Hip-Hop Twist
The twist with this show is that African-Americans portray nearly all of the Founding Fathers, and Miranda himself is of Puerto Rican descent. His clever, exciting score integrates hip-hop and spoken word within a traditional musical framework to re-invigorate the genre. The songs are insightful and often mirthful — cocky Thomas Jefferson gets a 1950s-style rock theme, while uptight King George III sings a vanilla, Partridge Family-style ditty.
Working on both the off-Broadway production at the Public Theater and the current Broadway run at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, acclaimed scenic designer David Korins got to sink his teeth into the retro looking set, which features a 34-inch-wide wood balcony wrapping around three sides of the stage, a rolling staircase at stage left, scaffolding hanging above the balcony, and a brick wall in back that grows between acts. The Broadway set took about 10 weeks to design and build, and close to a month to install.
“It’s interesting, because people think there isn’t that much of the set, yet there is so much to the set,” explains Korins. “This is one of those funny instances where there’s a brick wall at the back of the theater, and then we built our own brick wall to represent the back of the theater to recreate the Public Theater back wall. Then we build a third back wall to be that one that’s crumbling in the front. There is a lot of surface area and the two sidewalls as well.”
While the set looks to be made entirely of wood, according to Korins, all of the vertical surfaces are actually made of stainless steel or steel iron and then wrapped with actual wood. “A lot of it has been sandblasted so it has a lot more texture to it, while the stuff that hasn’t been sandblasted is kind of gooped over and then painted to have a deeper, richer grain,” he says.
Other than handing Korins the script, Miranda did not give him any edict as far as set design, but Korins did meet many times with director Thomas Kail and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler to discuss the challenges of creating a musical that featured numerous real world locations from American history.
“It is such a sweeping story that we knew, early on, that we were going to be unable to actually render many, if any, of these locations in full detail, nor would we want to,” recalls Korins. “How do you move seamlessly from George Washington’s tent on the battlefield to the Continental Congress to the Schuyler home to the town square in early New York City? And how do you do it within two seconds of each other? We knew we needed to create some interesting wrapping to our world that the entire show could take place in and make the transitions, so we wound up coming up with a tapestry of early American architecture which is evocative of a town square and that we could carve up in the tighter, smaller vignettes and scenes and could be transformative. We talked for a long time about creating some type of a theatrical metaphor that might be interesting and illuminating about the story.”
Setting the Template
What the trio came up with is that, while the characters in the show did not build the country, they built the scaffolding from which the country was built. “We’re watching these people, literally in some cases in the show, building the scaffolding from which the jawbones of our country will be built on,” says Korins. He points out that between Act I and Act II, the rear brick wall gains eight feet in height to indicate that during the intermission more industrious work has transpired in America.
“In general, we chose not to build the Capitol Building or the Washington Monument or any iconic piece of architecture but rather a pretty simple structure that felt like scaffolding,” says Korins. “In Act II, we also fly in an additional level of painters’ scaffolding, which is a mirror image of the wrap-around balcony that is there in the whole show, as if to say, again, that there is more building happening up above.”
While there is not an excess of furniture or props onstage, given the rotating nature of the action, there are some notable set pieces. Both Hamilton and Washington have different desks for Act I and Act II, such as the fancier one that Hamilton has in Act II when he serves in the White House. All the props, furniture, and chairs were custom designed in partnership with Denise Grillo and built by Daedalus Scenic Studio and Jerard Studio. “They were beautifully done,” declares Korins. “The thing about Hamilton being a huge hit downtown [at the Public] is that we are really able to look at what we wanted exactly uptown. We got exactly what we wanted. The Broadway props are beautifully crafted.”
Two set pieces help add further motion to an already dynamic show. There is a rolling staircase stored at the center of the balcony on stage left, which allows actors to enter and escape the stage. When it is rolled out center stage, it is for two main moments: the scene where George Washington recruits Hamilton to be part of his White House Cabinet at the end of Act I, and when Thomas Jefferson comes home from Europe and struts around like a peacock at the start of Act II.
The double turntable in the center of the stage is an even bigger force of motion. The exterior turntable can be used independently and can act as a walkway moving counter to, or in tandem with, the interior one. “From my very first reading of the show, I always felt and sensed this cyclical motion in the show,” says Korins. “I think it was inspired more by all the conversations about the hurricane that pushes Alexander Hamilton from his home, the political hurricane that he gets caught up in, and also his cyclical relationship with [Aaron] Burr that permeates the whole show. The turntable is a good piece of scenery to use when you’re looking to create a sweeping, epic, cinematic feel and is a great way to move pieces of scenery, props, and furniture on a wide-open set.”
Classical vs. Modern
Even though Hamilton offers a modern take on classic American history, Korins and his collaborators felt that they should not attempt to mirror that directive visually. “There’s so much of an urban and modern feel to the score with the delivery of the piece with the rapping and spoken word, but we talked about cutting against that mainly because we have an African-American man playing Aaron Burr or James Madison [or others],” notes Korins. “There is already a modernity to the piece, and we wanted to cut against that and do something that would feel absolutely historically accurate so that the people and the words would feel like a new revelation.”
The acclaimed show is not only the theater event of the year, but it is likely to be influential and talked about for years to come. “It’s gotten across-the-board rave reviews and has definitely struck a chord, and I think rightly so,” affirms Korins. “I think it is an absolutely profound piece of writing and actually a work of genius. People bandy about the word all the time, but it really is a stroke of genius. It feels like working on the show is catching lightning in a bottle.” The designer recalls how Oskar Eustis at the Public Theater compared the way that Shakespeare and Miranda both wrote or write in the vernacular of their respective times.
“In the beginning, I was concerned and curious how people who are 70 years old seeing the show would be able to get all the content and all the words because it’s moving at such a fast pace,” says Korins. “And every single person that I’ve talked to has said that if history was taught like this, they would’ve gotten better grades. No one has a hard time hearing it. There are more words in Hamilton than there are in any other modern play — thousands and thousands and thousands of words. How can you jam so many words into two and a half hours? He did it through rapping and fast-paced speaking.”
Given the ambitious nature of the show, Korins feels that the trick was to not overdo his own contributions to the piece. “I think the biggest challenge for us was how to just be honest, good storytellers,” he says. “I think the show speaks for itself, so how do you not make superfluous and bad choices? How do you stay honest and only give what the show needs and nothing more? It’s seductive to think, how can I leave my mark on something like this? And the truth is, I was trying to get out of the way. Tell the story as best we can, be honest, and get out of the way.
“What I think you’re seeing with Hamilton is a confluence of a perfect storm of very seasoned, incredibly talented people working at the absolute highest level of their career,” summarizes Korins, who goes on to praise all aspects of the production, from Howell Binkley’s lighting design to Paul Tazewell’s costume work (which, he says, is the best that he has ever done). “People were so deeply and profoundly bringing their A-game that I stayed humble, kept my head down, and worked hard. Everyone treated it with so much respect, it was really special.”
