![]() And then sat down approximately fifteen more times to rewatch it, again and again, gleefully singing along and fielding questions like “how could you not have seen this when you were living in New York?” from my thirteen-year-old niece. ![]() In the summer of 2020, fresh off a pretty heartbreaking departure from the city where I’d had my own thirteen-year run, I sat down with my sisters and their kids to watch Miranda’s 2015 musical, Hamilton. But hip-hop remained on the musical theater margins until Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2005 off-Broadway In The Heights moved it toward the mainstream. In 1996, the hip-hop tap dance musical Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk (with music by the legendary Ann Duquesnay) lost in the Best Musical category of the 50th Tony Awards to Rent, which is sometimes credited with “popularizing” rap in musicals for its approximately two minutes of rapped sound. Through the 1990s, a few hip-hop theater companies cohered (like Puremovement in Philadelphia and Full Circle Productions in New York), bringing shows about and for hip-hop culture to off-Broadway theaters, and touring nationally and even globally. In the 2006 film production of the musical, the writers added the line: “sooner or later the time comes around / for a man to be a man and take back his sound.” Jimmy, played by Eddie Murphy, takes back his sound, and his manhood, by releasing himself from the emotional work of a longingly sung apology, bursting instead into a rapped celebration of self. Breaking free from sadness, the character Jimmy takes on what seems like a suppressed James Brown persona, coming into the bravado and more explicit sexuality his previous performing role had neutered with the “sad songs” he’d sung earlier (at the end of the rap, Jimmy drops his pants in front of a full theater audience). ![]() The moment comes about two-thirds of the way through the play, in a nascent hip-hop, funk-derived number called “Jimmy’s Rap,” or simply “The Rap,” depending on which recording you’re listening to. The musical Dreamgirls ran for four years on Broadway in the early 1980s, and, among its other interventions, made what might seem now like a very unsurprising breakthrough-it used rap. ![]() Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York. The Broadway run, which opened on August 6, 2015, continues at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.Ralph Earl, Portrait of Mrs. Hamilton officially opened in the West End on Decemwhere it plays an open run at the Victoria Palace Theatre. The Broadway lyric "Weehawken, dawn, guns drawn" has become "New Jersey, dawn, guns drawn." In the showstopping number "The Room Where It Happens," the lyric "Well, I propose the Potomac" has been changed to "Invite him over, propose it." In another U.S.-specific reference, Burr's proposal of a duel in "Your Obedient Servant" now specifically points to New Jersey rather than the town of Weehawken. The additional alterations come in lyrics performed by Aaron Burr. The former lyric, "Angelica, tell my wife, John Adams doesn't have a real job anyway," is now, "Angelica, tell my wife, vice president isn't a real job anyway." president John Adams was changed to simply his title. The first lyric fix is in the song "Take a Break." A reference by Alexander Hamilton to second U.S. The changes comprised American-specific references to John Adams, Weehawken and the Potomac River. ![]() Tony-winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed on Twitter today that he altered three lyrics from the Broadway run of his hit musical for its London debut. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |