Inspiration From The Imagination

you know what’s a better question than “is this too self-indulgent?”? “is this self indulgent enough?”

Things kids today don’t have to worry about...

COLLINS-HUGHES:  The first time I saw “Hamilton,” blown away as I was by it — and I am staunchly in the “Hamilton” is a work of genius camp — I was disappointed that there was so much terrific stuff for so many men to do, and basically two substantial female characters who are crucial to the story but still pretty much on its margins. SOLOSKI: Yeah, I can and will go completely fangirl for “Hamilton,” but that show is never passing the Bechdel test. The women are sensational, Renée Elise Goldsberry, as Angelica, his whip-smart sister-in-law, particularly, but the characters exist only to love, marry and seduce Hamilton. I’m glad that the script makes us aware of how brilliant Angelica is (“I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas/Paine./So men say that I’m intense or I’m insane”) and how much Eliza, Hamilton’s wife, achieves after his death, but there’s no getting around how marginal they are. After they meet him, do they ever talk about anything else? COLLINS-HUGHES: I knew you were going to pull out that quote! I love that line. But I do think the Bechdel test argument is not the strongest when these two characters, Angelica and Eliza, are sisters whose relationship predates and outlasts their relationships with Hamilton. Each has the other’s back, which matters, and it also matters that Angelica — who breaks my heart every time I listen to that cast album — has a relationship with Hamilton that’s not just about sexual attraction. It’s about intellectual companionship, too. SOLOSKI: I read recently that Lin-Manuel Miranda likes the idea of cross-casting some of the men’s roles with women once the show is licensed to high schools and colleges. A few years from now, I’d like to see a female Aaron Burr just killing it. That’s what I want to see all the time — not necessarily women in men’s roles, but roles for women that are just as rich and complicated and brave and villainous and surprising and messed up as those available to men. […] COLLINS-HUGHES: It feels to me like more producers are getting the message female artists have been sending: that it’s not O.K. to exclude them and that they’ll make as much noise as necessary to get doors opened to them. That issue was only amplified at last year’s Tonys when the creators of “Fun Home,” the wondrous Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, got their book and score awards off-air. But I’d love to see greater daring by producers — and I’d like them to keep in mind that female theatergoers are a majority but not a monolith. SOLOSKI: This season, I’ve worried that we still need to approach female characters as victims to accept them as heroes. (More cynically, I’ve discovered that if you want a Tony this year, lose a child. Or survive a rape. I’m sure Ms. McDonald would have received a nomination had her “Shuffle Along” character been more anguished.) Next season, I’d like to see women suffer a little less and run the world a little more.

But if Hillary isn’t very much liked