Hi!  I'm Lin Manuel Miranda and welcome to the PBS arts Fall Festival 8 Friday
nights of fantastic shows right here on
PBS, your home for the best of the
performing arts. I'm also delighted to be here at the spectacular United Palace
Theatre in New York City's Washington
Heights, my neighborhood, and not too far
from Alexander Hamilton's old
neighborhood too. Over the past couple
of years I've ended up spending a lot of
time with Alexander Hamilton.
Uptown, downtown, and on Broadway. It's been an amazing journey.
In tonight's presentation of Hamilton's America you'll get to see how that all happened.
You'll also see how the story of
Alexander Hamilton's life and times
continues to be inspiring and relevant
today.
♪ Just you waiiiiiiiiit ♪
Great Performances presents Hamilton's
America tonight on the PBS arts Fall
Festival
we're on Broadway with the Richard
Rogers theatre but at the same time it
feels exactly the same as when I was in
Pirates of Penzance in ninth grade it's
such a kick to get to play dress up
and sing songs for the audience I know
there are certain actors who are like
once I get the wig once I get the shoes
I know who the character is I don't know
that I'm like that I do know that my
posture certainly changes when I'm into
clothes but it really doesn't start for
me until I see everybody else in their
costume and you get that moment of
community where we're all agreeing to
just create this world for people
there's the part of my brain that works
really hard on making Hamilton
historically accurate and exciting and
high stakes and then there's the charge
and the adrenaline that comes from
performing something and hearing a
response I'm still married thank you
okay
now see if you can
distorted we fought with him me I died
for him he I trusted him I loved him and
me I'm the damn fool the Chatterbox
everything in my life is under
construction my wife Vanessa and I
bought this place last year we've been
working on it
almost a year there's a piano under here
believe it or not I'm in this crazy
holding pattern right now I'm just
waiting for the next chapter of my life
to start there's a kid coming in
November two weeks after the kid is born
we start rehearsals for Hamilton and
then that becomes whatever it becomes
and and I'm just sort of this is like
the this is the part of the roller
coaster where we're in the heart of
Washington Heights
it literally looks like the set up in
the heights when you look out the window
I can't get away from my shows
my first Broadway show was in the
heights it's about three days in the
life of a block in Washington Heights
New York where I grew up
won some awards and it was pretty much a
dream come true the idea for Hamilton
came to me totally by surprise while I
was on vacation and in the heights I
grabbed a biography off the shelf of
Alexander Hamilton because I wanted a
big fat book to read on vacation and I
found it deeply moving and deeply
personal when I read it it was just such
a compelling write Lynn invited me to
have been the heights and I went
backstage and he said Ron I was reading
the book and hip hop song started rising
off the page and I said to him really I
said this is Tupac
this is biggie this is a hip-hop story
this is my next show so who was
Alexander Hamilton besides being the
dude on the ten the best-looking
founding father he was George
Washington's chief of staff during
Revolutionary War and he was our first
Treasury secretary but before that he
was an immigrant he was born in the
Caribbean but he came to our country and
by sheer force of will and intellect
changed our country forever I don't even
really know if I knew who Alexander
Hamilton was I know he was honest he was
under our currency Alexander Hamilton is
one of the unsung heroes of our country
yeah well that's the way history works
sometimes it takes wild for people to
give you credit Hamilton saw the
opportunity when a an immigrant could
come to this country get a little
education have some great ideas work
hard and build something pretty amazing
died
Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis
Nevis is a very beautiful and colorful
volcanic island in the Caribbean but the
day-to-day reality was very brutal and
violent like most of the Caribbean
islands at that time it was dominated by
sugar and cotton plantations most people
in America think of the slave trade as
Africa to North America but most of them
went to the Caribbean and so Hamilton
was right in the middle of this huge
huge market even people who were not
terribly well-to-do could have one or
two slaves in Ephesus and his family did
Hamilton's mother Rachel had just fled
an unhappy marriage when she met his
father James Hamilton but under the
terms of her divorce she wasn't able to
remarry which meant that Hamilton and
his brother had to grow up with the
stigma of legitimacy which was very real
in those days and so Hamilton goes
through some really rough between birth
and getting out of the island but
Hamilton was 11 James Hamilton abandoned
Rachel and the two sons on the island of
st. Croix not long afterwards
Rachel contracted a lethal fever which
she then communicated to Alexander
for just morning
yellow sky I was 12 when my mother died
she was home we were sick and she was
I couldn't seem to dawn Hamilton
suddenly found herself at the age of
thirteen and illegitimate orphan in
poverty and so he immediately had to go
to her he worked for a trading charter
as a kid so he's getting firsthand
economic education because the people
who actually own it are off on ships
trading and he's in charge of the books
back home hurricane destroy st. Croix he
writes a letter about the destruction he
saw and it's so beautifully written that
a newspaper publishes it it was
impressive enough and eloquent enough
that people got together a charitable
fund to send him to North America to the
North American colony so he could get it
a real education and that's how he gets
off the island he literally writes his
way out of his circumstances and it's so
much the quintessential immigrant story
of redefining yourself when you come to
a new place and the sense I got really
early in Ron chernow is Hamilton
biography was the sense of I know this
guy
the fact that Hamilton left the
Caribbean to come to New York is
education I always tell people can just
blame my dad down to the hair
tell me about coming to New York for the
first time what brought you here I got a
great opportunity to come and study
I didn't why you I left Puerto Rico when
I was 18 I always thought Porto Rico
it's just too small
I gotta see more I graduated then I was
involved in advocacy but I realized that
I wanted to do something different so I
joined the Ed Koch administration mayor
of New York City in 87 you know in my
experience immigrants are nevertheless
he wants they're not the stupid ones
they're the smart hardworking cuz they
have to work so much harder to make
sense of the reality and succeed in that
reality I always saw my time here as a
temporary thing but then I realized that
this is where I was gonna raise my
children then we stay here forever I
Puerto Rico and that was it
and then you were a New Yorker Alexander
Hamilton is in New York just at the time
is the tremendous ferment of the
