Seth's Musical Spotlight

    Lin-Manuel (January 16, 1980 –present) is (what I think) one of the best actors, play writers, and composers of all time.   He has won a Pulitzer prize, 2 Grammys, an Emmy, and many more awards. He also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Hamilton (which won 11 out of 16 Tony awards) , and the music and lyrics for In The Heights . He reached #1 on the Billboard 200 in December 2016 for The Hamilton Mixtape. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning. Miranda was born in upper Manhattan in the neighborhood of Washington Heights. The name Lin-Manuel was inspired by a poem about the Vietnam war, called “Nana Roja Para Mi Hijo Lin Manuel,” by Jose Manuel Torres Santiago. He wrote the earliest draft of In The Heights in 1999, his sophomore year of college. He co-wrote the music and lyrics for Bring It On . In July 2008, Miranda got his inspiration for Hamilton . He read Ron Chernow’s   biography of Alexander Hamilton. He ...

Here is my “dream” playlist. Out of 4 musicals I have chosen 3 (on one I only did two) songs.   Song/Musical/Why I like it Hamilton:                          1. “My Shot”--it’s very catchy and very inspirational. 2. “We Know”--catchy (words and music) 3. “Guns and Ships”--it gets very fast but cool (I don’t know how he says it that fast!) The Music Man:                  1.   “Ya Got Trouble”--VERY fast, good lyrics, good song in   general 2. “Seventy-six Trombones”--it’s like you’re really at a parade 3.   “Gary Indiana”-- good lyrics, catchy Newsies: 1. “King of New York”--like always catchy, good lyrics                     ...

  A review on Hamilton the sound track ( The clean version) 4.5 – 5 star review. Hamilton is a very catchy but not clean musical. Its rap and hip-hop style but has some plain talking. It gets bad (not the songs). It’s Hamilton that does bad things but I can’t even listen to it and I know almost all the lyrics to every song. The fast talking gets tricky but if you know the words it’s pretty easy. It’s about someone is hidden in history—Hamilton did a lot of stuff to help America but nobody really knew about him. A review on The Music Man .   (The movie )    4 star review The Music Man is pretty good. It has a lot of talented people like Shirley Jones and Robert Preston. It is funny, enjoyable, and some songs are catchy. It has a tricky salesman, a piano teacher who likes the tricky salesman at the end, a young boy who doesn’t talk much, a boy who likes the mayor’s daughter and is a trouble maker (says the town) and more. Oklahoma! The review ( the...

I asked Mrs. Melissa Austin some questions about Broadway. How did I know she was in Les Miserables? She is the music and drama teacher at my school FCS. Here are the answers.   1. When you were on Broadway who did you play in Les Miserables? and how many shows did you do a week? I started as a member of the ensemble, and I played lots of parts and had lots of costume changes. I was an understudy for the roles of Eponine and Cosette, which means that I was prepared to play either of those parts if one of those actresses was out sick or on vacation. The first time I played Eponine, I found out at 7:00 that I was going on, and the show started at 8:00!  I eventually became Cosette, and I played this role for one year and eight months. We performed 8 shows a week with one day off - usually Sunday or Monday.   2. Did you know from when you were a kid that you wanted to be on Broadway?             I don...