Film,  Music

How HAMILTON’S Lost Song Changed Everything

If you listened to the cast album of Hamilton, you pretty much had the entire play pumped into your ears long before the musical landed on Disney+. There are minor differences you’ll notice when watching it up close for the first time, like King George’s damp performance in You’ll Be Back or how My Shot is referenced (visually) in The World Was Wide Enough. The album is fantastic and alone is one of the greatest works in Broadway’s history. However, it missed one song and that one song recontextualizes everything.

Miranda intentionally cut Lauren’s Interlude (Tomorrow There’ll Be More of Us) from the album. Saying he wanted: “at least one revelation” left for the stage. You can go the entire album without knowing of John’s death and wouldn’t miss anything. In the film, you feel Alexander’s pain. The song that follows Lauren’s Interlude is Non-Stop, the final song of Act I. It’s showing Alexander’s determination, he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. In the film, we see that he’s doing this because of what happened to John. Laurens fought in the war and for the freedom of slaves, but in the end, his legacy is simply a failed abolitionist.

The new somber tone at the beginning of Non-Stop changes your perspective of Alexander’s actions. He wants to preserve his legacy. He’s going to make sure that he is remembered, and in the end, it costs him everything. That drive and determination are what helped him in the war, but it ultimately ruined his life and got him killed. Non-Stop was the finale, showing us the cast after the Revolutionary War. It’s big and full of musical nods to the songs that came before. Now? It’s showing us that Alexander isn’t going to waste any time. We see that Alex is going to make sure that he doesn’t end up like John.

Lauren’s Interlude is not a scene that will set the world on fire, but it is integral to the story of Hamilton. It shows us just how cruel life can be and why Alexander was so determined in the second act. He couldn’t waste any opportunities. He wasn’t going to throw away his shot.

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