American Revolution is starting on the
common what is today City Hall Park
Alexander Hamilton is delivering fiery
speeches he also had established his
bona fide ease as one of the most feared
polemical writers in New York I really
keyed in to how much of a New York story
it was these blocks that I've passed all
my life have all along been these
incredible sources of rich American
history I don't think a lot of people
know that and we think of the founding
fathers we think of them in some room in
Philadelphia you know hashing it out
it's like a John Trumbull painting but
they were here they were uptown like the
Grange and Hamilton Heights on 140 1st
Street which is where Hamilton and his
wife lived for the last few years of his
life this
was Hamilton study and the color like
what he green this is a reproduction of
Hamilton's laptop or his traveling desk
he would write everywhere in anywhere he
wrote under trees he rode on on
horseback he rode in carriages exactly
the sheer amount that he had he must
have had something with him all the time
to be riding on because he it never
would have produced the amount that he
did yeah oh my goodness all right okay
that's cool
this makes me feel like I had to go home
right I started writing that first song
that's just about his childhood I wanted
to sort of encapsulate that in to
hip-hop verses and I worked on it for
about a year in the heights while I'm
still doing eight shows a week Lin
didn't say I was writing a show Lin said
I'm writing a song so he said I read
this book and I think there's something
there I think I might do a series of
songs that's a great go right
I had only written this one song when
the White House called and said we're
doing an evening of the spoken word but
if you have anything on the American
experience that would be great I said I
got a hot 16 about Hilton how does a
bastard orphan son of Horan a Scotsman
dropped in the middle of a forgotten
spot in the Caribbean by Providence
impoverished escuela
bro what to be a hero when the scholar
the first aid Lin brought to the opening
number of the show to me I'm like it's
about history but it's rap okay is it
serious
sure whatever I remember it was until I
actually heard it all the way through
I'm like wow this is real nothing left
to do for someone less is dope he would
have been dead the destitute without a
cent to restitution
Clark confer with late mother's landlord
when they posted videos of the evening
my performance went viral and we were
sort of off to the races after that we
realized there's a show here I'm the
damn genius that shot him so I started
writing songs at the amazing pace of a
song a year after two years of working I
had two songs to show for it so you've
written two songs in two and a half
years we're gonna be very old by the
time this is actually gonna be complete
so why don't we expedite it a little bit
and so I'm you know I'm writing as fast
as I can but but that's how it gets done
you know you set these deadlines and you
meet them I have more than once compared
to Linda Shakespeare and I do it without
blushing or apologizing Lynne in
Hamilton is doing exactly what
Shakespeare did in his history plays
he's taking the voice of the common
people elevating it to poetry in
Shakespeare's case iambic pentameter in
Lynn's case rap rhyme hip hop R&B and by
elevating it to poetry in knowing the
people themselves he is bringing out
what is noble about the common tongue
and that is something that nobody has
done as effectively as Lynch since
Shakespeare yeah I said it patiently
waiting in a passionately smashing every
expectation every action is an act of
creation
laughing in the face of casualties of
sorrow for the first time I'm thinking
past tomorrow and I'm not throwing away
my shot
I write everywhere I write on trains I
write write wherever I can and sometimes
a couple of days I've written in Aaron
burrs bedroom it's pretty amazing to be
in this base where he was in the later
part of his life
talk about artist-in-residence literally
this is my Hamilton writing desk I said
here I said on the floor I don't sit on
the colonial furniture there's a song in
the show called my shot and it's
Hamilton's big sort of I want songs the
second song in the show we see him make
his group of friends the Marquis de
Lafayette John Lauren's Hercules
Mulligan and Aaron Burr who is a
colleague and a friend and I'm sort of
putting him into the song because these
are guys who are oil and water but they
come up together the revolutionaries
together their soldiers together their
lawyers together their elected officials
together and at some point one shoots
the other yeah I I come out in the first
three minutes of the show and I say I'm
the damn fool that shot him and so what
that tells me as an actor is that that
is not that is not a secret that we're
keeping that's not a piece of the puzzle
that we are hiding behind our back
so then what it's about is about it's
about the fracture it's about watching
where exactly the moment is that it all
changes whereas Alexander Hamilton was
illegitimate orphan kid from the
Caribbean who was born into shame and
misery Aaron Burr was really born into
American aristocracy it looks like he's
going to have this very luxurious life
by the time Aaron burrs two years old
his mother's died his father's died he's
farmed out to relatives who bring him up
he then goes to Princeton College
graduates by the time he was 16 so that
there was as much of a prodigy as
Hamilton was and so it's the first of
many strange parallels in the lives of
Alexander Hamilton
and Aaron Burr a lot of the revising
process is continuing to check in on
that relationship it is the most
important relationship in the show so
right now I'm working on lyrics working
bird into the second song in the show
there's a section where they're doing
shots and saying what they would do with
their shot so laughs I act whose command
of English is not so great
goes with my shot I dream of life
without monarchy the something stress
and friends will lead to anarchy
Anunnaki how you say I saw a marquee
when I fight that make the other side
panicky with my son and then Hercules
Mulligan who was a tailor's apprentice
says my shop go ama tailor's apprentice
and I got y'all knuckleheads and local
parentis I'm turning the number of
billion cuz I know what's my chance to
socially advance instead of sewing some
pants of gold yeah
and then Lauren's who is a fierce
abolitionist goes but will never be
truly free until those in bondage have
the same rights as you and me you and I
blew it down
wait till I Sally in on a stallion you
with the first black battalion of a nut
shot and so now I'm working on ber sort
of jumping in on this going geniuses
lower your voices if you keep out of
trouble then you double your choice is
shooting off at the mouth shooting from
the hip shooting the shed to something
shooty shooty shooty shooty shooty
shooty shot and I didn't figured out how
it works yet he just says lower your
voices
you keep out of trouble and you double
your choices I'm with you but the
situation is fraught you've got to be
carefully talk if you talk you're gonna
get shots and then a Hamilton comes in
and as it was his genius synthesizer mr.
