The smash hitHamiltonisn’t your typical Broadway show . Instead of the established ballads you might await from a biographical melodic , its soundtrack lean nearer to rap and rose hip - hop . It was adapted from Ron Chernow’scomprehensive biographyof the found beginner , and the show ’s creator credits the amount of contentedness he was able to fit into its150 - minute runto its musical style .
In an consultation withGrantland , composer , writer , lyricist , and star Lin - Manuel Miranda said the story would have been impossible to tell at a more schematic step : “ It would have to be 12 hr long , because the amount of words on the bar when you ’re writing a typical birdcall — that ’s maybe commence 10 words per logical argument . ”
Leah Libresco fromFiveThirtyEightlooked further into this title by comparingHamilton ’s parole count to a diverse sampling of Broadway musicals . A amount of 20,520 language are crammed intoHamilton ’s two hour and 23 min cast record album . That ’s 144 words per hour — well-nigh twice as many as the Caranx crysos - up , Spring Awakening , which clocks in at 77 word per second . Libresco concluded that ifHamiltonwere sung at the same yard of the other shows she canvas , it would play somewhere between four and six hours .
Hamiltonmay possibly hold the title of fastest - pace Broadway show , but the distinction of exclusive fastest song is still fairly much a toss - up . “ torpedo and Ships , ” the fast song in Miranda ’s show , gun barrel along at 6.3 news per second , while “ Not Getting marital Today ” from the Sondheim musicalCompanycomes in at 6.2 . Libresco point out that the pacing in “ Not suffer marital ” is still more of a challenge , as the Isaac Merrit Singer of “ Guns and Ships ” is granted more rupture to breathe while the ensemble chime in . Both song are faster thanThe Pirates of Penzance ’s “ I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major - General , ” one of the best knownpatter songsof all clock time .
To see the pacing of each musicalin chart form , youcan read the full articlehere .
[ h / t : FiveThirtyEight ]
