Ever since my sister came home for her fresh-
man year Winter Break with a song called “Sat-
isfied,” “Hamilton” has been a part of my life.
I met one of my closest friends because of it, I
passed AP US History because of it and (sort of)
passed AP Government because of it. I even got
a chance to see the Chicago cast a few summers
ago because of how much I loved it. As much as
I loved that show, I knew it was nowhere near as
incredible as the original cast’s show was. That
same friend I mentioned before got to see the
original cast’s show in New York and told me
how amazing it was, and how much it meant to
her to see the show with its creator Lin-Manuel
Miranda in the starring role. So when I heard
that Disney+ was going to be releasing the origi-
nal Broadway cast’s show, I was elated, posi-
tive that it would be one of the most incredible
things I would ever see. I was right.
Getting to see the show from a couple hun-
dred rows away from the stage does not com-
pare to seeing the movie that Disney+ released.
I got to see the heartbreak on Angelica’s (Renée
Elise Goldsberry, “The Immortal Life of Henri-
etta Lacks”) face during “Satisfied,” the good-
natured teasing between Laurens (Anthony
Ramos, “A Star is Born”), Mulligan (Okieriete
Onaodowan, “The Super”), Lafayette (Daveed
Diggs, “Wonder”) and Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.,
“Murder on the Orient Express”) in “Story of
Tonight (Reprise),” the genuine tears rolling
down Eliza’s (Phillipa Soo, “Here and Now”)
face during “It’s Quiet Uptown …” The Disney+
film combines the best parts of a Broadway
show with the intimacy of an at-home film.
Seeing every carefully choreographed moment
up close, while still having the audience reac-
tions of laughter and applause, makes the show
a truly unique experience. If Broadway had a
flaw, it would be that very few audience mem-
bers get the “perfect” view to see every detail
that occurs onstage. The film removes that con-
cern, allowing any and every viewer to experi-
ence the show in the best way possible.
One might think that you can just listen to
the “Hamilton” soundtrack and that would be
enough, but that couldn’t be more wrong. The
soundtrack doesn’t have Hercules Mulligan as
Eliza’s and Alexander’s (Lin-Manuel Miranda,
“Mary Poppins Returns”) flower girl, it doesn’t
have Eliza’s heart-wrenching scream in “Stay
Alive (Reprise)” and it doesn’t have the magic
of a true Broadway show. Broadway is all about
exaggeration; neither the soundtrack by itself
nor a movie version of the show could capture
what the actual Broadway performance does.
However, you get live, in-time reactions from
both the cast and the audience when you see
the recorded performance of “Hamilton.”
But the real genius of “Hamilton” is that you
learn something beyond the history of Alexan-
der Hamilton’s life when you watch it. Onstage,
you see a version of America that we don’t have
in real life. A version that we can work toward.
There are women who vow to make “women
a part of the [Declaration of Independence’s]
sequel” in “The Schuyler Sisters,” there are
people of color in positions of power — such as
Christopher Jackson’s (“Bull”) George Wash-
ington — which is a step towards change (even
if it isn’t enough) and there is a president who
knows when it’s time to step down. It’s not a
perfect America by any means; there is infi-
delity, murder and mourning. But it truly is a
story of America’s history told by Americans
today, as Lin-Manuel Miranda intended. The
show has historical inaccuracies, to be sure, but
those almost don’t matter in the grand scheme
of things. You could read about the founding of
America any time to get historical facts, but a
textbook doesn’t provide hope for change the
way that “Hamilton” does.
6
Thursday, July 9, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
Gil Scott-Heron and
‘60s campus politics
Before “The Revolution Will Not be Tele-
vised,” Gil Scott-Heron was a member of the
Black & Blues. Following the summer of 1969,
he returned to Lincoln University where he
and fellow musician Brian Jackson worked on
combining jazz arrangements with poetry. As
members of the Black & Blues, they laid the
foundation for their future work as a duo and
solo artists. A lot of their work centered on the
civil unrest and animosity Lincoln students
had towards the university at the time. Given
its small, rural setting, the intensity didn’t par-
allel those of other HBCU campuses like How-
ard University and Morgan State, but students
with different beliefs directed their anger
towards the conservative administration. And
Scott-Heron was at the center of Lincoln’s pro-
test culture.