Lafayette hard rock like Lancelot I
think your pants look
laureen's I like you a lot attach a blob
blacker than the kettle calling the pot
what are the odds the gods and put us
all in one spot conventional wisdom I
can
give me a position show me where the
ammunition is and then I want him to
sort of stun his friends into silence Oh
am I talking too loud sometimes I get
overexcited shoot off at the mouth I
never had a group of friends before I
promise that I'll make y'all proud Oh
beep silence and Lawrence goes he's got
this guy in front of her crowd and then
we go into the chorus
Hamilton didn't really meet Lafayette
Lorenz and a mulligan all at once in the
same bar but we're gonna meet them all
at once because we gotta go we've got a
lot of story to tell and we want to get
you out before lamia's gets out next
door I'm a big fan of musicals that
attempt to wrestle history to the stage
and everyone writing a musical about
history was standing in the shadow of
Sondheim standing in the shadow of John
Weidman why do we go to history why is
real life more interesting than whole
cloth it's interesting because what
happens is when you live through history
you don't know it's history you know and
so you have to talk to John John's a
historian I only write historical shows
with Johnny because I love going to
school and learning but history I
couldn't get into it as we say and I
think maybe John was the person who got
me interested in history very late in
life and all the shows that Steve and I
have written together including his a
since you reach a point I think where
the research is over and you then invent
the character who actually existed in
history but they're still partly defined
by what they did because that's the
admit absolutely and that's what the
audience will bring into the theater
with them so you have to be aware of
that but they live in a kind of a
penumbral area where they are who they
were but they're also who you want them
to be well that leads me to a really
good bit of advice you gave me early
when I was writing Hamilton I was
drowning in research and what you told
me was just write the parts you think or
a musical and that forms its own spine
you'll be back you see
to me you'd be big-time to tell you
remember that I served you when King
George just sort of showed up in my
brain it doesn't make sense on paper
that he should be a character in this
musical he's all the way across the
ocean far from the events he and
Hamilton never met at the same time to
give him these moments throughout the
show Rob's the American Revolution of
its inevitability each piece of music is
specific to an emotion and a character
even though it's about history Lynne has
found a way lyrically and musically to
connected to now and so having the King
George psychology be like a breakup song
from Britain to America I feel like
makes it really relatable
none of the shows we're talking about
our documentaries none of them are book
reports with songs added I mean
ultimately they're there are artists
inventions yeah I got into the history
through the character John got into the
history that surrounded the characters
and then we met there he sparks me and I
sparked in or as George first said I
collaborative and he collaborates me go
through the course and then go to
Lawrence the cabinet meetings are really
my favorite part of the process they are
when I bring in a song to my
collaborators let's say the story of
tonight and I go here's what I've
written and then we pull it apart I
don't want to lose that
okay okay that's worth saving to me
cause I mean start it and not not start
I wear a lot of hats and Hamilton I'm
the music director I'm one of the
arrangers with lemon well I am the
orchestrator I am the conductor
I am the keyboard player I take on all
those duties just because I feel like I
have such a strong opinion about how I
think something should sound but also
because I feel like I know what Lynne is
looking for I feel like I know how it is
that I can execute his vision I don't
think it's about tacking on another
chorus unless you think it just needs
that I know I don't think we need it but
I feel like Andy's gonna have a million
things to weigh in on choreography to me
is the writing idea the lyric idea the
emotional idea that then it is
exaggerated into a heightened state and
it becomes physicalized what's amazing
about our team is we're finishing each
other sentences all the time what lynn
writes and alex arranges we're
for me choreographically and my ideas
meet Tommy's sensibilities so that's why
our work can be seamless that's why it
feels like one thing goes right into the
next anything else with the hamilton
washington back and forth he goes good
I'm good okay alright moving on as a
very mediocre American history major I
was exposed to a lot of these kinds of
stories told in very different ways and
what I wanted to try to do was remove
any of the black and white nostalgia
sepia tone and make this feel vital and
vibrant
we're meeting Washington at the crux of
the entire conflict Boston is over he's
just lost New York his army is as close
to being annihilated in that moment as
you could imagine to meet him that way
suddenly takes us out of the history
books it takes us into the urgency of oh
we might not win initially when the war
begins there's a lot of retreating on
the part of Washington and what he's
trying to do it really is just keep the
war going he's juggling how to get all
of these soldiers out of harm's way and
away from all of the ships that are
still in New York Harbor he has no one
to turn to up pops Hamilton I called you
here because our odds so beyond scary
your reputation precedes you but I have
to laughter
Hamilton how come no one can get you on
this - don't get me wrong you're a young
man of great renown snow British cannons
when we were still downtown Nathaniel
Greene and Henry Knox wanted to hire you
to be their secretary I don't just like
you when I was younger head full of
fantasies of dying like a martyr yes die
in this easy young man living is harder
it's really fair to say that without
Washington Hamilton would not have had
someone to enable him to achieve the
things that he achieved
conversely without Hamilton Washington
wouldn't have had someone there to help
him and advise him when you're in
someone like Washington's position you
don't there aren't many people that you
can truly trust Hamilton had
distinguished himself multiple times as
a warrior was probably one reason why he
was frustrated that he was not then
promoted as a warrior but then was
promoted as a secretary and it became to
George Washington
surprise rally the guy's muster the
element of surprise my station organize
your information rise to the occasion
it's rare that you do a show where you
have so many literal touchstones places
that support the research that you've
done it's helped keep the fire burning
you know day after day during the show a
shows a week and being able to imagine
yourself in a very real way in those
same footsteps that would have been mr.
