After more than five years, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton debuted on Disney’s recently launched streaming platform on July 3rd, making the rounds online after fans relived the epic tale of Alexander Hamilton’s trials as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
When the Mouse House outbid multiple rivals like Warner Bros. and Netflix to acquire the rights to Hamilton in February, it was announced that Lin-Manuel’s universally acclaimed and Tony award-winning musical will be making its way to Disney Plus. As such, a lot of people who missed the chance to catch the Broadway production in theaters now have the opportunity to stream it from their homes. As is the case with everything that manages to get traction on the internet, though, this renewed interest has sparked a lot of debate, especially regarding Hamilton‘s portrayal of slavery.
Now, Lin-Manuel has addressed these criticisms by responding to Tracy Clayton’s Twitter thread in which she said that conversations about the musical’s treatment of slavery should take place.
“Appreciate you so much, @brokeymcpoverty,” Miranda wrote. “All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game.”
Amid the Black Lives Matter protests happening all around the globe, these conversations are inevitable, especially since the musical touches on the subject and the Founding Father’s attitude towards it. In fact, Hamilton does acknowledge and openly oppose slavery, even outside the sub-context of the script, but it fails to put enough emphasis on the fact that many of its featured historical figures owned slaves.
At any rate, the production is still a spectacle. And we’ll only have to wait and see where this discourse ends up in the next couple of week. As always, though, be sure to let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.
