Hamilton, the Broadway phenomenon about our nation’s first secretary of the treasury, has taken the stage at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. The production swept the 2016 Tonys, picking up 11 awards, and the cast album has gone triple-platinum. Hamilton, which casts actors of color to play the roles of Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington and other founding fathers, has been praised for its inclusion. But some critics have also accused Hamilton of historical distortion and even revisionism. The Tennessee State Museum will host University of Maryland historian Richard Bell to discuss the historical accuracy of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit. The museum’s event page asks, “What does [Hamilton’s] runaway success reveal about the stories we tell each other about who we are and about the nation we made?” I’m hoping the talk will explore how the musical grievously ignores the presence of Native Americans in the founding era — an omission that I haven’t seen Miranda wrestle with. Also of note, as historian Lyra D. Monteiro writes, the musical “glosses over the racism and the sexism involved in the founding of our country as if these were design flaws, not deliberate features.” As much as I find Hamilton to be irresistible, I’m ready to get the facts straight. 2 p.m. at the Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa Parks Blvd. ERICA CICCARONE
Hamilton: How the Musical Remixes American History
