Whether you are waiting for the latest Hamilton news, waiting to see the musical in person (I’m waiting until April), waiting to get tickets, or waiting until you can listen to the Grammy-winning cast album for the billionth time, below are 10 ways to indulge your obsession in the meantime (with some videos thrown in for good measure and a list of links at the end).
Number One
Listen to the soundtrack, not just once, but always daily
Succumb to the addiction, it will help you to live sanely
Number Two
Memorize the lyrics, quote at every opportunity
Read all the annotations at Genius dot com community
(Watch “The Making of the Hamilton Cast Album”)
Number Three
Like Lin, go on vacation to catch up on your reading
Chernow’s Alex bio gives the play a whole new meaning
(Watch “Broadway hit “Hamilton” drives interest in founding father“)
Number Four
Forget dry schoolhouse history, go to sources primary
From All Things Hamilton and the Congress (that is, the Library)
Number Five
Alone in your circle with your Hamilton obsession?
A podcast or two will alleviate depression
Above video: Lin-Manuel Miranda performing what would become Hamilton‘s opening number at the 2009 White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word
Number Six
Subscribe to channel Hamilton tomorrow if not sooner
where you can watch a parody from Burr — er — Leslie Odom (junior!)
Number Seven
Ham4Ham on YouTube offers clips of cast and specials guests
From whimsical to poignant, from freestyle live history tests
Number Eight
Over at Twitter, follow Hamilton and Lin
Be prepared for much hilarity to ensue therein
Washington’s Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/asfmIt4X2s
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) February 13, 2016
Number Nine
Tired of tweets and looking for a long read?
The New Yorker has a good one by Rebecca Mead
Number Ten
New to hip-hop? Overwhelmed and feeling senseless?
Forrest Wickman over at Slate will help you sort out all the references
Links
- Hamilton Broadway Cast Recording (Atlantic Records official page)
- Hamilton Broadway Cast Recording Lyric Booklets (Atlantic Records, pdf files)
- Is Hamilton the Musical the Most Addicting Album Ever? Why You Can’t Get the Show Tunes Out of Your Head (Popular Science article)
- Hamilton Genius.com Lyric Annotations
- The Incomparable #286: No One in a Powdered Wig is Scrappy (podcast)
- Talk by Ron Chernow (Free Library of Philadelphia)
- An Interview with Ron Chernow (New-York Journal of American History article, pdf)
- All Things Hamilton: Original Source Documents
- Hamilton Papers (National Archives: Founders Online)
- Alexander Hamilton: A Resource Guide (Library of Congress)
- Hamilton the Musical YouTube Channel
- All About the Hamiltons: A new musical brings the Founding Fathers back to life—with a lot of hip-hop (New Yorker article)
- All the Hip-Hop References in Hamilton: A Track-by-Track Guide (Slate article)
Have tickets for–guess when–NEXT JANUARY! My kids have already seen it, but going again, and that was the soonest. They are also the reason why I’ve been listening to the CD. I need to be able to follow those brilliant lyrics when I’m there and they are flying by fast!
So glad you have tickets, Stephanie! Ours are for April, on my birthday. 🙂 Yes, the lyrics are brilliant–I can only imagine the energy it must take to do the show, let alone two in one day.