Revolutionary Movement : 'Non-Stop' Ensemble Choreography at Work

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Source Publication

Dueling Grounds : Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton

Publication Date

5-4-2021

Editor

Mary Jo Lodge and Paul R. Laird, editors

Publisher

Oxford University Press

City

New York, New York

ISBN

9780190938857

First Page

149

Last Page

163

Department

Theatre & Dance

Publisher Statement

Hamilton opened on Broadway in 2015 and quickly became one of the hottest tickets the industry has ever seen. Lin-Manuel Miranda - who wrote the book, lyrics, and music, and created the title role - adapted the show from Ron Chernow's biography Alexander Hamilton. Although it seems an unlikely source for a Broadway musical, Miranda found a liminal space where the life that Hamilton led and the issues that he confronted came alive more than two centuries later while also commenting on contemporary life in the United States and how we view our nation's history. With a score largely based on rap and drawing on other aspects of hip-hop culture, and staged with actors of color playing the white Founding Fathers, Hamilton has much to say about race in the United States today and in our past, but at the same time it leaves important things insufficiently explained, such as the role of women and people of color in Hamilton's time. Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton is a volume that combines the work of theater scholars and practitioners, musicologists, and scholars in such fields as ethnomusicology, history, gender studies, and economics in a multi-faceted approach to the show's varied uses of liminality, looking at its creation, casting philosophy, dance and movement, costuming, staging, direction, lyrics, music, marketing, and how aspects of race, gender, and class fit into the show and its production. Demonstrating that there is much to celebrate, as well as challenging issues to confront concerning Hamilton, Dueling Grounds is an uncompromising look at one of the most important musicals of the century.

  • Includes new interviews with Hamilton costume designer Paul Tazewell and associate choreographer Stephanie Klemons
  • Features chapters from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives
  • Includes new approaches to the show that offer innovative ways to study and understand the blockbuster

---- Publisher

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