I’m going back and forth about whether I think these Larry David quotes are offensive. Larry David was doing an interview with the Mike Lupica Show this week, and he was asked about the smash Broadway musical Hamilton. Hamilton has been a phenomenon for more than a year, it’s pulled in tens of millions of dollars in ticket sales, and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has won a Pulitzer and a Peabody, plus the musical picked up no fewer than 16 Tony Award nominations. Basically, everyone thinks Hamilton is THE BEST. Full-stop. But no, says Larry David. Hamilton is popular because white people are just pretending to like it so they can be hip.
“Hamilton” may be making history on Broadway, but Larry David, for one, is curbing his enthusiasm. The comic actor took to the “Mike Lupica Show” podcast, which debuted Tuesday, to express his theory that a lot of the demand comes from white ticket-buyers trying to “solidify their liberal bona fides.”
“Yeah, ‘Hamilton’ — it was pretty amazing,” David told the Daily News columnist. “But I have a feeling there are a lot of white people who are saying they are completely blown away even though they didn’t really understand half of the things the people on stage were saying. They just want to solidify their liberal bona fides and how cool they are: ‘Yea, I love Hamilton. Yea I get it, I’m hip.’”
Lupica made a connection to the kind of voters who mislead political pollsters.
“I think some of them are. No but, the show is amazing,” said David. “No doubt about it, it’s an incredible show, but I do have this theory on a lot of the people that are seeing it.”
I was going to make a point about how Larry David would never say “Leonardo DiCaprio’s films are so popular because white people just want to pretend that they’re cool.” But I actually do think that happens. By most accounts, The Revenant was a beautiful snoozefest, and I do think some people said they liked the movie because they wanted to look artsy and cool. So, is that happening with Hamilton? Or is Larry David showing off some racial microaggression about Hamilton, like the only reason it’s so successful is because white people are trying to be cool about something they don’t “get”?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I think you’d have to look really hard to find something offensive here. He said it’s a great show, but I think most of the people that claim to love it are missing half of what they’re saying. To me that implies he thinks people are missing the nuance and subtext. I don’t know if I agree with him, but I’m not offended.
I agree with you whole-heartedly.
DISAGREE.
I think he’s showing that HE’s hip enough to appreciate it but some of those other people aren’t.
Ego.
It’s his ego that’s offensive.
And, he’s a little jealous that this show is so popular because he likes Seinfeld being praised as such a classic, so this is a way to downplay the show just a little.
Ego.
+1
There is nothing offensive or even close to racist about what Larry David said.
End of story.
Nailed it, Bendy.
Hamilton is a great show, though I can’t say I’m a huge fan of it. I think it’s the ‘in’ thing at the moment and it sort of cheapens it. I’m pleased it’s getting the recognition it deserves, but I’ve seen a lot of people on tumblr (because of course) get jumped on for being racist because they don’t like it. It certainly is wonderful and groundbreaking, and definitely deserves the attention it’s getting. No one has to enjoy it to recognize those things. Some people seem to like it because everyone else does-that seems to happen with everything though.
I have no issue with what he’s saying.
I agree with you and I agree with him. I think white people often do this. Goopy Paltrow rapping Straight Outta Compton and referring to Jay Z and Kanye as her n words in Paris (true story. She has done both). But it is not just Goopy. This is how many wealthy, liberal white people are.
Yippers. He’s probably right. Not that the Emperor has no clothes in this case, but people who are paying $700 per ticket to see this show (soon to go up to $1000) can bite me. And they’d damned well better say it’s the best, most exclusive thing they’ve ever witnessed, otherwise they’ll just be judged as fools. And people with that kind of disposable income will not tolerate being thought of as fools. Therefore, no matter their real feelings, this was the greatest thing ever and worth the waste. (Not a typo.)
–TheRealPinky
I took it the same way. He’s not calling out Hamilton’s quality, he’s calling out a group of white people.
Agreed. Hypersensitivity, despite good intentions, in many cases exacerbates the underlying issue rather than helps eliminate it.
Larry David knows full well that we could only be so lucky to live in a society where most of the people ‘get it’.
Yeah, but people do. Don’t they? They look REALLY hard to find something offensive or racist about everything and anything.
Conservative-Libertariam household here, and we love Hamilton. It is a good thing I like it, because one of my younger daughter’s summer goals is to be able to do the entire soundtrack so we hear it a LOT.
