Different Performances on Broadway

Performance Comparisons: Gershwin, Bernstein, Miranda

When George Gershwin premiered his operetta Porgy and Bess in 1935, it was historic to feature persons of color in what was supposedly the high art of opera. Although the singer Ann Brown was a great classical singer, it was rare for persons of color to be cast in such roles. Brown notes her resentment in an interview that she resisted being pigeonholed into stereotypical sounds and roles, despite eventually taking on the leading role of Bess.

Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, which was first seen on Broadway in 1957, similarly transposed Shakespeare’s classic tale into a contemporary racial conflict of the era. But both examples highlight how white creators may appropriate Black and Latino sounds and voices to further their own careers, to be consumed by white audiences. However, like Porgy & Bess, West Side Story was still of historical significance in the manner in which it showed contemporary concerns and personas could be worthy of the Broadway stage. Both musicals also used traditional American art forms like spirituals, pop, and Latino dance music in a manner which had been rare in contemporary musicals up to that time.

Hamilton, however, is an example of a Latino creator interposing persons of color into American history. It is a member of a marginalized group appropriating and rewriting American history, while still staying true to the general outline of American history, as Hamilton was a Founding Father who died in a duel (Hilton & Aku, 2018). It uses a highly unexpected musical style (hip-hop), not simply for musical theater but in particular for the subject matter of the founders of America, as seen through the eyes of the leaders of the Revolutionary War. It challenges not only how people perceive musical theater, but also the ways in which people see American history. Even if its use of hip-hop (like West Side Story’s use of pop and Latino sounds) is not very edgy, it is still arresting in the way in which words, visuals, storyline, and sound contrast.