Hamilton Contextual Analysis

1. Hamilton Contextual Analysis - Non Stop
Hamilton is an American musical involving mainly singing, rapping and dancing, by Lin-Manuel
Miranda. The musical took over 7 years to compose and
fi
rst premiered in 2015 in the Richard
Rodgers theatre. it
fi
rst opened in the Uk in December 2017 in London at the Victoria Palace
Theatre.
Hamilton the musical tells the story of the American founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The
musical shows how Hamilton climbed the social ladder through his talent in writing. He was then
sent to King college in New York, where he set his heart on achieving glory in the War of
Independence. The musical shows Hamilton achieving this as he becomes George Washingtons
right-hand man. Throughout the story we see Hamiltons relationships with others such has his
wife Eliza, his son Philip, opposing lawyer Burr and many more. The musical highlights how
Hamilton destroyed many, if not all of these relationships due to his strong ambition and work
ethic. Finally the musical shows how after Hamilton achieves many of his goals he is ultimately left
unhappy in life and end up dying in a famous duel between Aaron Burr and himself.
The musical is set during Alexander Hamiltons real life from the mid 1700’s to the early 1800’s.
The main themes of the musical are History/legacy, war/con
fl
ict, Honour, forgiveness,
determination, death and love. Hamilton includes a variety of musical genres such as R&B,
traditional broadway, Jazz and Hip Hop.
I play the character of Hamilton in our production of the scene Non-Stop. Hamiltons character is
based around the true life of Alexander Hamilton. He was born in the Caribbean island of Nevis
and later immigrated to America at the age of 19 for his education. He was born into a poor family
and became an orphan after both his parents died, which led to him having an extremely rough
childhood which he was determined to overcome and become a successful man. Hamilton did
everything he could to rise to power and earn authority. He is a ingenious, determined and
opinionated man. He was known for his amazing writing and his constant tendency to argue with
everyone in order to get across his views. Hamiltons passion meant he found himself constantly
criticising fellow lawyer Aaron Burr for not being fully committed to a belief, which led to them
having a very contentious friendship. Hamilton succeeded in his goals by becoming George
Washingtons right hand man during the Revolutionary war. After the war Hamilton gained the role
of the
fi
rst secretary of the Treasury. However is removed from power after John Adams is elected.
Hamilton left a great in
fl
uence of America has he was responsible for the structure of the
American
fi
nancial system. In the musical we see Hamilton marry Eliza who he was shown to have
met through Angelica, Eliza’s sister. The story shows how Angelica and Hamilton had an ongoing
love for one another throughout, however were unable to marry due to Hamiltons lower status at
the time, therefore Angelica set him up with her sister instead, so she could marry a man of higher
status. Eliza and Hamilton have a son Philip, who later dies for his father. During the musical we
see Hamilton grow more and more distant with both Eliza and Angelica as he is solely focused on
his work and ambitions. In this time He is also seen to have an a
ff
air which later comes out.
Hamiltons ongoing feud with lawyer Burr was
fi
nally ended when Burr kills Hamilton in a duel. The
main message that is portrayed through the relationships with Hamilton is how he has lost the
people who love him due to him only being focused on his success and work.
In order to portray my relationships as Hamilton with the other characters e
ff
ectively I will have to
use various proxemics and a range of di
ff
erent vocal skills. For example with Burr I will have to
show the tension between these two. To show my relationship with Eliza I will have to show the
love Hamilton has for her while still being more focused on his work. I will also have to show his
underlying feelings for his wife’s sister Angelica throughout. When it comes to Washington I will
have to show how he respects him and is determined to look good in his eyes, however show
how in this scene he is very smug when approached my him.
We are performing the scene Non-stop which falls in the middle of the musical. Prior to this scene
we see at the beginning Hamilton arriving in New York and beginning his studies. We then see
Hamilton meet Burr along with three other prominent characters, Laurens, Lafayette and Mulligan.
After we see George Washington becomes Commander in Chief and then invitesHamilton to his
military sta
ff
. After this Hamilton meets Eliza and Angelica, then following after Elizas and
Hamiltons wedding. We then see how the
fi
ghting in the revolution had ended, assuring the

2. American success. Hamiltons son Phillip was then born. Finally just before the scene Non-Stop
we see Hamilton receive a letter about the death of John Laurens. This then leads in to Non-Stop
where Hamilton return to new York and becomes a lawyer alongside Burr. Angelica moves to
England. Hamilton arrives at the Constitutional Convention. Washington becomes president and
Hamilton becomes secretary on the Treasury.
The main skills evident within this scene would be: spatial awareness, gesture, facial expression
pace/energy, proxemics, projection, timing, breath control, use of pause and pace,
characterisation and accent. Our main focus in rehearsals, as a class would be timing as in this
piece it is signi
fi
cant for the movements and dialogue to come in at speci
fi
c beats in order to
perform it e
ff
ectively. My main focus for myself would be my pac/energy and projection, as most
of my dialogue is fast rapping, it means I am
fi
nding myself losing my breathe in certain parts and
therefore not being able to project the words as well.