Sadly, no trips to NYC in our future. We’ll see it someday.
So wait. You love it, yet you haven’t seen it?
–TheRealPinky
I think she’s saying she loves the music. Let’s be honest, most people can’t see the show whether because of geographical or financial constraints or both. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the soundtrack, although it’s just made me want to see it even more.
I love lots of Broadway musicals that I have never seen performed. You can pretty much get the entire gist of Hamilton and most musicals by listening to the soundtrack which I bought. My question is did Larry David listen or see Hamilton or just bits of it? In all honesty yes the hip hop rap is creative and unique, but there are plenty of traditional broadway style songs in Hamilton that would compare to any of the top shows. In addition, Lin-Manuel and a lot of the other actors have incredible voices. Phillipa Soo is from Julliard, and her voice is amazing. This show is so popular, because literally there is something in it for everyone.
I wouldn’t say Larry’s comment is racist, but I would say he is missing the point. What if I said Seinfeld was just popular because everyone wanted to seem cool with the New York idea of life. Wouldn’t that belittle his creative piece a bit and more importantly miss the point that it was kind of funny no matter who you were.
I love Hamilton, I listen to the cast recording in my car and on my ipod everyday. I have the Hamilton the Revolution book and I read all the articles on it. I have not seen it because I’d have to spend $1000 on a ticket and even then I’m not guaranteed a seat because they are so hard to get. I’m a broadway lover and I love Hamilton, the songs are great and the actors are amazing. I live a few hours away from NYC, so I will visit a few times this summer and play the ticket lottery. We aren’t able to see the show because it’s so popular and I don’t know whether people are seeing it because they want to be in or hip or whether they really enjoy it, but I’d love to be able to see the show.
The show is almost entirely sung/rapped through with very little dialogue falling outside the songs. You get the entire shape and narrative ark of the show just by listening to the entire cast recording.
Hamilton is popular cause it’s good. End of story.
I think he is making a commentary re white people. He clearly says he personally thought Hamilton was great. Am I not reading it right? It seems like a pretty Larry David thing to say.
Exactly. He is a bit like Trump in that he offends easily. His his type of humor.
“He is a bit like Trump…”
I am so offended on Larry’s behalf.
Um, Larry David is nothing like Trump.
He is man enough to own his baldness for one thing, rather than erecting an edifice of orange that requires several cans of Elnett to stay afloat….
I agree-I don’t see this, either. He’s saying some people always pretend to love things they don’t because they want to seem “artsy” or “cool.” I don’t think “The Revenant” is a fair comparison-the movie was actually mocked a lot and wasn’t nearly the cultural phenomenon “Hamilton” is.
I must say I get what he is saying.
I was sitting around the table with women of different backgrounds one day and we were talking about famous singers we adore. Usher was the topic and we were swooning over him. One of the women at the table was like oh, yeah, I love Usher. The problem was that she barely knew who he was. But because the consensus’s at the table was that he is hot she just wanted to be on board with us by saying so as well.
I feel the same way about Lupita on here. I think a lot of people on this site is raving over Lupita just because it’s the popular thing to do. Meanwhile if you look at her body of work, she hasn’t done much and she’s no great beauty but people feel that because it’s Lupita they have to rave about her talent and beauty.
Oh God here we go again. Some of us actually do find lupita beautiful. I wish people would just Stop projecting! People have a tendency to think everyone has the same thoughts and opinions so and if they don’t then they secretly do. Larry probably is one of those people and is projecting hard. Own your shit people and leave the rest of us alone.
I feel the same way about Lupita. People here and elsewhere were going nuts over her when they hadn’t even seen 12 Years, and thus had seen her in nothing, ever. And writing odes to her personality when she’d only done a few small, fast, blah interviews. People who hadn’t even seen any of the supporting actress contenders films that year were so freakin’ passionate about the fact that Lupita deserved to win everything, based on nothing.
So far she’s done two things of note (I’m not counting her voice work, both times it was just fine for what it was). 99% of people gushing over her won’t have seen Eclipsed, so almost all the praise for her is coming from 12 Years. Which she was very good in, but she wasn’t even the standout performer. She barely even rated a mention in early reviews, it was only after it became clear Fassbender and Ejiofor weren’t going to win the big awards that she was pushed forward. Again, she’s very good in that film, but not mindblowingly good or a revelation. Reviews of Eclipsed are great, but she’s just getting good notices, not the ‘holy crap she’s the greatest actress the world has ever seen’ notices you’d think she was getting if you read comment sections.
