Two things on Hamilton:
1. The music of Hamilton won't become dated anytime soon -- the music of Hair, Chicago, or just about anything ALW has done have not hurt their respective shows over time. Remember too that revivals often rearrange & reorchestrate scores to update their sounds.
But the politics of Hamilton might. It seems relevant and contemporary to us because there are recognizably relevant and contemporary issues interwoven throughout: immigration, race, gun violence, etc. But what if in 20 years, for example, immigration is no longer a front-burner political concern? Then the show would lose some of its urgency. I love 1776, but there are lines in that musical that are clearly reactions to Nixon and, as a result, don't work as well today. Mind you, this doesn't make shows bad but it does make them more obviously born of a specific time and mentality.
2. I go back and forth on LMM, but for those of you who think he's phony or at least highly staged in his public persona, what makes you think that? He has a pretty similar demeanor in interviews from the In the Heights era when he wasn't as famous. I get more of an impression that he's just extraordinarily intense -- with all the good and bad that flows from that -- and is trying to keep it under control most of the time.
My unpopular opinion on LMM is that I don't think he's all that versatile a rapper stylistically, and most of his raps sound similar. This will be more obvious next time around if he writes another rap musical.
Updated On: 5/13/16 at 08:38 AM