In “Toward a More Perfect Hamilton,” Marvin McCallister writes:
Hamilton, as a cultural movement and protest, speaks loudly to younger generations who see race and ethnicity in fluid terms, both on collective and individual levels. Yet the danger of this fluidity is how easily a faux history can emerge that avoids complexity for the sake of unity, alleged inclusion, and even fantasy. The ideology driving Hamilton embraces an exciting idealization of America, rather than a full accounting of what America was, and in many respects still is. Through this ambitious and aspirational musical, minority actors and audiences get to feel more “American” than they have ever felt before, because Hamilton places them “in the room where it happens.” Yet even as this ridiculously successfully project elevates hip-hop, reinvents color-conscious casting on Broadway, and moves colored bodies from margins to center, the price is leaving certain stories behind. (287-88)
Do you agree with McCallister’s ambivalent assessment of the musical? According to him, which stories are left out of Hamilton’s “exciting idealization of America”?
I largely agree with McCallister’s ambivalent assessment of Hamilton. The musical is clearly powerful as a cultural project. It reclaims the Revolutionary story for those who have historically been excluded from it. However, it oversimplifies the reality of history.
For musical storytelling purposes, it makes sense to turn Hamilton (a historically complex individual) into a more palatable hero. He is framed as an ambitious immigrant who rises due to his determination. This clearly plays on the “American Dream” narrative. So, it is a hopeful story of American opportunity. The more complicated realities of the founding are downplayed.
It is also important to mention how the focus on elite political figures narrows the story. The musical is not telling the story of ordinary people, and it largely avoids confronting the central role that slavery played in the founding era (despite the fact that all of these marginalized groups were directly affected by the Revolution). Enslaved people are almost entirely absent from Hamilton, even though slavery was deeply embedded in the time (politically & economically).
For example, the musical never acknowledges that the Schuyler family owned slaves, even though the sisters are central characters in the story. That means audience understanding of history is distorted. And because Hamilton was so successful, many people now base their understanding of the founding era on the musical itself. It has shaped public memory. Though, if the musical had included all of the more complicated historical realities, it might not have been as widely successful.
So, I acknowledge how the show expands who gets to perform American history, but I agree that it does not fully confront inequalities that structured that history.