Hamilton’s Color-conscious Casting and the Power of Hip-hop: ‘A story about America then, told by America now’

Abstract

The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the Broadway musical Hamilton: An American Musical (2016), composed by the Puerto Rican author Lin-Manuel Miranda. This dissertation will analyze the praise and criticism that the musical has received for its “color-conscious” casting, from its analysis as a form of “fanfiction” to its being part of the phenomenon of “Founders Chic”. Therefore, this dissertation will defend that the aim of the musical is to represent the diverse population of the United States, along with providing social commentary that applies to both the America of the Revolutionary War and the America of the 21st century. This social critique is mainly achieved using hip-hop as the lingua franca of the musical. Since hip-hop is a non-mainstream genre of music known for its harsh lyrics towards socio-political and economical injustices, it is its combination with the color-conscious casting that really allows for a criticism of the past.