Apart from anything else it’s just setting her up for failure. As we see more of her, if it turns out she’s not the next Meryl Streep, that she’s just one of many good actresses, not one of the greatest, it’s going to seem like she failed even when she succeeds.
I don’t rave over Lupita’s acting, because in all honesty the only part I have seen her in was Star Wars the Force Awakens, and I didn’t even realize that was her until it was over. Which is either a testament to her acting, or more likely the amazing makeup artists. However, I do think Lupita is incredibly beautiful and stylish. I don’t say that to be with the in crowd, but honestly I see her beauty. Her complexion is amazing, and yes she doesn’t look like the regular Hollywood It girls who look so much a like. It’s refreshing. Whenever you have something so popular you are always going to have some people just joining the bandwagon, not knowing anything about it. Still some see the beauty, talent and originality in it, and to group or assign motives to everyone’s taste is kind of a bit wrong in my opinion.
I haven’t seen her act in anything because I decided I was done with slave movies. I started 12 Years and then decided nope, not finishing it. Not watching Birth of a Nation either. Or this new TV show on slaves. I am sick to death of that era. Hello, Hollywood…OTHER THINGS has happened since then.
I quite like Lupita’s style. And I like her interviews. And she seems like a classy woman. And…that’s all I got.
@GreenieWeenie I’m not watching Birth of a Nation, either, but that is entirely due to Nate Parker’s sexual assault history. The revolution in the movie is kicked off due to the rape of a young, female slave so I’m either more repulsed by Parker represented something on screen as being something to go to battle over when in real life he covered up is misdeeds as quickly as he could by smearing his victim time and time again.
And . . . end rant. Sorry, I get worked up easily over issues like this.
It’s why I’ve tried to stay away from the Woody Allen threads as best I could. I tried to write a message in one of them a week or so ago but I just couldn’t find the words. It just hit too close to home, I guess.
I haven’t seen Lupita in anything, so I may agree with your point on her body of work (although honestly, I haven’t researched it, either, and she could have foreign films or theater work that I don’t know of). However, I find that woman striking, stunning and very CLASSICALLY beautiful, I honestly do. I actually don’t find 90% of the models we rave about on here beautiful: I don’t like either of the Hadid sisters, I don’t think Cara is beautiful, I don’t like Willow Smith or Lily-Rose Depp (their faces, that is), but I love looking at Lupita’s pictures.
So this white man is allowed to like it because it’s good, but other white people liking it are shallow, don’t’ understand it and only want to be seen as hip? LOLOLOL
That’s because Larry David probably feels he’s the original, cool hipster lol
@Noway–the amazing makeup artists? That was motion capture.
Yeah I think he’s mocking white liberals a bit (or white people who want to be PERCEIVED as liberal). It’s not a racial micro-aggression at all.
Also, people straight up say Leonardo DiCaprio is overrated all the time. It’s pretty much understood that they just gave him the Oscar this year (over actors with superior performances) so that he would stop being so desperate for it.
It’s not as if hip hop/ rap just came out and is only now being seen by white mainstream America. Those genres have been around long enough that I’m sure plenty of the theater goers understand what is being said on stage and genuine are into rap since they most likely grew up listening to it.
Yes, but will your average middle class, suburban white family understand the complex musical allusions to hip-hop and rap in the score? I’m white and I enjoy rap music, but I wouldn’t claim to understand half of the musical plays and riffs hidden in the music.
I think that’s his point – white people like it, some are probably pretending because it’s the ‘hit’ of the year, but few are going to appreciate it on the same level as a BME person. Which is fine, and is kind of the point of Hamilton.
Sounds like this theory is based on the assumption that every PoC is heavily into hip hop and rap. PoC are not a monolithic group either.
I think it’s much less likely you’re going to find an ultra clued-up, rap-literate suburban white person who will be able to appreciate all the allusions and references to hip-hop/rap/R’n’B. I never said that all BME people would be able to either.
Like, did Hillary Clinton get the Tupac reference in My Shot? Probably not. I kind of doubt that your average suburban white family buying tickets for $1000 apiece would either.