mr. Washington's room you're looking at
just as they would have seen him I can't
even imagine how much stress he must
have been under I can't either all of
them all those guys like how much stress
they must have been constantly every
dangerous you got 20,000 people out just
right outside your door who are
constantly you know try not to die
literally trying not to die the front
parlor would have been used by General
Washington's aide to camps Hamilton
alone with John Lauren's they were the
two prominent secretaries that work for
Washington here all the paperwork at to
up to administer the counting Army tha's
being done in this room here as
Washington's aide to camp
Hamilton's doing everything from sorting
through intelligence to carrying out
prisoner exchanges he's writing essays
he's writing letters he's teaching
himself about foreign currencies so he
was really using the American Revolution
as a kind of crash course in history and
politics just being in Valley Forge you
realize how much ground they had to
cover when he was like retreat attack or
tree we're moving our men back it's like
that's like miles
that's like crossing state lines without
a car or worse than carriage those are
soldiers that are like foot soldiers the
scope of it was just so much bigger and
then far more real yeah I'll be having
reenactments out there yeah we do
whatever no man you can't invite ringing
that kind of thing would they let us
fire a cannon we'll get you out of
musket okay that's nothing that's good
Hamilton by all accounts was a girl
crazy and so throughout the
Revolutionary War is not only searching
for Military Glory but he's searching
for the woman of his dreams where are
you taking me I'm about to change your
life by all means lead the way my sister
thank you for all your service it takes
fighting the war for us to meet it will
have been worth it I'll leave you to
Eliza and Alexander essentially met
during a war Hamilton was camped a
couple miles away from the house that
Eliza was staying in this is the house
where Elizabeth Schuyler came to visit
with her uncle and aunt her aunt
realized that it's hard to find a boy
during wartime they've all gone to the
front go visit auntie and she met the
guy who was staying next door Alexander
Hamilton
everyone immediately noticed that
Hamilton and his future sister-in-law
Angelica were very enamored of each
other
Hamilton met Angelica first and Oh their
connection is actually really strong and
intense and intellectual Lin actually
credits Angelica with being the smartest
person in the show what she could do
with her pen what she could probably do
with the look was very very potent and
probably had to be in this period women
were still very much assumed to have a
certain role but that said it's also
important to note that the Revolution
politicized women it politicized
enslaved people a politicized people who
were there at the time living the
revolution it's important to remember
that's not just men who assume that the
wives of the founding fathers also
really had a place in history they
worked as hard as the men did and
Abigail Adams asked her husband to not
forget the ladies
I'm gonna fix myself a gin and tonic
because the only thing in my fridge is
tonic water and some ketchup there are
three major projects happening right now
it was our first day of rehearsal
there's my infant child who turned two
weeks old today and then there's an
apartment which is finally ready
but now doesn't have people to help one
packet we worked really hard all weekend
this is God we start staging next week
so we have the week to learn all the
music fifty-two songs not including the
ones I haven't written yet today second
song we talked was Yorktown and
Hamilton's line then again my lies is
expecting me not to mention my lies is
expecting so you know we gotta go we
gotta get the job done gotta start a new
nation gotta meet my son like Hamilton
in that moment is actually where I'm at
in my life it's like he's got one more
battle to fight before the war is over
but he's also got a kid on the way
and his status depends on how he does
live in exactly the same place which is
nuts but I'm yeah I'm basically near the
end of that one Hamilton
in command where you belong Emma grins
we get the job done Hamilton keeps
badgering Washington to Washington gives
him his first field command at Yorktown
and Hamilton does not waste the
opportunity he led a bayonet truck
Hamilton's men rose out of the trench
under the glare of shells exploding in
the sky above them they charged to the
parapet of this fortification and within
10 minutes he had taken his
fortification so Hamilton who had
dreamed a battlefield glory from the
time that he was in his early teens
suddenly has it big time at Yorktown
there were still skirmishes going on but
for all intents and purposes the war
ends with Yorktown it's clear at that
point who will be the victor we booked a
slot to open the show at the Public
Theater home of hair and chorus line
runaways passing strange countless other
landmark musicals
this is one of those nights where you
feel the earth shake a little bit you
feel the world start to change this is
opening night of Hamilton
congratulations all of it
for five and a half years and here we
are pushing it off a piece of the world
and to see people react to and respond
to it and be moved by it is it's all you
can ever hope for so work through my
parents saw Runaways on their wedding
night this is in my blood I have never
in my life witnessed a musical that has
penetrated the American culture faster
than Hamilton called Hamilton is bad
Alexander Hamilton and it was at the
Public Theater quite a trick you saw to
write questions yeah what how amazing is
this place it's life-changing after the
first two songs you I looked to my wife
and we're like this might be the
greatest thing like we've ever seen ever
and you kind of look around other people
say like are we right like this is the
best thing that's right we're all on the
same but you can't say that because
people are acting and performing but
there are some tears
we sell out our extensions as quickly as
they go on sale and the decision is made
pretty quickly we're going to Broadway
on Sunday tickets go on sale for
Broadway
Hamilton Richard Rogers theater be there
thank you for coming this afternoon our
show opens on Tuesday in the world blue
up is crazy I don't know what the future
holds I know that our show open in
everyone freaked out that's where we're
at
I suck
I've been a fan of the roots as long as
the roots have existed maybe the most
nerve-wracking performance I've ever
done was when I knew Amir and Tariq were
in the audience would immediately drew
me in to Hamilton was this was someone
who it wasn't MC in his own right
sometimes in hip-hop we say real
recognize real so I could recognize
immediately that that Lin was a a real
one in that this was a real story
there's double and triple meanings and
layers upon layers I mean I've had to
see Hamilton eight or nine times to get
references that I didn't get the first
eight times that I saw it what Lin was
able to do is create different styles
for each character so George Washington
raps in this very sort of metronomic way
because that is similar to how he thinks
it's all right on beat you know
Lafayette has to figure it out Lafayette
is is rapping in a real like simple sort
of like early eighties rap cadence at
first and then by the end is doing these
crazy double and triple time things
in just two to four hip-hop bars you
know sometimes they're more lyrics than
in a whole classical song on the beatbox
both those lips are is detox yeah slap
in the base right now
freestyling up in your face right now oh
yes because I'm gasping something
because I'm right next to the ass of
Jasper I grew up in the 90s and I think
that's a golden age for hip-hop the
