There is an old story about two matinee ladies who attend a show only to see a spattering of empty seats just before the curtain goes up. Says one to the other, “If I’d known I could get in, I wouldn’t have come.”That’s certainly not the case with “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s brilliantly original musical about the founding father, which opens tonight having been christened by the critics as the Second Coming and the ticket-buying public as the Must-See Show of the Decade. The production, which began life at the Public Theatre downtown, transfers to Broadway having banked a whopping $32 million in advance ticket sales and having generated reams of copy not only from the entertainment press but from editorial writers like David Brooks of the New York Times.Last February, the conservative columnist wrote, “The Public Theater seems hell bent on putting drama back in the center of the national conversation, and Miranda’s ‘Hamilton’ is one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve had in a theater. Each element in the show is a jewel, and the whole is bold, rousing, sexy, tear-jerking and historically respectful — the sort of production that strips things down and asks you to think afresh about your country and your life.”Brooks may well have put his finger on why Miranda’s bio-musical of the founding father has so captivated the American public. Relentlessly propelled by an extraordinarily talented ensemble and by a score that expertly melds hip-hop, indie-pop, and R&B, the show is jubilantly optimistic about the American Experiment despite its warts-and-all approach to the men who built this nation. This is particularly true in its treatment of Hamilton, an immigrant bastard of limitless ambition and strong convictions. Which makes it doubly-ironic that it is opening on the evening of the first Republican presidential debate, which promises to be dominated by Donald Trump and nine others who are more of the ilk of Hamilton’s chief nemesis and murderer: Aaron Burr, who in the show is typified as having fungible beliefs.As if that weren’t enough, the date also marks the last show of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. For the last sixteen years, the snarky host has acted, at least for some, as the moral conscience of the nation, gleefully mocking the pretensions and hypocrisy of the major political players in Washington. There is no less snark in “Hamilton.” Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, as rivals of the central character, can be as petty as mean girls. John Adams never makes an appearance in the musical but is talked about in the most cutting terms. In one wry reference to “1776,” the 1969 Tony-winning musical, Miranda, as Hamilton, quotes from one of his show’s forbears, rapping, “Sit down, John,” followed by a choice expletive.Nonetheless, at a time when poll after poll registers the American public’s disgust with the country’s institutions and its leaders, “Hamilton” is a potent, if clear-headed, reminder of its solid foundations and ideals. It’s an electrifying and humane history lesson — that huge advance must include tickets for thousands of scholars and students who will be getting a refreshing look at the complicated and messy birth of a nation. It’s not that the men and women who are rapping and singing their way through the tempestuous early American decades were any less tempted to obfuscate, bluff, and connive than those who are now vying to become President of the United States in 2016. But what “Hamilton” so boldly reminds us is that their overweening ambitions were inextricably married to the public good. They never forgot that they were Servants — with a capital “S” — and they were mindful that history would judge them badly if they neglected that primary duty. In “Hamilton,” our forefathers are young, energetic, optimistic, messy, and, most importantly, clever. Like the musical itself.
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