Hey everybody! It’s been a while since we’ve done a passion blog so I’ll just recap what we’ve previously talked about. The last two passion blogs were about the musical Hamilton. In Act I, Alexander Hamilton helps fight in the Revolutionary War with his friends, gets married to Elizabeth Schuyler, and loses his best friend John Laurens to the war. Today, we’ll be discussing the first half of Act II.

What’d I Miss?-we get introduced to Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton’s main adversary, who has been helping the revolution from France; we see the friendship between Jefferson and James Madison; he becomes the Secretary of State; in the picture above you’ll notice that Jefferson’s hair is down, as did almost all of the cast whereas in Act I everyone had their hair up, except for Eliza;

Cabinet Battle 1-basically a rap battle between Hamilton, who was Secretary of Treasury, and Jefferson; shows the hypocrisy of Jefferson’s ideals and his actions-he talked about liberty for all but owned slaves; there are some really intense rhymes in this song such as “reticent-there isn’t a plan he doesn’t jettison”

Take A Break-this song checks up on the Hamilton family and condenses what could have been a few scenes to one song; Hamilton compares himself to Macbeth because they are both Scottish tragedies (he was really dramatic); we are introduced to Philip Hamilton, he is the eldest of eight; we explore the flirtatious relationship between Angelica and Hamilton, their letters were meticulously written to express their affection through punctuation; Hamilton is stressed and worried about getting his plans implemented into Congress especially after him and Jefferson battled it out in the previous song

Say No To This-this is one of the only songs that Hamilton narrates because this part of the story was hidden until he was exposed; this tells the story of Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds, who had an abusive husband; the use of the word “helpless” is a direct callback to Eliza’s song helpless which makes Hamilton’s betrayal that much more emotional

The Room Where It Happens-this is Burr’s “want” song, which is a bit strange since most “want” songs will take place in the first Act of a show; Burr is less cool and collected in this song than we usually see him, he is upset that he has not been able to advance like Hamilton has using his philosophy of “talk less, smile more” but when Hamilton suggests he will be using that he doesn’t understand why he hasn’t become as successful as Hamilton when Burr acts this way everyday; Burr wants to be in the room discussing Hamilton’s financial plan and choosing where to put the capital

Schuyler Defeated-this is a short song compared to the rest in the show Philip Schuyler lost his seat in the Senate to Burr, when Hamilton confronts Burr about this Burr replies that Hamilton’s pride will be the cause of their deaths “beware it goeth before the fall”-another Macbeth reference

Cabinet Battle 2-the issue of this cabinet battle is the French Revolutionary War; Jefferson wanted to give them aid while Hamilton did not think their country was ready for that-this was where most of their rivalry rooted from; Washington agreed with Hamilton and told him to draft a statement of neutrality

Washington On Your Side-Jefferson, Madison, and Burr discuss the level of trust Washington has in Hamilton; they want to find something on Hamilton that will make him less likable; “this immigrant isn’t somebody we chose,” is a line that resonates with some things that our current government has said

One Last Time-Washington tells Hamilton that he is going to resign instead of running for office for another term and has Hamilton help write his Farewell Address; he talks about wanting to be neutral in wars and warns the people about political parties; there is a section of his Farewell Address in the song that gets me tearing up every single time

I Know Him-King George is backkk; he heard about Washington’s resignation and is confused as to why he would do such a thing; he actually admires Washington and says that nobody could live up to him; the King doesn’t believe that John Adams had become president and wishes him a sarcastic good luck

The Adams Administration-Hamilton calls out President John Adams-the official version is much shorter than the unofficial one and it has a lot less rhymes so I suggest you listen to both; since Adams is the only other person on his party Hamilton has lost all the support he had; Jefferson, Madison, and Burr have found some dirt on Hamilton that they want to use as blackmail

Have a lovely break everyone! Thanks for sticking around this far, we have one more left until we’re finished with Hamilton.