Hamilton on Disney Plus: 6 surprising things to keep in mind

I dragged my family to me Hamilton Obsession a few years ago: My preteen daughter went from memorizing the Frozen soundtrack and wearing Elsa capes to rapping the 10 Dueling Commandments and playing Peggy Schuyler at theater camp. On a trip to London that we skimp on a lot, I swallowed hard, tried not to think about my bank balance, and got tickets to see the show at the Victoria Palace Theater. (“All the way from London? Damn it!”)

I’ve watched the show live twice, carefully scrutinized creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 270-page book on the making of the show, read (parts of) Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton that inspired him, and even visited the American flag of the Marquis de Lafayette. Grave covered in a small cemetery in Paris. (“Ev’ryone abandons him for America’s favorite fighting French!”)

And now the long-awaited hip-hop musical is at Disney Plus, with the original cast of Broadway 2016. So, whether you’re going to the room where it first happens, or you’re practically an honorary sister to Schuyler, here are six amazing scenes to watch. (Spoilers ahead)

1. Watch the bullet

There is a semi-secret character in Hamilton. A dancer in every production, it’s Ariana DeBose in the movie, she plays The Bullet. She never presents herself as such, but the actions she takes are those that signify death. She approaches the cast members who are about to die, gives Burr his pen when he challenges Hamilton to the fatal duel, and Hamilton complains when he mentions or suggests his death, playing a special role, of course, in his last moments.

To find DeBose, look for a dancer with a distinctive curly fist, and pay attention to the lyrics and actions that take place on stage when she makes a prominent appearance. When Burr and Hamilton have their famous duel, their purpose becomes crystal clear. Read this 2016 interview with DeBose to read about how she always points to the main character.

2. A scene is not in the soundtrack

If you’re like me, you played the entire Hamilton soundtrack over and over before dreaming of seeing the show. And without a doubt, you can understand and fall in love with the show in that way. But when you watch the movie, you will be surprised to see a short scene in which Eliza reads to Hamilton a letter that tells of the death of her dear friend John Laurens. In a Tumblr post, Miranda explained that she intentionally left the scene off the soundtrack. It is more of a scene than a song, she says, and more powerful when viewed.

Also, as a Broadway fan, I wanted to save a revelation for those who watch the show itself and don’t just listen to the soundtrack. “Please understand that the reason I left this scene from the album is precisely BECAUSE I value it so much (and Laurens),” says Miranda.

3. Look for Broadway and rap tributes

Miranda is a music fan, raised in Broadway shows, rap, hip-hop, and other genres. She has peppered the show with musical references like Easter eggs in video games. In My Shot, it includes “you have to be taught carefully,” which is familiar to many of us in the South Pacific. In Right Hand Man, George Washington calls himself “the model of a modern general general,” which is, of course, a famous line from Pirates of Penzance.

And in Story of Tonight, Hamilton and his friends toast their impending battle as they drink together, then review the song later. Miranda writes in the book Hamilton: The Revolution that was inspired by the group of friends from Stephen Sondheim’s musical Merrily We Roll Along, who sing a recurring chorus toasting their friendship.

There are many references to rap and hip-hop: a couple is very easy to detect. The 10 Commandments of Grief pay homage to Biggie Smalls’ Ten Commandments. In My Shot, Hamilton says that “he is only 19 years old but my mind is older”, and in Shook Ones Part II, from the hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, a letter says: “I am only 19 years old but my mind is old” . And the rhythm Hamilton uses to spell her name is very similar to when Smalls spells NO, TO, RI, O, US (for “Notorious BIG”) in Going Back to Cali.

4. Find the censorship

Hamilton deals with serious topics: death, infidelity, pain, violence from war and revolution. The filmed version has been rated PG-13, but Miranda explained on Twitter that the show uses the F-word three times, and to keep that PG-13 rated movie you can only use it once. So she let the censors cut that word twice. Obsessive soundtrack: why are you looking at me? – You’ll notice them when they happen, but if you ask, here they are:

• In Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down), the exuberant Hercules Mulligan yells that “he’ll go back to hell,” but the film silences him.
• And in an iconic moment during Washington On Your Side, Jefferson and Madison sing of themselves as “Damn Southern Democratic Republicans!” In the movie, the part of the oath collapses. (Miranda said it would be replaced by a record scratch, and maybe it was, but I repeated it three times and only heard a fuzzy sound.) Not a big deal, really, and as Miranda himself said on Twitter, he literally “gave two fucked so that the children could see it. ”

5. Changes from United States vs United Kingdom

As you watch, you can watch for three little instances where the lyrics you hear in the movie were changed for performances of the play in London. Neither is important, and if you only watch the movie, you’ll never see the British changes, but for Hamilton’s completists, it’s fun to know what they are. (I saw it in both countries, and I can confirm that the lines were changed for London customers.) They all appear to be based on very specific references from the United States that the British may not obtain.

• In Take a Break, “John Adams doesn’t have a real job anyway” is changed to “Vice President is not a real job anyway”, perhaps assuming the British wouldn’t know about Adams’ role. Hell, I bet a lot of Americans didn’t know Adams was vice president, either.
• In Your Obedient Servant, Aaron Burr challenges Hamilton to a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Instead of the American lyrics for “Weehawken. Dawn. Guns. Drawn,” the British hear: “Jersey. Dawn. Guns. Drawn.” The British probably could have thought Weehawken was a place name by context, but the change was made anyway.
• And a similar geographical change was made for the British in The Room Where It Happens, when the site of the US Capitol is being discussed. “It seems to be assumed that the mention of the Potomac River in Washington DC would make no sense to the English.

6. Catting around

This is very small, but so perfect. In A Winter’s Ball, Aaron Burr claims that Hamilton was such a feminine man that “Martha Washington named her feral cat after him,” and a cocky A.Ham replied, “That’s true!”

It probably isn’t. (Hamilton plays fast and loose with many facts, many more important than this: the love life of Angelica, for example). Miranda admits in the book Hamilton: The Revolution that the cat story was “probably a story that John Adams spread later in life.” And the official site of Virginia’s Washington home, Mount Vernon, admits that the first couple was actually more dog people, even though they had barn cats, so who knows what Martha may have called the prettiest of all?

Hamilton is now available for streaming on Disney Plus. And if you want the full theatrical experience, Playbill has released an online printable version of the show since the week the show was filmed, featuring cast biographies, headshots, track list, and more.