When the movie The Shawshank Redemption came out, Jennifer and I heard several people say it was worth seeing. But we just weren’t interested. (I guess we weren’t the only ones; Wikipedia says it made only $16 million during its initial theatrical run.) I think our assumptions were based almost entirely on the title, which gave us the impression that it would be more edifying than entertaining. But the recommendations kept coming, and we finally bit the bullet and rented it years after it came out. We loved it.
To this day, “Shawshank Redemption” has been our shorthand for anything we avoid because we’re sure we won’t like it, only to be blown away when we finally give it a chance. That new Vietnamese restaurant people are raving about? “Well, it could be a Shawshank Redemption,” one of us will say. “Maybe we should check it out.”
Which brings us to Hamilton. No matter how many times we heard how phenomenal the show was, we were unmoved. With rare exceptions neither of us are fans of either hip-hop or musical theater, and I had a hunch I’d have trouble following the rapid-fire lyrics. We were thus entirely unconcerned about how expensive the tickets were or how difficult it was to get them.
But as I’m sure almost everyone knows, the cost-benefit ratio of seeing Hamilton changed significantly last Friday when the filmed version of the show became available on Disney’s streaming service. Last night, for the $6.99 cost of a one-month subscription to Disney+, we were able to watch the entire musical with the original Broadway cast in our family room.
Let me say first that my concern about being able to follow all the lyrics would have been entirely justified if I had seen Hamilton live. The lyrics are clever and intricate and they go by really fast. But with the filmed version we were able to turn on subtitles, which made all the difference.
Beyond that, yeah, it was a Shawshank Redemption. The story was powerful and engrossing, the performances were compelling, and the music — which seemed like a hybrid of hip-hop, pop, and Sondheim — was enthralling. (Yes, I gave thesauraus.com a real workout coming up with that sentence.)
Even though I’ve read a lot of history over the last few years, I hadn’t entirely shaken the impression from my elementary school days of the founding fathers as starchy old guys in white wigs. But this show smashed that image. Many of these men were in their 20s and 30s at the time of the nation’s founding, and the show powerfully conveys the urgency they must have felt about their mission of throwing off the tyranny of King George and establishing a lasting republic, the success or failure of which would forever be their legacy.
It was a treat to see the show with the original cast, including its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the title role. He left the show in July 2016. And while I’m sure there’s no substitute for having seen Hamilton live, the filmed version includes close-ups of the performers that even those in the best seats at the Richard Rogers Theatre would never have seen.
This is not a review. I’m just here to say that it’s worth paying for a month of Disney+ to see Hamilton. (And while you’re at it you can stream The Mandalorian and check out Baby Yoda.)