Name: The ‘cancel’ crowd should be gunning for ‘Hamilton’
Brand: nypost.com
SKU: nypost-com-167
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

The ‘cancel’ crowd should be gunning for ‘Hamilton’

preview

The cancel mobs had better sharpen their pitchforks.A new film treats our Founding Fathers as flawed but ultimately good, even great, men and celebrates America as a place where anyone, “even orphan immigrants,” can make it. Oh, and actors play characters of races other than their own.I’m referring, of course, to Broadway genius Lin-Manuel Miranda’s megahit, “Hamilton,” which .Ever since its first performance in 2015, the show has been a sold-out success. Audiences loved it. President Barack and Michelle Obama saw it several times and raved about it. But could the original show expect to receive such universal acclaim if it were made today? Unlikely.In our hyper-woke moment, leftists would find much to criticize in it. It isn’t hard to imagine their criticisms leading to the show’s cancellation. Miranda had previously described actors of color portraying the white Founders as a way of “pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the Founding Fathers at the door.”As that “cultural baggage” is running rampant across the country and tearing down statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the sympathetic portrayal of both men in the show has, so far, gotten a pass.Miranda is a good liberal. He made a valiant attempt to turn the pro-American Revolution Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette into an “immigrant” in the show (he was an immigrant technically, but not in the sense that the contemporary left frames that figure). Miranda’s Twitter feed is filled with calls to defund the police and support Black Lives Matter.Yet he is suspiciously quiet on the movement to erase any positive remembrances of the Founding. Does Miranda Washington or Jefferson statues? It would be awkward for him to approve yet continue to celebrate the men in his show.In “Hamilton,” Washington isn’t just portrayed as a good man — he’s portrayed as a great one: a strategic genius, a thoughtful leader, a self-sacrificing hero. The scene of his decision to exit the presidency after two terms leaves not a dry eye in the house. “I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do,” sings the character of King George on Washington stepping away. It wasn’t — until President George Washington did it.“Hamilton” is a love letter to America and a profound appreciation of its Founding. Is that even allowed anymore?Americans love patriotism, and “Hamilton” is a very patriotic show. When polls in 2016 found that Americans largely opposed , it wasn’t because our people didn’t believe that black lives matter. Black lives do matter to us. We opposed kneeling during the anthem because we love our flag and our country, and the song is a moment to reflect on that.“Hamilton” feeds into that same love. Our country was born in struggle. We have “made every mistake,” as the show’s Hamilton says, but emerged free and strong, just like our Founders wanted us to. They created a free country, and they laid a “strong enough foundation” and passed it on to us. We are left to improve on their vision.“Hamilton” brought together left and right in love of American history and exceptionalism. But that was before the national mania to rewrite history in the image of our contemporary ideologies.Can the show pull it off again? Or will actors from the show end up apologizing in tearful Instagram videos about the “normalization” of slave owners in which they participated?Will Miranda eventually give in to the left and pretend America isn’t a “great unfinished symphony,” but a terrible place of oppression and white supremacy?If “Hamilton” manages to dodge the woke police, maybe the show can remind us about nuance and how very few people are all good or all bad. And, of course, that it matters a lot “who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” It turns out the “when” matters too. Alexander Hamilton is lucky Lin-Manuel Miranda told his story when he did.Twitter: @Karol

The cancel mobs had better sharpen their pitchforks.A new film treats our Founding Fathers as flawed but ultimately good, even great, men and celebrates America as a place where anyone, “even orphan immigrants,” can make it. Oh, and actors play characters of races other than their own.I’m referring, of course, to Broadway genius Lin-Manuel Miranda’s megahit, “Hamilton,” which .Ever since its first performance in 2015, the show has been a sold-out success. Audiences loved it. President Barack and Michelle Obama saw it several times and raved about it. But could the original show expect to...

public

Karol Markowicz

nypost

Breaking news & features from The New York Post. Follow your favorite sections:  @pagesix ,  @nypmetro ,  @nypostbiz ,  @nypostsports ,  @nypfashion ,  @nypostopinion

The ‘cancel’ crowd should be gunning for ‘Hamilton’

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS