Monday, July 4, 2016

Rap In Musicals, Part II: How Hamilton Fixed Literally Everything


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A little over a year ago, I wrote an article called "Rap In Musicals, And How We've Been Getting It Wrong." In it, I made two major arguments: one, that rap was as well-suited to musicals as pen to page, and two, that most uses of rap in the musical theatre thus far had largely failed to realize the extraordinary synergistic potential of these two forms. I then went on to list techniques in the musical theatre that rap would complement perfectly.

I could reiterate all of my points here, but I no longer have to. I can now just point to Hamilton and say, "yeah, basically that." Nonetheless, let's briefly run through these ideas and examine them in the context of Broadway's latest runaway smash.