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Liner Notes| May 2016

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]H[/dropcap]amilton. Hamilton. Hamilton. This is probably what your Facebook feed looks like. This is the clarion call of the amalgamation of blogs and sites dedicated to everything from music to history to social justice. People young and old are buying Hamilton books, merchandise, and with any luck, tickets. (They’re sold out until 2017, though.) President Obama invited the cast, including the show’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, to the White House for sample performances. The show has high profile devotees like Beyoncé, as well as this girl I know who has turned her Facebook into a Tumblr. Oh, yeah, and there are tons of Tumblrs dedicated to Hamilton getting his “shot.”

The show just won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Miranda reacted joyfully on Twitter and his fans did backflips over the reflecting pool on the National Mall. Soon, industry analysts say, it will have more Tonys than Sunday school classroom in an Italian neighborhood. There are even complaints that the Sound Design category, eliminated two years ago, should be reinstated to honor Nevin Steinberg, Hamilton’s sound designer. The category was eliminated, according to the New York Times, because “few of the 800 Tony voters, whose ballots determine the sound design winners, know what sound design is or how to judge it . . . and some administration committee members believe that sound design is more of a technical craft than a theatrical art form.” What good is a ballot cast in ignorance, the Tony team seemed to suggest.

Your humble correspondent has not seen the show and has only heard a few of the songs from the much-praised soundtrack. I am not the most qualified person to offer the world advice about Hamilton, but I still find myself doing so in this article. Hamilton seems to be a fantastic, meaningful show that you should (if you’re so inclined) be excited about; but let’s also stop talking about it.

Not forever. Not even for that long. But let’s say three months. One quarter of a year in which we don’t post about it, don’t write think-pieces about it, don’t use it as easy references in our stand-up comedy or sitcoms. I’ll even give you a cheat day. When it does win armfuls of Tonys on June 12, go nuts. Use more exclamation points that an excited preteen girl uses in a handwritten note to her best friend. Record your POV experience on your GoPro and upload it to all seven viewers of your YouTube channel. But other than that, let’s just have a three-month moratorium.

And again, it’s not because I don’t think it’s good or because I don’t think it’s worth talking about. I’m just really not ready to deal with the wave of Hamilton hate that seems to be looming on the horizon, the natural progression of anything (good or bad) when it becomes overexposed. Miranda and his whole cast and crew deserve all the praise they’ve gotten, from what I can tell. The White House performances I saw were exhilarating. I think the massive profits the show is making now should be divided amongst the cast and crew with greater equity so that the great talents that brought this show to the stage can continue to make art. So let’s cut this kneejerk rejection off at the pass by just keeping it all to ourselves for a few months. You can spend that time reading the Federalist Papers—they’re definitely not overexposed. I haven’t seen anyone running out to buy those after seeing the hit Broadway show.

And while we’re at it, let’s also put a moratorium on animated movies with animals in clothes that act like people. That one can last for 10 years.

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