lyrical dexterity of artists like mob
deep and Biggie and nas was just
incredible when I was writing Hamilton I
listened to take over an ether on a loop
on a loop on a loop were hip-hop
storytelling like like where do you
start you start with the story do you
start with a lyric does it sort of
unlock something else really I saw like
a hole in the rap game you know all the
rappers I looked up to a mega stars and
so if I wanted to put my little two
cents in the rap game then it would be
from a different perspective I thought
that I would represent for my
neighborhood yeah and tell the stairs
story be their voice in a way that
nobody has done it and I love the idea
of telling the stories that you haven't
heard told before and suddenly making
that fair game because I think that's
such an important part of expanding sort
of the real estate that that hip-hop can
cover yeah you know and it was my time
it was like the phrase keep it real
became the thing right so it was like
tell the real story these things are my
thoughts and let me express them it
gives you freedom hip-hop no one can
tell you you're wrong unless the Rob's
are wack but no one could tell you wrong
because it's your truth yeah the hip-hop
in the musical has gotten the most
attention because it's the most novel
and because Hamilton sings in hip-hop if
there's jazz soul R&B and just plain
dried by show tunes as well Oh Moulton
doesn't hesitate
he exhibits no restraint takes and he
takes and he takes and he keeps winning
anyway
wait wait for it speaks to burn and how
he sees the world a world in which he's
seeing contemporaries who started
further back than him lapping him this
is a man who lost his entire family
really and then lost even extended
family I mean he had one sister he even
lost her in Hamilton's response to
losses to go as fast as he can
burrs response to loss is I'm not gonna
do anything until I know it's the right
move I'm alive other people I love are
dead there's a reason for that
after the war Hamilton and burr
qualified to be lawyers at almost
exactly the same time they then moved to
opposite ends of Wall Street and they
are the two rising young men in the new
york legal establishment there was
Alexander Hamilton who personally issued
the call for a constitutional convention
in Philadelphia
in May 1787 and gave a six-hour speech
in which he proposed his own form of
government in which he says that there
would be a president who would serve for
life on good behavior for Howland to
stand up and say you know hey let's get
this guy in and sort of make him look
pseudo King life you know I having just
finished the revolution that was really
controversial it's really after the
constitutional convention that Hamilton
has his major impact on this debate and
that is with what becomes known as the
Federalist essays it's going to confront
people's biggest fears about this new
constitution it's a commercial
advertisement for the Constitution I've
read the Federalist Papers many times
over as an elected official as a person
who takes office by swearing oath to the
Constitution I pretty much want to know
what that means right and so it's
important not only to understand what
the Constitution is but to understand
what the principles are behind it and
that's why you look at Hamilton that's
why you look at the Federalist Papers
that is the cornerstone of this
beautiful idea that we call the American
experiment where we are back at the
scene it's been a long way since 2009
yeah it's not the first lady tweeted
last week Alexander Hamilton we are
waiting in the East Wing for you kind of
thing tomorrow that's crazy
it's very weird to have FLOTUS quote
your lyrics
I am I'm so excited
well let me start by thanking the
extraordinary performers from Hamilton
I saw the off-broadway version of
Hamilton and it was simply as I tell
everybody the best piece of art in any
form that I have ever seen in my life
so thank you for taking the time out to
spend an entire day here and to bless us
with another performance today they've
come here to spend the day with all of
you I want you to take advantage of this
time I'm not a really bright student in
the history department I've learned so
much from this musical that I wouldn't
have normally learned in a history class
and for you guys to convey history in a
manner that you did was that your
initial goal to inspire kids like me in
my high school we didn't have a theater
program history was my drama program I
saw each and every moment in history as
the most dramatic moment ever which it
was to the people who were taking part
in it you might just take a second and
look at it from the perspective of who's
the protagonist who's the antagonist
what's at stake you might find a world
there to unlock here we are performing
not just the opening number but an hour
worth of material with our full company
and our full band oh it feels like this
sort of homecoming a full circle closing
mr. president
thank you for making time for the first
time you had me here was in 2009 I was
just supposed to sing something from the
heights I sang Hamilton instead when you
told us well now I'm gonna do a rap
about Alexander Hamilton we said well
good luck with that
after the performance I think all of us
understood not only how much potential
it had but what it did was capture the
fact that you know the founding fathers
were to some degree flying by the seats
of their pants and making it up as they
went along yeah and the fact that the
experiment worked
was a testimony to their genius and you
can draw a direct connection but
what the founders were doing and what we
do today yeah
even today we really do follow the model
of the executive from what Washington
established you know so many years ago
the two-term presidency establishing a
cabinet Washington sitting at the head
allowing for everyone to have their own
influence in policy is it's pretty
significant he's going to have a very
small cabinet and will turn out to be
Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of
Treasury Henry Knox the Secretary of War
Edmund Randolph as first Attorney
General and that Thomas Jefferson is
Secretary of State I think of Jefferson
as Bugs Bunny man I you know I think of
him as this indefatigable winner who
kind of comes in with incredible
confidence gets home he's already
Secretary of State and he's like all
right well let's go Thomas Jefferson has
a lot to catch up on so when we meet
Jefferson he's still singing jazz songs
and the rest of the United States has
moved on to rap music and and he doesn't
he doesn't know that nobody told him
this is the whole war in France and
comes back in his made Secretary of
State he was the perfect person to do
this having come back from this
diplomatic mission so it was his job to
try to represent the United States and
to let Washington know about what he
knew
so what did I miss in Jefferson's
absence Alexander Hamilton has soared
from obscurity to one of the top posts
in government Alexander Hamilton s
Treasury Secretary was deputy president
in many ways Hamilton has to create much
of the federal government from scratch
first budget systems first tax systems
first custom service first Coast Guard
first monetary policy for a central bank
which was the direct forerunner of the
Federal Reserve Hamilton had the core
idea about an aggressive role for
government to help build an economy
Hamilton created financial instruments
that enabled people to trade and
therefore facilitate the movement of
capital Hamilton was Treasury secretary
there were only five securities traded
on Wall Street
three of them were Treasury securities
created by Alexander Hamilton before was
the stock of the Bank of New York
created by Alexander Hamilton the fifth
was the stock of the first central bank
created by you-know-who Alexander
Hamilton I look at Alexander Hamilton as
the patron saint of Wall Street we're on
the floor this is yeah we're living in
Hamilton's world here it's true and you
know as I was coming down to meet you
this morning I got the chills when
you're actually here and you just
visualize what was taking place 200
years ago it's quite extraordinary
the problem was Hamilton was the
ultimate elitist he came from very
humble background but he built an
institution that concentrated wealth if
you've lived through a period where the
financial system has caused a lot of
damage to the economy there's this fear
fear over concentrated and power and
wealth and fear of the unfairness that
might bring and Hamilton's defining
strength was to try to figure out what
was the pragmatic solution in the
interest of the most people
what happens here has a direct impact on
all of our lives we're all connected and
the fact is is if you want that bridge
built around the block from that school
in your neighborhood you've got to raise
money to do it more often than not it's
going to be raised right here
Hamilton is picturing this robust strong
central government that is the engine of
finance an engine of democracy and
unites our states Jefferson is picturing
this agrarian paradise where farmers are
left alone and do their thing one could
say that Jefferson was could represent
the populist interests at the time the
small farmer the people live in out in
the country but were they forecasting a
philosophical divide that run throughout
a political system absolutely it becomes
really clear and Washington realizes
this finally in 1792 things are not
going so well
between the two members of his cabinet
so we're in the mansions dining room and
it's set for the 1790 dinner party of
George Washington is cabinets it's set
for that now it is set for that just if
they walked in right now they would be
ready a lot of people don't know that
the fight over the debt plan and
establishing a national bank it happened
here
the issue on the table secretary
Hamilton's plan to assume state debt and
establish
Oh bake secretary Jefferson you have the
floor sir the states had borrowed
heavily from the French from the Spanish
from domestic lenders to fund the cost
of the war and there are these big debts
there was fifty million dollars in
outstanding federal debt 25 million
dollars in state that and Hamilton
wanted the federal government to assume
responsibility for the state debt Wow
but Hamilton forgets his plan would have
the government assumes States debt now
place your bets as to who that benefits
the very seat of government where
Hamilton sings not true if the shoe fits
wear it if New York sedan watch it
Virginia Barry oh I get so paid I'm
afraid don't tax this out cuz we got it
made in the shade
Jefferson's position is the southern
states have ways of making income it
doesn't make sense for us to bail you
guys out Hamilton's point being that a
lot of the reason that you're okay is
because you don't pay for labor where
you are and you've got slaves working
your farms Hamilton insisted as a matter
of national honor and to establish
America's you know future greatness that
it was imperative to pay off that debt
in full you assume that that's the Union
gets the new line of credit or financial
diuretic addy you not get it if we're
aggressive and competitive the Union
gets a boost you rather give it a
sedative the fights between Jefferson
Hamilton that they had across this table
are are the fights were still having yes
well I can't imagine what dinner around
that table would have been like that
night Washington I'm sure is sitting
there stone-faced trying to placate
everyone at the same time turn around
bend over I'll show you where my stoop
take along Hamilton take a walk hip-hop
is the way for no young men and young
people to still have each other yeah to
test each other without anyone being
hurt and everyone you know can go back
home at the end of the day the stakes
are not who's the best rapper
the stakes are what direction are we
going to go in as a country every rap
battle sets a historical precedent that
is the highest stakes you could have it
for a rap battle higher even than 8 mile
something that really sort of spoke to
me when I was you know reading this
story and beginning to research and
write it is that moment when we trade
away the capital in exchange for the
dead planet and we call it the room
where it happens and what is what have
you learned being in that room I mean
we're in that room we're in the room
where the sausage I'm in most of the
rooms there's no doubt about it and you
know what you learn is that everybody
who comes to a room to make decisions
they're bringing the constraints that
have been placed on them by their
constituencies and the only way anything
gets done is if people recognize the
truth of the person across the table to
Virginians in an immigrant walk into a
room diametrically opposed foes you have
to be able to get in their heads and see
through their eyes in order for things
to happen here's the problem mr.
president okay how we gonna solve it I
mean it's pretty simple they emerged
with the compromise having open doors
that were previously closed
check this out this is the root word
happened Hamilton says you got to help
me pass my financial plan Jefferson goes
oh okay come over for dinner I'll invite
Madison we'll work it out and now it's
an office building and this is where the
smokers hang out from this building no
one else was in the room waving happy
wavy that'd be known where it had been
no one didn't it knows how the game is
played the art of the trade out the
sausage it's made we just assumed that
it happened no one else is in the room
wherever it happens while that debate
was not really a debate about central
banking it was a debate about about
power the federal government came in and
bailed out the states and so I guess in
that sense it was the first washing to
know about the dinner was the
presidential question toodaloo on paper
what looks like a very dry history
lesson
Hamilton traded away New York is the
capital in exchange for the passage of
his debt plan but if you tell it from
the perspective of Aaron Burr who is
watching all this people leap frogged
past him into power it's a thrilling
dramatic moment and it's also the
turning point for bird to stop hanging
back on his heels and lean forward and
say I want in on this life he's a super
fan of the arena he's watching Hamilton
in there making things happen and this
is the moment where he decides oh my god
I gotta get in there
this picturesque in a way that words can
hardly describe it every corner of this
place has another essence of calm it's
beautiful
Washington ad have been serving for
forty-five years of his life and he
wanted to return home and actually enjoy
the fruits of the labor that he had
invested in in the in the building and
in the establishing of the government
itself
Washington has revered his father of our
country but our understanding of history
goes awry when we only seek or or care
to listen to one part of a story from
the moment I knew I was gonna be playing
Washington that was the first thing that
came into my mind the slave question the
reality of the fact that he owned people
I'll never make peace with it I try to
till I stood in the slave quarters and
and there's there's no way to reconcile
that if anything it brings to bear the
entire truth of who this man was and
some parts are ugly some parts are
important but there's nothing that I can
do to change those things and and
there's nothing in my portrayal that
would suggest that we forgive any of
that you can't pretend that they didn't
do things right I mean there was a
country that was founded and we're
sitting here
there were great things that were done
but there were terrible things that were
done and for me the best thing to do is
