Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Winner of Non-Fiction



Hamilton: The Revolution

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country's origins for a diverse new generation.

HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages--"since before this was even a show," according to Miranda--traces its development from an improbable perfor­mance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.

Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sond­heim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by Presi­dent Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don't throw away their shot.

I'm a huge musical fan but I've just not got excited about Hamilton .... from the bits I've heard it just doesn't excite me. I have been told that I need to give it a go and listen all the way through rather than just hearing parts of it. Has anyone of you seen it yet?

I therefore don't really have any interest in reading this to be honest. Has anyone read this yet? Is it worth reading even if you're not interested in the musical / don't know the musical?

I have read this and enjoyed the book -- listened to the music - must say even though I enjoy the time period and the story behind the musical - the music doesn't grab me as much as the story did in this book, that is behind the play. The book itself gives as much of the play without the music to give the details of the story, the people behind the story - Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson - the women - the actors and singers and what the play is about and why people are gravitated to it.

I'm not a big musical fan .. I'm not entirely sure what Hamilton is about (it sounds completely boring from what I've heard, so I don't know ..), but I would be interested in seeing the musical (if it wasn't so horribly expensive). However, reading a book about a musical I haven't even seen makes absolutely no sense to me. The whole thing does appear a bit of a hot trendy topic, so I'm very hesitant to read a book on a topic that's super popular even though .. given how crazy expensive the shows are and how difficult it is to get tickets, I can only assume that the majority of people have not been able to see themselves.

So, not for me .. maybe once/if I've seen the musical and am interested to learn more about it.