Protests broke out on campus after a stu-
dent, Ron Colbert, died from an asthma attack.
He was taken to the infirmary the night before
when his inhaler wasn’t working, only for it to
be closed. The administration denied respon-
sibility, erroneously claiming that Colbert died
from marijuana use. Students’ rallied under
demands for the institution to provide essen-
tial medical services. Scott-Heron gathered
students at the school chapel the following
morning and called for the student body to
boycott classes. They rallied around demands
he drew up for a 24/7 infirmary, a fully
equipped ambulance and a replacement for
the on-campus physician Dr. Davies. Colbert’s
death was merely the tip of the iceberg. Several
students had misdiagnoses from Dr. Davies,
the infirmary wasn’t open around the clock
and students were dying as a result of these
limitations. After a week, the administration
replaced Davies and Scott-Heron called the
protests off. Things didn’t calm down on cam-
pus, though; students demanded the school’s
president, Dr. Marvin Wachman, be replaced
by a Black president. After students relentless-
ly pressured trustees, protested and circulated
a petition, the administration named Herman
Branson the first Black president of Lincoln
University. The protests at Lincoln didn’t end
though. Injustices towards Black Americans
still endured on campus and beyond and stu-
dents refused to stay silent.
Scott-Heron had initially feared he couldn’t
pursue music alongside activism. He found
compromise in embedding his activism into
his artwork. His writing often harkens back to
his experiences at Lincoln. Following Lincoln’s
administration for helping the FBI collect
surveillance on its own students, Scott-Heron
captured students’ collective rage in his poetry:
“But something else was happening / and stu-
dents weren’t supposed to know / Lincoln’s
state relationship included COIN-TEL-PRO /
As now that you’ve got background and a / cer-
tain point of view / I’m awarding you a schol-
arship to go with me to Lincoln U.” The plot
of his dystopian second novel, “The N***er
Factory,” is centered around campuses turning
young Black men into obedient members of
bourgeois society.
However, most notable in his work is his
style of music. The basis is the work he did
early on with Jackson, turning poems in spo-
ken word songs over Blues music. In many
ways, this music became the basis for hip hop
and rap music that would emerge in decades
to come. No song has embodied this legacy
better than “The Revolution Will Not Be Tele-
vised.” The title speaks for itself, but there’s
often some confusion, in part because people
misconstrue the nature of the medium. Why is
it not enough to sit at home and watch cover-
age of protests on the television? Or “plug in,
turn on and cop out” over social media and
the internet? For one thing, you’re not really
wary of the revolution if you’re not living it. No
matter how “unbiased” the news touts itself
to be, the content is curated and presented
with many pieces of the story missing. This
goes beyond the liberal or conservative slant
of any particular media distributor. Rather,
this results from both journalists’ and editors’
individual biases as well as the influence of a
looming white supremacy, especially given an
over three-quarters white U.S. workforce of
newsroom employees.
There’s an obvious passivity to staring at
a screen, and when people aren’t willing to
engage in actions that lead to change, they
don’t do anything to help any cause. The televi-
sion also exists for purposes that have nothing
to do with the revolution. The song’s pop cul-
ture references illustrate this point: “[The rev-
olution] will not star Natalie Woods and Steve
McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia” to “The
theme song will not be written by Jim Webb
or Francis Scott Keys.” These parallels to white
American culture showcase the blithe, white
lens of the television screen — how could any-
one expect anything different from the news it
broadcasts?
Gil Scott-Heron speaks from a first person
point of view; he was very much a part of “the
revolution,” from the protests he led on his col-
lege campus to the poems, songs and books he
released throughout his career. In a video from
1990 that recently made its rounds across the
internet, he describes the revolution not as
something people can see or talk about, but
something they must experience:
DIANA YASSIN
Daily Arts Writer
A beloved musical
comes to Disney Plus
Read more at michigandaily.com
SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Arts Writer
Read more at michigandaily.com
FILM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW