ACT 1
1. Alexander Hamilton
BURR
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a w**re
and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a
forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence,
impoverished, in squalor,
grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
LAURENS
The ten-dollar founding father without a father
got a lot farther by working a lot harder,
by being a lot smarter,
by being a self-starter,
by fourteen, they placed him in charge of a
trading charter.
JEFFERSON
And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted
away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up.
Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of,
the brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow or barter.
MADISON
Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned,
our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain,
put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain,
and he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain.
BURR
Well, the word got around, they said, “This kid is insane, man”
took up a collection just to send him to the mainland.
“Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came, and
the world is gonna know your name. What’s your name, man?”
HAMILTON
Alexander Hamilton.
My name is Alexander Hamilton.
And there’s a million things I haven’t done,
but just you wait, just you wait...
2
ELIZA
When he was ten his father split, full of it, debt-ridden,
two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden,
half-dead sittin in their own sick, the scent thick,
COMPANY
And Alex got better but his mother went quick.
WASHINGTON
Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide.
Left him with nothin’ but ruined pride, something new inside,
a voice saying,
WASHINGTON
“You gotta fend for yourself.”
COMPANY
“Alex, you gotta fend for yourself.”
WASHINGTON
he started retreatin’ and readin’ every treatise on the shelf.
BURR
There would have been nothin’ left to do
for someone less astute,
he woulda been dead or destitute
without a cent of restitution,
started workin’, clerkin’ for his late mother’s
landlord,
tradin’ sugar cane and rum and all the things he
can’t afford
scammin’ for every book he can get his hands on,
plannin’ for the future see him now as he stands on
the bow of a ship headed for a new land,
In New York you can be a new man.
COMPANY
Scammin’
Plannin’
Oooh...
COMPANY
In New York you can
be a new man—
In New York you can
be a new man—
HAMILTON
Just you wait!
Just you wait!
COMPANY
In New York you can be a new man—
WOMEN
In New York—
3
MEN
New York—
HAMILTON
Just you wait!
COMPA
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