Disney + has brought Hamilton, the revolutionary musical written, composed and starred by Lin Manuel Miranda, to every screen on the planet. With every living room becoming the room where it happens, and a stunning score with 46 beautiful pieces, plus a new remix of My Shot set to the credits, it is difficult to pick just ten songs to make a list -- particularly after the soundtrack has been earworming its way into the pop-culture hive mind since 2015. However, when combined with the scenography, the acting, and the lightning, a list like this becomes more manageable. Let's take a look at the top ten numbers of Hamilton: The Musical.
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton has become one of the most famous opening songs of all time. Not only does it set the tone and motif of the main character, but it introduces the entire cast and characters (minus King George III) and Aaron Burr, the antagonist narrator, played by Leslie Odom Jr. The choreography is stunning, the parchment-white costumes perfect as the pages of history, and did you know that there's even a version of Demon Barber Sweeney Todd arranged by Lin Manuel Miranda himself to the tune of this act?
My Shot
If Alexander Hamilton established the setting and background, My Shot presents Hamilton's motivations thorough his life: his passion, intelligence, and tendency to shoot off at the mouth before thinking things twice. The line "My Shot" works all the time on its triple meaning -- the shots that the four and a half amigos are drowning, the once in a lifetime opportunity to change their destinies and the world, and the foreshadowing of the shot that will eventually kill him. My Shot shines most in its second half, when it starts to echo the lines of "Rise Up," inciting the colonies to revolution like an unstoppable wave, and superimposing Alexander's intense internal monologue with a frozen peek of a 1780's Manhattan rally.
Helpless / Satisfied
If we are noting Hamilton's songs for their scenography as well as their music, Helpless and Satisfied must go together. Helpless tells the story of the winter's ball, romance, and wedding of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler from Eliza's point of view, while Satisfied, sung by Eliza's sister Angelica, who was herself in love with Hamilton, is a retelling of the same events. The difficulty of this act is in the choreography and stage movement, because as soon as Angelica starts to remember, the entire corps de dance and cast rewinds by moving in the exact opposite way as they did before, and then forward again at a different speed to match the rhythm of her memories. Renée Elise Goldsberry also plays Angelica's conflicted state of mind perfectly.
Wait For It
Wait For It is Aaron Burr's first theme song, where he lays down his tragic family history and the reasons for his excessive prudence. Leslie Odom Jr. shines brightly, with a melodic style very different from the fast hip hop that Hamilton had showcased so far, and the lighting work sets it off beautifully. After Wait For It, it's difficult not to empathize with Burr.
Ten Duel Commandments (and its reprises)
There are three versions of The Ten Duel Commandments, each one darker than the other, as it becomes evident that duels are dumb, and guns in the hands of youngsters and civilians are even dumber. However, the first occurrence, when Hamilton's friend John Laurens shoots Charles Lee, takes away the price -- the choreography is crisp and precise, the song is catchy and all the characters are tall, dark and snarky enough to make them seem charming instead of deranged for holding a duel in the first place.
Guns and Ships
Guns and Ships has been noted by Hamilfans as the hardest song of the entire musical. Daveed Diggs unleashes a version of the Marquis de Lafayette like the French have never seen, shooting rhymes even faster than he jumps while he single-handedly saves the American Revolution and intimidates George Washington into getting back his right-hand man. It gets 10 for lyrics, 10 for energy and choreography and a 0 in chill -- play Guns and Ships if you need to wake up fast and get things done.
Dear Theodosia
The war is over, the Revolution is won and it's time to raise a new generation. Dear Theodosia is a hymn to the children and the future their parents want to create, sung by the strangely domestic and sensitive Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. There's no choreography as such, but Dear Theodosia gets a spot in this list because it's an instant tearjerker and because Lin Manuel Miranda composed it not when he became a father, but right after he and his wife adopted a puppy.
The Room Where it Happens
It takes Burr to see the capital move from New York to the Potomac to realize what he wants: to be part of the action, in the inner circle, in the room where it happens. His jealousy of Hamilton finally coalesces in one single purpose, and it's accompanied by one of the most frenetic dances of the entire musical in The Room Where It Happens -- the wheels turning in his brain -- as he tells the story of how Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison reached an agreement behind closed doors.
Stay Alive (Original and Reprise)
The first Stay Alive takes place during the Revolution, as Eliza, left behind, writes letters to Alexander, who is at the front with Washington. The second Stay Alive is a heart-wrenching remix that plays over Philip Hamilton's death, set to the off-beat rhythm of The Ten Duel Commandments and Eliza's piano lines in the song Take a Break. It's only when the rhythm stops that the audience realizes that it wasn't the broken beat wasn't from the Commandments after all, but Philips' heart beating for the last time.
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story
Hamilton's final number is not as catchy as its opening, but it turns the premise of the play upside down: while the audience was led to believe that everything we learned was through the eyes of Aaron Burr, Eliza's final number, where she unveils herself as the principal keeper of her husband's memory and the one that built the Hamilton's legacy, is revealed to be the real storyteller. Phillipa Soo shines in this number, and the ending, when her character sees the audience looking back at her, brings back the earlier words of George Washington, History Has Its Eyes On You, and provides enough food for thought until the next rewatch.
Directed by Thomas Kail, Hamilton stars Lin Manuel-Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Leslie Odom, Jr., Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Phillipa Soo, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan and more. The recorded performance is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.