Come on. With that logic, black people couldn’t possibly understand country music. You’d better tell Hootie. He didn’t get the memo.
“I think it’s much less likely you’re going to find an ultra clued-up, rap-literate suburban white person who will be able to appreciate all the allusions and references to hip-hop/rap/R’n’B”
@Rachel- My white friends and I LIVED for hip-hop in high school and college. We’re all in our mid-to-late thirties and many of us (not me thankfully) have gotten married and moved to the ‘burbs to start families. Maybe Hil’s generation doesn’t get the hip-hop references but mine certainly would.
@Rachel I’m about as white as white can get and I get pretty much 99% of the illusions, both hip-hop and Broadway.
I was a musical theater baby, preforming with my city’s HUGE musical theater production group, as all I wanted to do when I grew up was be an actress. I had some minor success as a child before illness left me standing at a fork in the road and changed my path, for the most part. I still kept up with the local productions, but when into academia professionally instead.
As far as hip-hip goes . . . musical theater nerds come from all walks of life, but even more so do dancers. I met my best friend young in a swing dance group. He’s a rapper now, focusing more on the LGBTQ audience, and absolutely helped me along the way with throwing more artists my way in recent years, but in the beginning I was the one giving him tapes (remember those? Yeesh, I feel old) and CDs, as I wanted to know and love all music. Introducing the Jewish private school black kid to Tupac and Biggie felt all kids of illicit, even if it wasn’t, really. The only kind I never really connected with as much as metal, much to my father’s dismay.
I love all the references from the play on Joell Ortiz’s tribute to Big Pun in “A Farmer Refuted” to the straight usage of the ‘affair song’ “Nobody Needs to Know” from Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years in “Say No to This” where ‘Nobody needs to know’ is the last line Hamilton sings . . . and so many more.
I especially love pointing the Grandmaster Flash “The Message” reference in “Cabinet Battle #1” to my kids. My little brother (seriously, little – like old enough to be my child, which is how my husband and I have been raising him) is obsessed right along with me, which thrills me to no end.
@claire
right, and BME (first time I saw that term, had to look it up) even less so, since, if I understood the term correctly, in America, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans would all fall under “ME”, would they not? I think your average Indian American has just as much of a chance of understanding all of the allusions in Hamilton as a white American.
I think it’s creative and gives American History a breath of fresh air. I live on the opposite side of the country, but if I lived on the east coast I’d go. I like anything creative and yes, I’m white.
Completely agree! I like it because (the soundtrack–I haven’t seen it yet) is freaking amazing. And it brings life to something that seems like a pretty dry topic when read from history textbooks. And maybe Larry David doesn’t realize it, but hip hop has been around my entire white life, so my white friends and I don’t sit around talking about it because we think it makes us cool. It’s been on our radios and tvs our whole lives.
Also, some people in hip hop, some people in Hamilton even, they’re white. It’s a thing.
I have watched Curb your Enthusiasm and his taste in music is not at all contemporary, not even rock. He probably is speaking about his peers but most of America is more than familiar with rap and hip hop. You know a genre of music is in the mainstream when you see it on commercials and children’s programing.
I think this play is popular because it marries popular music with a national patriotism which is very much a part of this culture in a way that it isn’t in most countries. Also, it’s an unique idea and I imagine it’s well executed but the hype is definitely driving up the prices.
I’ve recently relocated from NYC and while I would have LOVED seeing it on Broadway I simply could not afford to do so. The snippets I have seen are amazing. It will be in my area next summer and me and my mom are going to get tickets as soon as they come out. I am soooo happy for Lin Manuel and the cast. They deserve every accolade.
You could say the same thing about everything that catches the popular mood. Sometimes it is genuinely that good and sometimes it’s a trend people jump on irrespective of whether they truly enjoy it, think it’s good or have a genuine opinion of it, but they will tick that box because the moment is zeitgeisty.
Definitely.
There are 2 general things going here imo
1. Bandwagon behaviour. It took a few seasons for people to dare to say they weren’t feeling Game of Thrones for instance.
2. The trend to connect to popular things on SM only to make yourself look more interesting. Like how everyone suddenly has food intolerances, or tagging overloads on SM or foodselfies.
Neither target all people, and neither say anything about the quality of Hamilton.
He’s not wrong.
But couldn’t you say the same thing about literally every single thing that becomes a trend or ppopular?
