Weehawken.
01:14:59and he wasn't friendless, he wasn't jobless.
01:15:04I mean, he had risen to that station
01:15:05based on relationships and based on accomplishments.
01:15:09I think that our show is doing a really good job
01:15:13of reminding us that all of us are more than one thing.
01:15:19If that's all you're looking at,
01:15:21is our worst act on our worst day,
01:15:23anyone of us could be painted as a villain.
01:15:26It's really a kind of a mystery.
01:15:27I was too young and blind to see.
01:15:33I should have known,
01:15:34I should have known the world
01:15:38was wide enough for both Hamilton and me.
01:15:44If that's all you're looking at,
01:15:47is our worst act on our worst day,
01:15:50any one of us could be painted as a villain.
01:15:52C'est vraiment la totale de l'esprit.
01:15:55Comment nous avons beaucoup de temps à nous avoir sur cette earth?
01:16:00Nous ne savons pas. Ils ne disent pas à l'extérieur comment nous avons beaucoup de temps.
01:16:06C'est quelque chose que j'ai été sort de grappler avec et j'ai été terrifié avec.
01:16:09Je pense que nous tous grapple avec.
01:16:10Je pense que nous tous grapple avec la paradoxe de savoir que demain n'est pas promis,
01:16:17mais en faire des plans, en même temps.
01:16:19Vous savez, Hamilton walked into that duel.
01:16:23Il a un lunch date avec un client on the books that same day.
01:16:26Vous n'avez pas plané pour votre vie à ender.
01:16:29Let me tell you what I wish I'd known
01:16:32When I was young and dreamed of glory
01:16:36You have no control
01:16:38Who lives, who dies, who tells your story
01:16:42President Jefferson
01:16:43I give him this. His financial system was a work of genius.
01:16:47I couldn't undo it if I tried.
01:16:49And I tried.
01:16:51Hamilton built our modern economy
01:16:55And once we built it here in the United States
01:16:59The rest of the world looked around and said
01:17:02Pretty good idea.
01:17:04Alexander Hamilton I think is one of the more uniquely American founders
01:17:08Because this man came from nothing
01:17:10And rose to the highest levels of serving this country
01:17:14He proved the condition of your birth should not determine the outcome of your life
01:17:18Alexander Hamilton is somewhere going, thank you
01:17:21Finally, someone has given me the respect
01:17:24I created this whole finance
01:17:27I created what money is in the bank systems
01:17:30I created all that
01:17:31I got no thanks for that
01:17:33It wasn't easy to get to where we are today
01:17:36But it was dictated by and led by a vision
01:17:40We're a blessed nation to have had our founders
01:17:43Such remarkable men
01:17:44I think when faced with the incredible three lifetimes Hamilton lived
01:17:51While he was on this earth
01:17:52It forces you to reckon with
01:17:54Well, what am I doing with my life?
01:17:58That's the thing you're always up against
01:18:00When you're writing something that's big
01:18:02It's, God, can I be proud of this at the end of the day
01:18:05If this show opens and closes in a day
01:18:08Will I regret the six years I put into it?
01:18:13The Tony goes to Hamilton
01:18:15I'm well aware that the outside part of my life
01:18:23The whole zeitgeisty moment that is happening
01:18:26If this were a movie
01:18:27There would be newspapers spinning
01:18:29And flashbulbs
01:18:31That's what this section of the movie would be
01:18:33And the Tony goes to
01:18:35And the Tony goes to
01:18:36The Tony goes to
01:18:37Hamilton
01:18:38Hamilton
01:18:40Hamilton
01:18:41Hamilton
01:18:41Hamilton
01:18:42Alexander Hamilton was a dreamer
01:18:48I stand on this stage tonight
01:18:51Surrounded by dreamers
01:19:01I keep waiting for life to go back to normal
01:19:07We've finished unpacking our apartment
01:19:10My piano's still out of tune
01:19:12Haven't gotten around to that yet
01:19:14I knew that Hamilton
01:19:17Was going to change my life
01:19:19But I didn't anticipate
01:19:22How much we'd help Hamilton's legacy in turn
01:19:26Not just Hamilton
01:19:28But also Eliza
01:19:29For whom Hamilton's legacy was so important
01:19:31I put myself back in the narrative
01:19:39I stop wasting time on tears
01:19:45I live another 50 years
01:19:47Hamilton captures the spirit of American entrepreneurship
01:19:54And making it
01:19:57And hustle
01:19:57I think if Hamilton were alive today
01:20:00He would look back and say
01:20:02America succeeded beyond his wildest dreams
01:20:08You could have done so much more
01:20:10If you only had time
01:20:12And when my time is up
01:20:14Have I done enough
01:20:16Will they tell your story
01:20:18I feel like Hamilton chose me
01:20:22He reached out of the Chernow book
01:20:25And grabbed me
01:20:27And wouldn't let me go until I told his story
01:20:29I can't manufacture another Hamilton
01:20:32I'll never write another Hamilton
01:20:33Hamilton is singular
01:20:34The man and the creation of the show
01:20:36I feel like my responsibility
01:20:38Is just to sort of keep my eyes open
01:20:40And live it as slowly as possible
01:20:42Because I am aware
01:20:43Musical theatre does not get off the arts page
01:20:46Often
01:20:46And here we are
01:20:48Oh I can't wait to see you again
01:20:53It's only a matter of time
01:20:58Will they tell your story
01:21:04Time
01:21:05Who lives, who dies, who tells your story
01:21:11Time
01:21:12Will they tell your story
01:21:18Time
01:21:19When the man dies, who tells your story
01:21:26All right, drop the beat
01:21:37Oaks on the next train
01:21:39Oh yeah
01:21:40And it's coming from downtown and uptown
01:21:42Yeah, Renee's a ways of breaking it down
01:21:45Oh man, throw me in the garbage
01:21:46Cause I can't compete with her décolletage
01:21:49Oh man, yeah, I'm rapping in French
01:21:52I am the henchman
01:21:54I'm a mensch
01:21:55Really, I'm a menschman
01:21:56Yeah, don't put me on the bench
01:21:57I'm the next man
01:21:58To get onto this freestyle cypher
01:22:01I'm a 25 to lifer
01:22:02I like you
01:22:03This is freestyle for the doc
01:22:04I don't stop
01:22:05I'm hip-hop
01:22:06Yeah, I got that
01:22:07Chips and guac
01:22:08Oh, cause I'm spicy as hell
01:22:10Oh yeah
01:22:11So you go run and tell that
01:22:13Tell them I'm good at it too
01:22:14Renee's a beast backstage
01:22:16But she wouldn't show you
01:22:17Oh!
01:22:18Hey!
01:22:19That was good
01:22:21Every day
01:22:23Every day he knows what to say
01:22:26And Peggy
Recommandations
1:40:07
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