Hamilton: Superstar — A Semiotic Poster Analysis
This instantly recognizable theatre poster advertises the musical Hamilton, which has broken records and sold out across the globe. In the poster, we see a silhouetted figure forming the top point of a black star in the centre of a gold background. The man is wearing an overcoat (with gold/yellow buttons, the only detail on the silhouette) and tall boots and is pointing upwards. Inside the star, in white, reads “HAMILTON / AN AMERICAN MUSICAL”. The poster boasts a very simple design, indicating the lack of necessity for stuffing it full of starred reviews, big names, venue information, awards, and other selling points. To be fair, I have found versions that include some of the above information, but never much of it, and never emphasized.
The figure on top of the star is Alexander Hamilton, the titular character. He is assuming a confident, powerful position. One foot steps in front of the other to convey a sense of moving forward, one of the main focuses of the show as the founding fathers move America forward as a nation. His overcoat blows back slightly, emphasizing the forward movement while also suggesting resistance (here, the wind, in the story/history, his many opponents). Importantly, the figure is black. Of course, it’s a silhouette, but the show is famous for casting visible minorities in all roles (except the King who is intentionally white, representing Britain, the common enemy). The only non-black part of the figure are his three buttons. Other than serving to clarify the type of coat he’s wearing (the time period is key) and break up the monotony of the figure, they could represent the three Schuyler sisters, the three fundamental truths the eldest has regarding her doomed love for Hamilton, or the tripartite motto from the Declaration of Independence: “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”. (But these seem flimsy, leave your interpretations in the comments!) The clothing Hamilton wears here suggests his high status. Having gone to America as an orphan immigrant, he did eventually elevate his status. Socially, he moved upward, as suggested by the hand gesture in the poster.
While Hamilton points upwards towards the stars, he is also standing on one. He forms the missing point, suggesting that he completed something with a missing piece — America, perhaps. Further star imagery is heavy: Theatre has stars onstage (the actor who plays Hamilton and his co-stars), and Hamilton was known in his time as one of the founding fathers and a prominent politician (among other things). This positions Hamilton as a “superstar” in the same way as Jesus is framed as such in Jesus Christ Superstar, imposing modern celebrity on historical figures. This is step one in drawing in an audience: reframing something possibly boring (a play about politics and history) as something juicy and relatable in modern times (this mysterious silhouette who’s suggested as being famous and surrounded by gold).
This last point is key for piquing interest as the title and tag line are unclear and somewhat boring, possibly more so to a non-American (like me, Canadian), which makes a difference to a global audience. I’ll be the first one to claim ignorance: I didn’t know who Alexander Hamilton was before learning through this show. To me, Hamilton is a mid-sized town just outside of Toronto, and I wouldn’t get excited over a musical about it. Below the title, the tag line reads: “AN AMERICAN MUSICAL”. Well there are a lot of American musicals, so, again, I’m not too jazzed about that either. But once you know that this isn’t an “American musical” but rather a “musical about how America became America,” then the tagline hits harder. It does so by boldly exceeding our assumptions about what it would mean in most other contexts (that it was produced in America or written by an American, for example).
This whole silhouette/star/title is placed in the centre of the poster, maintaining a simple symmetry, and is surrounded by a mottled gold background. The black grouping in the centre emphasizes the racial casting of the show, while complementing the gold to create a poster that seems classy. It might need this little nudge as it is a show based on hip-hop music, which some people may not think of as classy or worth them breaking their comfort zone to pay big bucks for.
Overall, this poster design emanates confidence and gives just the right amount of information to target the few weak spots in audience engagement. It maintains a classiness while also pulling out elements of the show that audiences will find appealing or socially motivating. Lastly, it tells us about the show’s racialized casting, themes of progress, and era while drawing us in with the promise of stardom.
Works Cited:
Miranda, Lin-Manuel. “Ten Dual Commandments”. Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), Atlantic Records, 2015. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/track/3lXyAQ0kekAvY5LodpWmUs?si=yWdjl_3vRVKZ8fJqr5jilA. Accessed November 2020.
SpotCo. “Hamilton Poster”. Image retrieved from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-American-Musical-Broadway-Poster/dp/B07ZVT6KJS. Accessed November 2020.