Half the people doing their hair, nails and makeup a certain way don’t understand what they’re doing, they’re following a trend. Sure some people intellectually like superheroes and have read the comics but many others just like the movies and don’t know the character’s backstory.
Since he was asked about Hamilton I see why he went there, but he could have said a dozen other interesting things about the play rather than just saying its popular because some white people are clueless and want to be seen as hip.
Exactly, or as I sometimes think “I guess I should try this new recipe, song, shoes, exercise. It has gotten so popular, it must be great.” And, usually it is.
You made some really good points and I just wanted to say that I always enjoy reading your comments around here.
Agreed. People want to see the new in thing and be in on the trends. I love the music and I’d love to see it as a theater lover, imaginary girlfriend in my mind to Daveed Diggs, and someone who loves RB and rap. It makes me mad that freaking Rosie O’Donnell has seen it 25 times and I have to pony up a thousand bucks and take my chances on getting a seat to even see it once, but hey, I’m just glad it’s getting recognition and that people are seeing the creative genius of Lin (I loved In the Heights as well).
I guess this could be slightly offensive in a “did you really need to say that?” kind of way, but that’s LD’s whole shtick, so I don’t care. I’m also pretty biased because I LOVE Larry David. I named my dog Larry David. The Curb theme song is my alarm ring tone. Seinfeld is my favorite show, with Curb being a close second. I’m just happy he’s making the gossip rounds lately with the election and now some more stupid commentary. Happy Friday for all us LD lovers!
I wish it could come to London.
It’s coming in 2017. I hope this article has some basis in truth, as it would be great to get any of the current cast members: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/hamilton-west-end-casting-lin-manuel-renee-elise-goldsberry_40445.html?cid=relatedstories
Eh, I’m not offended. I get what he’s saying. There is a tendency among some liberal, white people to heavily, I guess, patronize POC and what they do. Like, if it’s produced by a POC, they will fawn over it, regardless of merit. They do it to appear more progress, regardless of the actual merit of the work. And yes, it’s patronizing.
However, I could see how it could be taken offensive by some people. It kind of does sound like he’s dissing Miranda by saying, “Yes, you are very good, but you are successful because white people want to patronize you for no other reason than your race.” Which is…yeah. It feels like he’s patting Miranda on the head and going “Congratulations on being a recipient of white guilt-motivated success.” Which, jeez. Way to pee on somebody’s parade.
Why does every comment have to be scrutinized as “racial”. I think he’s probably right. “Hamilton” is cool right now. If I saw it & didn’t like it, I”d probably think I wasn’t intellectual enough to appreciate it, & tell everyone I loved it.. BTW, Leonardo Dicaprio is NOT cool.
Well, when you stereotype a race, racial discussions tend to occur.
For some reason I can never take his offensiveness seriously. The only person who can properly respond to this is JB Smooth from The Blacks on Larry David show. lol
My favorite bit of comedy ever is where he hugs the grandma and she keeps the hug going longer than 5 seconds and he gets an involuntary boner. Larry David can say whatever the f he wants. He’s the only person who made me laugh so hard I burst a blood vessel.
I think Hamilton is popular simply because it’s an original work and not the remakes of 80’s and 90’s movies they’ve been doing on Broadway for the past ten years.
I wish that the default responsw whenever race is mentioned was not ‘that’s racist.’ It derails a lot of important conversations.
Who’s claiming that it’s racist?
If anything when people claim something isn’t racist is what derails conversations.
I really liked “Hamilton.” I thought it was unique and original and really well performed.
But yeah, Larry David’s probably right. Some people will always flock to the “trendy” even though they might not even really like it. I know someone who hates bourbon but always orders it because it’s kind of on trend right now.
As a half-black half-Jew, whose dad is the spitting image/personality of Larry David, he knows what he’s talking about, and is no way being micro-aggressive.
He gets “it” way more than most other “white” people are able to, very generally speaking. A lot of it has to do with him having the Jewish experience.
White libs do do the shit Larry is talking about all over the place, I see it everywhere and it drives me crazy, but they are oblivious. THAT shit is what I’d call micro-aggressive, however convoluted.
I don’t find his comments offensive but rather annoying. Seriously, does everything have to be about white people? What Larry David is implying here is that Hamilton would not be successful….if not for white people trying to be cool. Whatever.
