A Story of Hamilton

The screensaver of my son, C. Ham

As I write in an essay published by the Los Angeles Review of Books today, I have a double investment in the musical Hamilton: I come from a long line of Hamiltons, including, according to family legend, Alexander; and I wrote the book about Rent, a major inspiration on Lin-Manuel Miranda. I also relate to Miranda’s script, and the accompanying Hamiltome, being a piece of writing about writing. Read the full essay here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/whats-in-a-name/.

Spider-Man Tangled in Web?

YouTube – Spider-Man Reviews in a Minute.

I applaud critics standing by consumers rather than producers and reviewing Taymor’s Broadway debacle before opening. Interesting to note how Twitter and online reviews helped compel them to write. But I wonder: Are newspaper critics hung up on story, or are they evaluating the world Taymor is making, as Henry Jenkins discusses in Convergence Culture?

Hedwig Returns

I was so obsessed with Hedwig and the Angry Inch when it first came out (so to speak), I remember Carrie Brownstein or Kathleen Hanna, or maybe both of them, making fun of me. Mitchell and Trask were such a brilliant (and cantankerous) theater team. I wrote about the musical for The Village Voice. I’m amazed it’s finally making it to Broadway — and glad they’re working on it together again. “Rock ‘n’ roll is about identification across lines,” Stephen told me back then. In these days of factionalization, that’s a refreshing sentiment.