The show’s electricity comes from how star and creator Miranda frames Hamilton as an outsider with a vision of democracy and equality (“just like my country/ I’m young, scrappy and hungry”). Hamilton brings popular music to Broadway in a more original way than jukebox musicals like Motown: The Musical, harnessing the power of rap as storytelling form (and connecting the dots backward to Shakespeare in the process). Listening to the album reminds me of how, as a kid, I locked myself in my room with Hair and didn’t come out for a year. Hamilton stands on its own as a hip-hop/pop opera, with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s take on Alexander Hamilton - Founding Father, guy on the $10 bill, famous duel victim - a work of straight-up genius in so many ways. No, I haven’t seen it (I’m hoping for a West Coast tour). Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Album). ![]() The news was frequently so depressing, I found myself gravitating towards music as an uplifting escape. Much of the music on my best-of list reflects my state of mind this year, probably more than it does the musical moment. And you never want to underestimate a wounded animal. The audience jumped, cried and howled along on Smith’s progressive battle cry - “The power to dream, to rule, to wrestle the world from fools” - like a great wounded animal stirred. 7, after a scrolling remembrance of Paris casualties and shouts of “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite,” Bono brought an emotional Eagles of Death Metal onstage to sing Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power.” It was a moment of pure rock and roll joy. It lives on, even stronger, in the increasingly angry and emboldened response of sane Americans to the mass shootings that have taken place almost daily, and to the racist, xenophobic, gun-humping, misogynistic filth spewing from the mouths of the fringe crackpots the Republicans are trying to pass off as presidential material. We thought the dream of peace and love died with a Beatle, but it didn’t. Thirty-five years ago this month, John Lennon became a gun violence statistic, murdered by someone who should never have been able to obtain a gun. also have to contend with domestic terrorism wrought by the NRA’s insane GOP-enabled perversion of the Second Amendment. How can anything bad possibly happen when you’re dancing to the music you love? But it did, and we have to acknowledge that dark cloud. ![]() I’m sure I’m not the only fan who once believed to my core that a rock concert is hallowed ground. But, more important, it was a healing gesture - as far as gestures can go - to the city of Paris and to musicians and music lovers shaken by the horror that took place at the Bataclan. 7, was a powerful antidote to the vile “keep Muslims out of the U.S.” posturing of Herr Trump that coincidentally dominated the news cycle that day. U2’s stunning Paris concert, which HBO aired live on Dec. Which makes it even more imperative that we continue to support live music, continue to go to shows, continue to choose art, joy and freedom over fear. But in this bitter and broken year, even music became a war zone. ![]() Music normally provides a refuge from and a response to the sorrows of the world. Lin-Manuel Miranda as the Father of the year.
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