Southmoor x Hamilton

[subverting]

About Liza:
She got a lot farther by working a lot harder
By being a lot smarter
By being a self-starter


Lawrence:
Talk less, smile more
Don't let them know what you're against
Or what you're for


Liza:
These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder
Every burden, every disadvantage
I have learned to manage, I don't have a gun to brandish
I walk these streets famished


Lawrence and/or Liza:
Don't be shocked when your history book mentions me!


Lawrence:
Geniuses, lower your voices
You keep out of trouble and you double your choices
I’m with you, but the situation is fraught
You’ve got to be carefully taught:
If you talk, you’re gonna get shot!


Lawrence:
And if we win our independence?
Is that a guarantee of freedom for our descendants?
Or will the blood we shed begin an endless
Cycle of vengeance and death with no defendants?


Liza:
You disgust me
Mercer:
Ah, so you’ve discussed me


Liza:
I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine
So men say that I’m intense or I’m insane
You want a revolution? I want a revelation
So listen to my declaration:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men are created equal”
And when I meet Thomas Jefferson
I’m ‘a compel him to include women in the sequel!


Pro-Mercer councilmen:
Heed not the rabble who scream revolution
They have not your interests at heart
Chaos and bloodshed are not a solution
Don’t let them lead you astray


Clarke:
My dog speaks more eloquently than thee!


Lawrence:
Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder


Neil:
I don’t have a dollar to my name
An acre of land, a troop to command, a dollop of fame
All I have’s my honor, a tolerance for pain
A couple of college credits and my top-notch brain


Mercer (to Laura):
You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied


Lawrence (about Liza):
So this is what it feels like to match wits
With someone at your level! What the hell is the catch? It’s
The feeling of freedom, of seein’ the light
It’s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite! You see it, right?


Laura:
So I’m the oldest and the wittiest and the gossip in
New York City is insidious


Liza and Neil:
Death doesn’t discriminate
Between the sinners
And the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise and we fall
And we break
And we make our mistakes


About Mercer:
He doesn’t hesitate
He exhibits no restraint
He takes and he takes and he takes
And he keeps winning anyway
He changes the game
He plays and he raises the stakes


Liza:
Don’t do a thing. History will prove him wrong


Liza:
I am not a maiden in need of defending, I am grown


Lawrence:
Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory:
You have no control:
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story
I know that we can win
I know that greatness lies in you
But remember from here on in
History has its eyes on you


Liza:
Immigrants - we get the job done


Mercer:
Well, even despite our estrangement, I’ve got
A small query for you:
What comes next?
You’ve been freed
Do you know how hard it is to lead?


Lawrence:
I practiced the law, I practic’ly perfected it
I’ve seen injustice in the world and I’ve corrected it
Now for a strong central democracy
If not, then I’ll be Socrates
Throwing verbal rocks at these mediocrities


Langley:
I know I talk too much, I’m abrasive
You’re incredible in court. You’re succinct, persuasive
My client needs a strong defense. You’re the solution
Lawrence:
Who’s your client?
Langley:
The new U.S. Constitution?
Lawrence:
No


Langley (to Lawrence):
We studied and we fought and we killed
For the notion of a nation we now get to build
For once in your life, take a stand with pride
I don’t understand how you stand to the side


Liza (to Lawrence):
And if your wife could share a fraction of your time
If I could grant you peace of mind
Would that be enough?


Neil:
I’ve been in Paris meeting lots of different ladies...
I guess I basic’lly missed the late eighties...
I traveled the wide, wide world and came back to this…


Lawrence/Langley (to Mercer):
A civics lesson from a slaver. Hey neighbor
Your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor


Laura (about Neil):
You won’t be an ocean away
You will only be a moment away…


Mercer (to Neil):
Uh-oh! You made the wrong sucker a cuckold
So time to pay the piper for the pants you unbuckled


Langley:
You know Clermont Street?
They renamed it after him. The Mercer legacy is secure
And all he had to do was die
Lawrence:
That’s a lot less work
Langley:
We oughta give it a try


Lawrence:
No one really knows how the parties get to yes
The pieces that are sacrificed in ev’ry game of chesssss
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in the room where it happens


Mercer:
When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game
But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game
Oh, you get love for it. You get hate for it
You get nothing if you wait for it, wait for it!


Liza:
We want our leaders to save the day—
But we don’t get a say in what they trade away
We dream of a brand new start—
But we dream in the dark for the most part


Councilmen:
Ev’ry action has its equal, opposite reactions
Thanks to them, our cab’net’s fractured into factions
Try not to crack under the stress, we’re breaking down like fractions
We smack each other in the press, and we don’t print retractions


Liza:
“Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid.”
They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made
I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree
A moment alone in the shade
At home in this nation we’ve made


Lawrence:
I wrote about The Constitution and defended it well
And in the face of ignorance and resistance
I wrote financial systems into existence
And when my prayers to God were met with indifference
I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance


Laura (about Mercer):
Do you know what Angelica said
When we saw your first letter arrive?
She said
“Be careful with that one, love
He will do what it takes to survive.”


Liza (about Lawrence):
You and your words flooded my senses
Your sentences left me defenseless
You built me palaces out of paragraphs
You built cathedrals


Laura (about Neil):
I’m erasing myself from the narrative
Let future historians wonder how I
Reacted when you broke my heart
You have torn it all apart
I am watching it burn
The world has no right to my heart
The world has no place in our bed
They don’t get to know what I said
I’m burning the memories
Burning the letters that might have redeemed you
You forfeit all rights to my heart


Lawrence:
I am just a guy in the public eye
Tryin’ to do my best for our republic
I don’t wanna fight
But I won’t apologize for doing what’s right


Liza:
America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me
You let me make a difference
A place where even orphan immigrants
Can leave their fingerprints and rise up