to see both of them look at Jefferson
you know Jefferson wants to to dilute
this myth around the the yeoman farmer
Wow easy for a slave holder to say the
interesting thing about him is that he
is the author the principal drafter of
this document that says all men are
created equal and that is a paradox you
don't have to separate these things with
Jefferson he can have written this
incredible document and several
incredible documents that we all sort it
with with things that we all believe in
and he
uh-huh you know I think those are both
true and those have to be both true I
think we really have to stop separating
them because that's where you get into
trouble that's when you stop letting
people be whole people
I disagree politically with a lot of
rappers that I listen to you know saying
there's like sort of rampant misogyny
and homophobia and a lot of rap music
that doesn't make them less brilliant
rappers they're both true
these are not perfect people these are
deeply flawed people but they made
contributions and I think what this
means is we have to acknowledge right
now in the 21st century how much of what
we have today is built on the backs of
people his contribution never gets
acknowledged what we're trying to do
with the caste and the larger gesture of
this show is say here's a group of
people that you think you can't relate
to maybe we can take down some of those
barriers and allow a reflection to to be
truer what I think is that there's
something incredibly pure and fun
about the casting that our imaginations
really will let us take these leaps and
that we don't have to be so
closed-minded especially in the theater
that it can be about can be whatever we
want it to be spectator that retreat
in the midst of my Washington had an
extraordinary American life I think the
most extraordinary thing he did was
stepped down the presidency ensuring
that this American experiment would
continue without him
by modeling a peaceful transition from
president to president he puts us
eons ahead of every other fledgling
democracy on earth
it's
I think it's so important to take George
Washington off the pedestal these were
real people who lived and died I think
one of the things we really tried to do
with the show is show them all as flawed
there's no one who is there's no Saints
in the show not a one it's really
logical to ask the question given all of
the ways in which he's extreme what kind
of a guy was Hamilton um I would say to
a lot of people a lot of the time he was
an arrogant irritating ass his big flaw
his inability to shut up his tenacity
his Drive they're all great things in
the war it's great when we see him
writing to Congress and saying we need
more stuff but in the absence of a
common enemy that virtue goes inward
they go from assets to flaws and that
explains things like the Reynolds
scandal this young woman mariah Reynolds
shows up at Hamilton's door one night
she gives him the sob story about her
husband who abandoned her she asks him
for money she needs his help and he felt
bad for her so he ended up giving her
some money but that turned into an
affair her husband ended up finding out
about the affair and decided to make
some money out of it
Hamilton Forks Over the blackmail money
and continues the relationship for about
a year the story leaks but with fuzzy
details and Hamilton gets accused of
speculating in Treasury securities with
James Reynolds so he decides he's gonna
write a pamphlet in which he argues and
in his mind this is the truth but no no
he's a perfectly correct public figure
he has never done anything bad as a
public figure but as a private figure he
just committed adultery and pay
blackmail for it it really reads like a
cross between a dissertation and a dear
penthouse letter he's not bragging but
the language is complicated
lyza was so traumatized by the
publication of the reynolds pamphlet
that she never publicly commented on
what had happened what we have is a
letter from Angelica to Eliza saying you
married in Icarus and he flew too close
to the Sun
I love the notion which is true that
allies have burned a lot of their
correspondents she wanted Hamilton to be
known for his political act so I recast
to that burning of the letters as an act
of anger and acknowledgement of betrayal
she didn't really have options she
couldn't just leave him she had eight
children on top of that there were a lot
of hardships the second act of
Hamilton's life centers around the loss
of his child his eldest son Phillip is
gunned down in a duel about Hamilton the
duel began over a disagreement because
Georgia Iker had said unkind things
about Philips father as ridiculous as it
seems that Phillip would go and duel for
his father and that people would duel
anyway back then you know it's the same
as people going out and fighting
somebody or you know because they said
something about their mother or they
says something about their family or
their sister or a brother or their dad
Hamilton was absolutely unhinged by the
death of his son and when you see
paintings of Hamilton from those later
years he suddenly is aged tremendously
it definitely is a somber note his final
years can we get back to politics please
Joe every action has its equal opposite
reaction John Adams the bed I love the
guy but he's attraction poor Alexander
Hamilton he is missing in action so now
I'm facing Aaron Burr with his own
faction it could be argued that Burr was
not a very good politician in that
election of 1800 when it's a burr and
Thomas Jefferson and Burke comes really
close to becoming the President of the
United States he's backed in that race
by two different parties that is how
malleable his beliefs were people will
say boy burr is a handy guy to have with
you in an election because he doesn't
have a really strict principles Hamilton
writes a letter saying he has no
principles like why is that good this
cannot be good it ends up that there's a
tie between Ferg and Jefferson gets
thrown into the house to be decided and
so there's Hamilton facing the future of
one or the other of these men who he
really doesn't like are gonna be
President
what
if you were to ask me why promote
Jefferson has my vote Thomas Jefferson
becomes president Aaron Burr will
becomes the vice president when
Jefferson ran for reelection burr goes
back to New York State and runs for
governor only to find that he is again
thwarted in his ambition by Alexander
Hamilton and burr losses for governor
you know at this point burr flies into a
rage it seems like at every stage of his
career the men blocking his path of
advancement is the same Alexander
Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton is the patron saint
of our museum and so yes you're in
Hamiltonian Country Leslie but we'll do
our best to try and give a little bit of
a balance for you here okay all around
your original Hamilton artifacts and
some others we've brought up but why
don't we take a look at some of the
treasures that we have here awesome
Lynn Leslie this is a book published in
1804 a collection of the facts and
documents related to the death of
major-general Alexander Hamilton you
want to read some of those or political
opposition can never absolve gentlemen
from the necessity of a rigid adherence
to the laws of Honor and the rules of
decorum I neither claim such privilege
nor indulgent in others bear one day
reason in Albany newspaper that
Alexander Hamilton at a dinner party has
entered a despicable opinion about him
her challenges Hamilton to a duel hmm
reply it's several pages sir I had
maturely reflected on the subject of
your letter of the 18th last and the
more I reflected the more I'd become
convinced that I could not without
manifest impropriety make it be a vowel
or disavowal which you seem to think
necessary Hamilton could have ended the
whole affair just by apologizing if he
