Dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda. Starring Andrew Garfield, Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp There are spoilers for a recent release below…as always, I don’t care, but maybe you do! During my musicals phase, this one (which I’m abbreviating as TTB the rest of the way because I have not gotten any more patient in my obsolescence) was… Read More tick, tick…BOOM! (2021)
Dir. Jon M. Chu. Starring Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace There’s a post-post-credits scene in In the Heights where Samuel L. Jackson comes out to ask Lin-Manuel Miranda if he wants to join the Avengers. But before that post-post-credits scene, there’s a regular post-credits scene where Piraguera (Miranda) takes advantage of a breakdown in… Read More In the Heights (2021)
The landing page, with rationale and links to other posts in this series, can be found here. The first Trousdale and Wise movie to hit the list—their other efforts are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beauty and the Beast, so you may need to wait a sec to see them here again—is most of the way to… Read More Disney/Pixar Rankings: 40-36
This is the third entry in a Hamilton trilogy I didn’t realize I was working on until now. For my thoughts on the show itself, click here. For my thoughts on how Hamilton works with and around race, click here. It’s been about two years since Hamilton made its way from stage to cast album. As a young person, I guessed… Read More Hamilton Lived, Hamilton Died, and the Story’s Still Being Told
Dir. Ron Clements and John Musker. Starring Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House. After watching Zootopia eight or nine months ago, I thought that Disney movies were starting to stick to their claim outside musicals. After watching Moana, the latest entry to the Disney canon, I’m more sure than ever that the best elements of… Read More Moana (2016)
The airing of the Hamildoc on PBS (which is only available until mid-November! If you haven’t watched it, hurry!) a few nights ago was received with the kind of joy which you’d expect. I was a little surprised at how much it aligned with the Hamiltome, and I was more than a little surprised at… Read More Race, Slavery, and Colonial Era Musicals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CFOuGqBSEE Honorable mentions: “Say No to This,” “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” My original plan was to write this entry from Hamilton about “Say No to This.” Look, I even got this much of it done: Long version: Okay, so everyone knows that scene near the end of The Shawshank Redemption where Andy has… Read More Songs from Musicals: #24, “Burn,” from Hamilton
I’ve never posted here about a stage show before, for the plain and good reason that I don’t see stage shows. They are expensive and I live in America’s backwash. I am not going to be able to write here about acting, dancing, sets, costumes, lighting, etc.; all I have to go on is the… Read More Hamilton
In another podcast that occurred much more recently than Episode 11! Our intro music doesn’t work as we talk about the musical we’ve “written!” (We didn’t write a musical.) We embrace irony at the podcast. Today, we channel our deep and abiding affection for Hamilton by talking about who is at the top of our depth… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 12: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Makes Your Life-story in a Musical
Seeing Things Secondhand 