From a Mixtape to Broadway!

One interesting point that we discussed in class and I found amusing was Hamilton started off as a mixtape! When I usually think of a mixtape, I think of boys gifting it their girlfriends on Valentines Day. I think of small time artists. What I don’t immediately connect this to is Hamilton: the play that thousands of people fly across the nation to watch, the musical that people jam out to on road trips, or the multimillion dollar Broadway production. It’s interesting that the play developed to this extent. I think it is important to take a look at the development of this play and take lessons from its progression. Lin-Manuel Miranda worked really hard on this musical. He spent an entire year working on the “My Shot” song alone. This project took multiple years of hard work to come together to the beautiful final product that is today. The acting, singing, and choreography were all worked out into harmony that resulted in this successful musical. This long process reminds me of my own experience with an engineering project I worked on last semester. The project was a culmination of research, coding, hardware wiring, and testing that resulted in the final device. We had to spend a significant amount of time at each phase of the project before we could move on. It required a lot of adjusting along the way just like Lin-Manuel Miranda had to do. Surprisingly, our finished product was so different from the one we envisioned at the beginning. It was important for us to stay open to new ideas and changes and not restrict ourselves to one vision of the product. Imagine if Miranda stuck with his vision of having Hamilton being a concept album; this play would never have come to life! Finally, I also find the diversity of the Hamilton cast to be a crucial aspect of the play. In today’s social and political climate, having a diverse set of actors for people to look up to and fan over is definitely a positive.