White people aren’t the only ones who are raving about Hamilton. It really is a cultural moment that likely won’t be repeated on this scale for a musical and David wants to basically boil the success of Lin down to, “yeah, you’re lucky white people want to seem hip”.
He’s not saying that at all.
It would be easy to jump to that conclusion, though.
Maybe some are–it’d be ridiculous to say absolutely no one is. But we are white and the family is obsessed with it right now and not to be hip. My 13 year old loves the soundtrack and we listened to it repeatedly on a recent driving trip. I think most people rave because it truly is wonderful and broadly appealing. I’m 45 and my generation grew up with rap and hip hop–it’s not like we are out of the musical loop. But it’s also got great lyrics, humor, charm, performers , is so intricate and creative and is a fabulous way of bringing his story to life. I’ve seen Miranda on shows and he’s so incredibly smart and talented. I only wish is have a chance to see it live. There’s also a GREAT and lengthy piece on LMM, I think in the New Yorker, from right when it was coming up. It goes through all his influences, thought processes, the different allusions etc…. It was a fabulous read and gave me a lot of insight into him, his background, thought processes and influences and how the musical was shaped. I found it online using Google.
It’s a huge hit, it’s fairly safe to say it’s ‘the’ play of the decade, and it’s sparked a lot of conversation. Of course a lot of people are going to pretend it’s the greatest thing they’ve ever seen when really they didn’t get it, or found it hard to understand, or thought it was a great night out but didn’t see the big deal beyond that. Just like when people go to a museum or watch a classic art film or read a lauded piece of literature or listen to the greatest jazz. A lot of people will pretend to love or understand something because they don’t want to look stupid or uncool. That doesn’t mean they didn’t genuinely enjoy it, it certainly doesn’t mean the thing is bad or undeserving of the praise it’s getting. It’s just something people do, we try to fit in and look smart.
Most people wouldn’t recognize the greatest works of art as great if they hadn’t been told they were great. That doesn’t mean they aren’t great.
I remember when Hair and Cats was the big thing. Hair was controversial then because the whole cast took off their clothes during a scene. All the cat lovers loved Cats and the music and costumes were great. Rent was big, people could identify with the characters and everybody had to see the Lion King when it came out and tickets were very expensive. Shows are like books and art very subjective, depends on your taste. Social media can really drive ticket sales now. Hamilton is big now until the next big thing. It is suppose to come to Chicago this summer and tickets are already sold out.
As kids, my brother and I used to dress up as the characters from Cats and perform/lip-sync the entire soundtrack for my poor parents.
♪♪ Rum-Tum-Tugger was a CURIOUS CAT! ♪♪
I think he has a point. I know people who belong to the #AllLivesMatter lot, and they claim to be huge fans of Kendrick Lamar. Think about that for a second.
That doesn’t mean Kendrick is any less talented than he is. It just means some people like his music without caring or understanding what it is about.
And of course HE’S not one of the pretentious white people who claim to love Hamilton while not really understanding it, is he?
Dude is the complete opposite of pretentious.
Hamilton is awesome. The music and lyrics are superb and there are a ton of hidden cultural references. I would love to be able to see it, and even though I could afford a ticket if I had the chance, they are still extremely hard to come by. I get what Larry is saying, but like others have said there will always be poseurs who will want to see or do the most popular “in” thing even though they may not like it or even understand it. Does it frustrate me that someone like Kim Kardashian has seen it, yes? And I know that sounds mean, but do you really think Kim understood and appreciated Hamilton?? I would recommend listening to the cast recording if you have not already, it is really enjoyable.
I don’t really mind the poseurs with this as at least they’ll learn something. Also, people are just talking about the Hip Hop reference, Lin-Manuel admitted there are a ton of references to past Broadway musicals that maybe some others missed, i.e. South Pacific.
I saw Miranda on Last Week Tonight and he was amazing.
Yes he is, and if you can watch his Commencement speech at Univ. of Penn, you’ll love it.
