Hamilton, the Broadway musical to film adaptation was released in July of 2020 during the middle of a worldwide shutdown. Coincidentally, I was also being quarantined because I had been exposed to COVID the day beforehand at a sleepover. This adaptation contains the original cast from the musical and was filmed in 2016 over a three-day period after the Tony awards and shortly before Lin and several other cast members left.

If you have already listened to or watched Hamilton, then I’m sure you’re already familiar with the plot; Hamilton moves to America from the Caribbean after almost his entire family dies, joins the American Revolution, becomes the Secretary of Treasury, has an affair, and proceeds to let his son get shot and then throws away his shot in a duel against Aaron Burr, getting himself killed. So now you’re caught up if you haven’t listened or watched this masterpiece.

Now, this is my favorite part about writing these reviews-- talking about my own personal opinion on my favorite scenes, certain plot points, or, in this case, songs. Since this was filmed over a span of three days, there are a bunch of different camera angles and even some close-up shots, something you would not be able to experience if you were watching it on Broadway. Some major examples of this would be in the songs "Schuyler Sisters", "Hurricane", and "The Reynolds Pamphlet". In all of these examples, there is a close-up shot almost directly on stage, putting you directly into the action.

If I had to pick out two favorite scenes or songs, I wouldn’t be able to, just because this adaptation is amazing. Thankfully, I have no limit to what I can write, so you get my top three instead of two. My list would have to contain "The Schuyler Sisters" because it has a sick beat, plus it is honestly badass feminism; "Non-Stop" because it is catchy, plus there are a bunch of motifs to previous and future songs; and, of course, last but not least, "Hurricane"/"The Reynolds Pamphlet" because these are basically combined into one long song and the camera angles make it look insane. I can’t put all of my favorite songs on that list because, if I did, then I would basically be listing off every single song in the musical.

Basically, this adaptation is the perfect bridge between musical theatre and movies. I hope the Dear Evan Hansen movie will be as good as this one. The actual Broadway version would be 10x better to watch, but since I don’t want to drive to California and pay $450 for seats to where the only view you get is the back of a guy’s head, I'll settle for the movie.