had inadvertently given burr offense the
phrase still more despicable admits of
infinite shades from very light to very
dark how can I to judge of the degree
intended or how shall I annex any
precise idea to language so indefinite
you and I were getting into something I
would send you you know I might piss you
off on Twitter and then you send me a
text and I sent you a text back and then
it's on I mean these guys had to they
wrote long letters you know an
impeccable penmanship there was so much
time for it to cool off for it to not
get to where it got to
and it goes on wait I sent you
apparently I have the honor to be a toss
him I think from a modern outlook the
practice of dueling makes absolutely no
sense right because it means two guys go
out onto a field in early morning and
shoot at each other because they're
angry at each other what does that
accomplish right seemingly nothing but
people didn't duel to kill each other
which is a really hard thing to get your
brain around they went to a Dueling
grant to prove that they were brave
enough to be there and thus were men of
Merit your letter has furnished me with
new reasons for requiring a definite
reply I have the honor to be sir your
obedient aide that day
wow that's great it's been lowered its
BER looking at his life and saying wow
at every point along the way my barrier
was you what do you have to say for
yourself Hamilton smartass as he is
saying you're gonna have to be more
specific than that I say a lot about you
these are 18th century dueling pistols
the first thing to do is you would pick
up your weapon and they would keep it
vertical and you would put some powder
in and then you would take out the RAM
where you invert it and Ram the powder
down there's so much time to apologize
at dawn on a July morning in 1804
travelling in separate boats Hamilton
and burr travel up the Hudson River
through a week walking across the Hudson
River from where West 42nd Street in
Manhattan is Hamilton had a lot of
insecurities and vulnerabilities about
his reputation because of his origins
over the course of his life ten times he
almost got involved in a duel all of
those times he negotiated his way out
and and most affairs of Honor that's
what happened unfortunately with her in
1804 they don't manage to do that
and we get to his final moments there's
just him and his bullet coming at him
and all the thoughts that can ping
through his brain between that bullet
leaving the gun and hitting him
I imagine death so much it feels more
like a memory is this where it gets me
on my feet
several feet ahead of me I see it coming
do I run or fire my gun or let it be
there was no beat no melody he does a
tally sheet this is this is Hamilton he
thinks about the things he's done in his
life he thinks about the country he's
leaving behind that didn't exist when he
out there he thinks about the people
he's gonna see on the other side Loren's
leads a soldier's chorus on the other
side my son is on the other side he's
with my mother on the other side
Washington is watching from the other
side and in the last moment the snag
that keeps him from going there is Eliza
because he leaves her behind with a lot
and then he does it anyway he points his
gun up at the sky in that final moment
my love take your time
basic last there's a lot more he could
have done the fact that it went down the
way that it did is a tragedy for both of
them and for all of us it was a fighter
and a survivor for a long time he had
risen to a certain station in life by
the time him in Hamilton ended up on the
grounds and Weehawken
he wasn't friendless he wasn't jobless I
mean he had risen to that station based
on relationships and based on
accomplishments I think that our show is
doing a really good job of reminding us
that all of us are more than one thing
I should have known the world was wide
enough
if that's all you're looking at is our
worst act on our worst day any one of us
could be painted as a villain it's
really about the totality of some how
much time do we get on this verse we
don't know they don't tell us at the
outset how much time we get it's
something I've been sort of grappling
with and terrified with I think we all
grapple with it
it we all grapple with the paradox of
knowing tomorrow's not promised but
making plans anyway you know Hamilton
walked into that duel he had a lunch
date with a client on the books that
same day you don't plan for your life to
them
let me tell you what I wish I when I was
young
no control I give him this his financial
system was a work of genius
I couldn't undo it if I tried and I
tried Hamilton built our modern economy
and once we built it here in the United
States the rest of the world looked
around and said pretty good idea
Alexander Hamilton I think is one of the
more uniquely American founders because
this man came from nothing and rose to
the highest levels of serving this
country he proved the condition of your
birth should not determine the outcome
of your life Alexander Hamilton is
somewhere going thank you
finally someone has given me the respect
I created this whole fine at that I
created what money is in the bank
systems I created all that I got no
thanks for that it wasn't easy to get to
where we are today but it was dictated
by and led by a vision we're blessed
nation to have had our founders for such
remarkable men I think when faced with
the incredible three lifetimes
Hamilton lived while he was on this
earth it forces you to reckon with well
what am i doing with my life that's the
that's the thing you're always up
against when you're writing something
that's big it's God can I be proud of
this at the end of the day if this show
opens and closes in a day will I regret
the six years I put into it the Tony
goes to Hamilton
I'm well aware that the outside part of
my life the whole zeitgeist a moment
that is happening if this were a movie
there would be newspaper spinning and
flashbulbs that's what this section of
the movie would be and the Tony goes to
goes to Hamilton Alexander Hamilton was
a dreamer
I stand on this stage tonight surrounded
by dreamers
I keep waiting for life to go back to
normal
we've finished unpacking our apartment a
pianos still out of tune haven't gotten
around to that yet
I knew that Hamilton was gonna change in
my life but I didn't anticipate how much
we'd help Hamilton's legacy in turn not
just Hamilton but also Liza for whom
Hamilton's legacy was so important
stop wasting time on tears I live
another 50 years
Hamilton captures the spirit of American
entrepreneurship and making it and
hustle I think if Hamilton were alive
today he would look back and say America
succeeded beyond his wildest dreams
I feel like Hamilton chose me he reached
out of the chair now booked and grabbed
me and wouldn't let me go until I told
his story can't manufacture another
Hamilton I'll never write another
Hamilton Hamilton is singular the man
and the creation of the show I feel like
my responsibilities just to sort of keep
my eyes open and live it as slowly as
possible because I am aware música
theater does not get off the arts page
often and here we are
it's only a matter of time
and now take a look at some of the shows
coming up on the PBS arts Fall Festival
comedy's Hall of Fame celebrates Bill
Murray when the Kennedy Center Honors
him with the Mark Twain prize for
American humor Lincoln Center at the
movies showcases the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theatre and some of its
greatest works
great performances presents one of the
all-time favorite shows of the American
musical theater gypsy starring the
amazing Imelda Staunton and Lara Pulver
and we bring you the acclaimed cabaret
show Alan Cumming sings sappy songs i'm
lin-manuel miranda thanks for watching
and we'll see you next week right here
on the PBS arts Fall Festival
 
and Peggy