I get the point he’s trying to make. He’s def making fun of a certain type of upper class white person. I know a lot of people like that. They are very attached to the idea of who they are in their heads. Progressive, liberal, supporter of important social and political causes. So they go out of their way to get on the bandwagon of whatever thing is “happening” in the world. But without any real understanding of what that means. I think it makes them feel better and supports the image they have constructed for themselves about who they are. Yes I’ve met plenty of people like that. I find them very annoying. Mostly because they seem to lack any real opinions or deeply held beliefs
Exactly . He’s mocking that person, not being dismissive of Hamilton’s merits
I agree. And I have a funny example of that, completely off topic:
I used to work as a clerk at a car dealership. It was around the time the Prius came out. Anyway, all of the wealthy liberal yuppie types in my town were calling the dealership, offering their first born child (Joke), to get their hands on a Prius because it was the hot new politically correct car to drive. They could brag to their yuppie friends about their earth friendliness and reduced carbon footprint. All the while, they were trading in their ginormous SUVs of the past decade, and our brand new SUVs were gathering dust on the lot because earth friendly was now cool.
The owner of the dealership explained to me that due to the smelting process needed to create the batteries for the Prius (and the transport from Canada, and other details I’ve long since forgotten), that the carbon footprint of the Prius was in fact FAR WORSE than the Hummer on the parking lot and if they really wanted to be earth friendly, they’d drive the Corolla or keep their old SUV because it was still more eco friendly than a new overpriced Prius.
I don’t get why Hamilton is so good and I am a history fanatic who wants to love the show. Haven’t seen it but I tried to listen to the soundtrack (sidenote-damn it’s long!). I got through 10 songs and only liked 3 of them. Which songs are the best? Maybe I just didn’t listen to the right ones…
My husband has the sound track and he loves it. I listened to a few songs. Eh. It’s clever but it didn’t make me jump out of my chair and say “I have to see that”.
Do I have to turn in my white liberal card now?
Thank you! I thought I was the only one 😉
Because it follows a narrative, it is hard to just pull out a song or two, but My Shot, The Schuyler Sisters, You’ll Be Back, Ten Duel Commandments, Yorktown, What Comes Next, Dear Theodosia, Room Where it Happens, One Last Time, Burn, It’s Quiet Uptown and Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story will give you a flavour of the musical.
But I just listen to the soundtrack over and over again picking up new stuff all the time.
I’ve loved Lin-Manuel Miranda since In the Heights. I remember nerding out so hard when I saw his performance of the first song in the (now) show at the White House in 2009 at the spoken word event the Obama’s put on that my husband thought I was having an anxiety attack.
While In the Heights was good – I’ll never say otherwise – Hamilton is on an entirely different level.
One of the last conversations I had with my Dad was about the cast recording and how much he, my white, Southern, aging, politically conservative, rock fanatic father loved it after I’d introduced him to it.
I was pregnant at the time, so I couldn’t do anything when he died a week later, but a month ago I had a line from “Wait For It” (one of his, my, and my brother’s favorite songs from the show) tattooed on the inside of my right forearm.
A tattoo artist friend piece together my Dad’s (horrible, chicken scratch version of) handwriting from various notes and used it as the basis for the script of the quote: “Life doesn’t discriminate.”
I’ll always treasure the show for giving me that memory.
“White liberals jump on bandwagons they don’t understand to appear enlightened”
And in other “news” Germany has just invaded Poland. 😀
I just wrote a narrative response to this post and I lost it.
I see a Broadway show AT LEAST once a month. I’ve seen Hamilton 3 times. It’s not overrated. I knew after I saw it in September that everyone who is Tony nominated would be nominated for their respective roles. Leslie Odom Jr. will win, Renee Elise Goldsberry will win, Daveed Digs will win. Phillipa Soo is a beautiful singer, sadly her performance cannot compare with Cynthia Erivo’s powerhouse performance in The Color Purple. Larry is jealous because his Broadway play was a flop. The OBCR is a masterpiece and I can’t get enough of it. I’m not a hip-hop head but my favorites songs are the hip-hop songs, My Shot and Cabinet Battle #1.
“Hamilton” is incredible. Like on a Shakespeare level. When the recording was released it flew to the top of hip-hop charts, so I think it’s safe to say it’s succeeding on a pop level as well as a literary one. Larry David is a sour old man whose best work is behind him. He can admit he loved “Hamilton” but can’t resist taking a swipe at it (ie “….but most white people are just pretending to like it.”) BS, Larry. Give people a little credit responding with their hearts to a great piece of art. Go soak your old, racist head.
I can see people pretending to like ‘Hamilton’. The typical theater goer is like 55+. Not much wiggle room for rap music.
Excepting himself, of course.