Eminem’s “Stan” is 6 minutes and 44 seconds of pure storytelling genius. If you multiply “Stan’s” magnitude by a couple of hundreds, throw it on a stage and use American history as backdrop then you have Broadway’s “Hamilton,” said to be “America then, as told by America now.” “Hamilton’s” recent worldwide release reminded fans—and converted even more—about its relevance.
I’m not talking about lines from the show about love and heartbreak like these series from “Burn,” “You and your words flooded my senses/Your sentences left me defenseless/You built me palaces out of paragraphs/You built cathedrals” or that spot-on moment when Angelica rationalizes, “At least I keep his eyes in my life” in “Satisfied.” I’m talking about words that connect the ‘present us’ to the period play. Let’s see how much of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s poetry hits home these days.
“And no don’t change the subject coz you’re my favorite subject, my sweet submissive subject.” From “You’ll Be Back,” blurted out with a tinge of madness by Jonathan Groff’s King George. Today, we’re seeing massive displays of subjects, some of them congressmen who subjected 11,000 employees to an even more uncertain future.
“If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?” Miranda’s Alexander Hamilton, said this to Leslie Odom, Jr.’s Aaron Burr in the song “Aaron Burr, Sir.” Philippine social media has been ablaze with press freedom issues. We see most people taking sides and it’s difficult to see families being divided by votes when love of family is one of the few remaining values we have. But now, opposing voices are starting to display thickness that is more dense than blood’s.
“There are moments that the words don’t reach. There is a grace too powerful to name. We push away what we can never understand. We push away the unimaginable.” From “It’s Quiet Uptown,” here’s when Hamilton and wife Eliza nursed the unfathomable loss of their son. Its impact extends to what we’re going through at a time when the world is on pandemic pause. There are a lot of things we couldn’t make sense out of no matter how hard we try so pushing them away becomes band-aid.
“Dying is easy, living is harder.” When the most difficult of things continue to pile up like 162 COVID deaths in one day, it’s easy to be swayed by lyrics like this one from the number “Right Hand Man.”
“Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints.” We’re still dealing with a virus that doesn’t discriminate either. From the song “Wait For It,” which also coughs out this gem of a verse: “Love doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes and we keep loving anyway.”
“Let me tell you what I wish I’d known. When I was young and dreamed of glory. You have no control: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” Alexander Hamilton was lucky Miranda told his story. Right now though, we have an opportunity to shape one. We’re part of a history-bending generation that will eventually beat this pandemic. When the dust settles, hopefully in a future that’s closer than the disorienting one we’re facing, we get to rise up and tell a story of survival. These lines are from “History Has Its Eye On You.”
“We want our leaders to save the day but we don’t get a say in what they trade away.” Lifted from that recall-positive “The Room Where It Happens,” sometimes justice and even lives are traded for opportunities when those who “matter” talk behind closed doors, gambling with our future. This is not limited to leaders and politicians who give up public interest for personal agenda. It happens even in the corporate world or school communities. Those in power would usually use their position in meetings “where it happens.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes, I’ll make a million mistakes.” From the number “Dear Theodosia” where Hamilton and Burr are seen living parallel lives even when they have been and remained each other’s undoing. This line feels familiar because these days, we tend to experiment a lot with time unbelievably on our side compared to before-pandemic. The slow-down accommodates mistakes in the kitchen or when we’re figuring out how to get through each day. It also allows us to separate the things that truly matter from the ones we thought were our priorities.
“Corruption’s such an old song that we can sing along in harmony.” Enough said from the song “Non-Stop.”
“Legacy. What is legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me.” Lastly, from “The World Was Wide Enough,” we need “Hamilton” to remind us that this world made smaller and smaller by the pandemic is still wide enough to provide a future that will honor our resilience. And if this world gives space for resilience, healing shouldn’t be far behind.
The author is a former entertainment reporter and editor before shifting to corporate PR. Follow @kayevillagomez on Instagram and Twitter for more updates.