When you have to quarantine until you covid test comes back negative...

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Lin retweeted a fact from a historian (since, obviously, he took artistic liberties with reality both for considerations of condensing time and for better dramatic effect, as all historical fiction does in interpretation) that Alexander assumed Philip's duel wouldn't even take place (the reality somehow makes the events in the show even more tragic to me): Philip seems to have asked his dad for advice but AH probably assumed the duel wouldn't happen. At that point he'd been involved in 10 affairs of honor that didn't end up in a duel. When he discovered his son had left for the dueling ground, he fainted. The Hamiltons were exceedingly fond of their children, and Alexander was wracked with despair after their son's death. It's well-documented that the loss had a marked effect on Hamilton, he was never the same. Chernow wrote in the biography that Lin used as his primary source: Hamilton was an altered man after Philip died. He even looked different. [Robert] Troup said that his face was “strongly stamped with grief,” and this condition was captured on canvas by an Albany painter, Ezra Ames… Ames captured Hamilton looking troubled and introspective, as if lost in thought and staring into an abyss. The ebullient wit had fled, and the eyes were fixed downward in a melancholy gaze. Some new, impenetrable darkness had engulfed his mind. Alexander and Eliza's 17 year old daughter, Angelica, Philip's closest sibling (the one mentioned in "Take a Break"), had a complete nervous breakdown and regressed to a childlike state, and she never recovered. She became only semi-lucid, had imagined conversations with him, and spent the remainder of her life unable to accept her brother's death. Eliza was pregnant when Philip died, and they named that son Philip II when he was born (he grew up to be a lawyer and an abolitionist iirc). Hamilton's death was only just over two years after Philip II's birth, and one of the many reasons for the immediate vilification of Burr in society was the fact that he took a husband and father from his devoted wife and their still young children, so soon after the loss of the eldest son. Eliza never wore color again for the remaining 50 years of her life. (There's a description of her wardrobe and a couple of interesting quotes characterizing her and reactions of the time here .) Another incredibly heartbreaking note is the circumstance that ended up happening contemporaneously as Lin was writing the music. Hamilton originally played off-Broadway at The Public. One of the workshops had ended with "Burn," and Lin struggled with how to get from that point to the ending, how to portray a reconciliation between Alexander and Eliza. He also didn't know how to capture the extreme grief of losing a child. Apparently, it wasn't unusual at that point for the cast to see him wandering and pacing the halls of the Public, trying to figure it out. There are moments that the words don't reach came to him lyrically, and he had the song. It made everyone cry when they read it, and Andy (the choreographer) couldn't bear to stage it because his daughter was battling cancer (thankfully, she responded well to treatment). Then, the artistic director of the theatre, Oskar Eustis, who of course was a champion of the show, lost his beloved son. It was a shock to everyone and devastated the entire company. In the midst of this, Lin sent the demo of "It's Quiet Uptown" to the Eustises, hoping somehow it would help, that they could lean on it, but he also told them that if it was too much, and they wanted to delete it, he would understand. Instead, it was the only song they listened to in the immediate aftermath of mourning their son, and they listened to it every day. It helped them not only because it captures that agony, but because of the catharsis and salvation at the end. Lin mentioned that the grace and gentle magic of forgiveness, can you imagine? was an aspect that really coalesced the meaning of those moments. The stage direction when Eliza takes Hamilton's hand is: Hamilton shatters. It's such a breathtakingly powerful bit of songwriting and theatre, I really...can't, words fail it. I apologize for this rambling reply, it's been a long time since I was able to share these things, especially with people new to the show and its history (18th/19th and 21st century alike), and I think it enhances the experience even more. So...any time you dissolve into tears over this, please remember you're not alone! More on reddit.com

While the Hamilton music scene goes in phases, here's a great resource:

https://thehammermonthly.ca/

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Can we please have an entertaining Ozzie in these books? He went from fun to annoying as shit from the Commonwealth to the Void.

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