We gotta make an all out stand ayo, I’m gonna need a right-hand man.
ENSEMBLE What?
What?
Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck!
Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck!
WASHINGTON Check it— Can I be real a second? For just a millisecond? Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second? Now I’m the model of a modern major general, the venerated Virginian veteran whose men are all lining up, to put me up on a pedestal, writin’ letters to relatives embellishin’ my elegance and eloquence, but the elephant is in the room, the truth is in ya face when ya hear the British cannons go…
ENSEMBLE Boom!
WASHINGTON Any hope of success is fleeting, how can I keep leading when the people I’m leading keep retreating? We put a stop to the bleeding as the British take Brooklyn, knight takes rook, but look,
WASHINGTON We are outgunned,
outmanned,
outnumbered, outplanned.
We gotta make an all out stand ayo, I’m gonna need a right-hand man.
Incoming!
ENSEMBLE What?
What?
Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck!
Buck, buck, buck, buck, buck!
HAMILTON They’re battering down the Battery check the damages.
MULLIGAN Rah!
HAMILTON We gotta stop ‘em and rob ‘em of their advantages.
MULLIGAN Rah!
HAMILTON Let’s take a stand with the stamina God has granted us. Hamilton won’t abandon ship, Yo, let’s steal their cannons—
MULLIGAN Shh-boom! COMPANY Boom!
WASHINGTON Goes the cannon, watch the blood and the shit spray and…
COMPANY Boom!
WASHINGTON Goes the cannon, we’re abandonin’ Kips Bay and…
COMPANY Boom!
WASHINGTON There’s another ship and…
COMPANY Boom!
WASHINGTON We just lost the southern tip and…
COMPANY Boom!
WASHINGTON We gotta run to Harlem quick, we can’t afford another slip. Guns and horses giddyup, I decide to divvy up my forces, they’re skittish as the British cut the city up. This close to giving up, facing mad scrutiny, I scream in the face of this mass mutiny: are these the men with which I am to defend America? We ride at midnight, Manhattan in the distance. I cannot be everywhere at once, people. I’m in dire need of assistance…
BURR Your excellency, sir!
WASHINGTON Who are you?
BURR Aaron Burr, Sir? Permission to state my case?
WASHINGTON As you were.
BURR Sir, I was a captain under General Montgomery until he caught a bullet in the neck in Quebec, and well, in summary I think that I could be of some assistance. I admire how you keep firing on the British from a distance.
WASHINGTON Huh.
BURR I have some questions, a couple of suggestions on how to fight instead of fleeing west.
WASHINGTON Yes?
BURR Well—
HAMILTON Your excellency, you wanted to see me?
WASHINGTON Hamilton, come in, have you met Burr?
HAMILTON Yes, sir.
HAMILTON AND BURR We keep meeting.
BURR As I was saying, sir, I look forward to seeing your strategy play out.
WASHINGTON Burr?
BURR Sir?
WASHINGTON Close the door on your way out.
HAMILTON Have I done something wrong, sir?
WASHINGTON On the contrary. I called you here because our odds are beyond scary. Your reputation precedes you, but I have to laugh.
HAMILTON Sir?
WASHINGTON Hamilton, how come no one can get you on their staff?
HAMILTON Sir!
WASHINGTON Don’t get me wrong, you’re a young man, of great renown. I know you stole British cannons when we were still downtown. Nathaniel Green and Henry Knox wanted to hire you…
HAMILTON To be their Secretary? I don’t think so.
WASHINGTON Why’re you upset?
HAMILTON I’m not—
WASHINGTON It’s alright, you want to fight, you’ve got a hunger. I was just like you when I was younger. Head full of fantasies of dyin’ like a martyr?
HAMILTON Yes.
WASHINGTON Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder.
HAMILTON Why are you telling me this?
WASHINGTON I’m being honest. I’m working with a third of what our Congress has promised. We are a powder keg about to explode, I need someone like you to lighten the load. So?
COMPANY (EXCEPT HAMILTON) I am not throwin’ away my shot! I am not throwin’ away my shot! Ayo, I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry!
HAMILTON I am not throwing away my shot!
WASHINGTON Son,
WASHINGON AND COMPANY We are outgunned, outmanned!
HAMILTON You need all the help you can get. I have some friends. Laurens, Mulligan, Marquis de Lafayette, okay, what else?
WASHINGTON AND COMPANY Outnumbered, outplanned!
HAMILTON We’ll need some spies on the inside, Some King’s men who might let some things slide.
HAMILTON I’ll write to Congress and tell ‘em we need supplies, you rally the guys, master the element of surprise.
I’ll rise above my station, organize your information, ‘til we rise to the occasion of our new nation. Sir!
ENSEMBLE Here comes the General!
HAMILTON Rise up!
HAMILTON Rise up!
ENSEMBLE Here comes the General!
HAMILTON Rise up! COMPANY Boom!
Chicka-boom!
ENSEMBLE Here comes the General!
SCHUYLER SISTERS Rise up!
SCHUYLER SISTERS AND WOMEN Rise up! ELIZA/ANGELICA/PEGGY Whoa, whoa, whoa...