New COVID-19 'Alexander Hamilton' Parody Focuses on Connections Through Art

April 21st, 2020

There’s a new Hamilton in town. Well, there’s a new Hamilton at home. Featuring updated lyrics by the Chinese film and theatre writer Raymond Zhou, “In Lockdown You Can Be A New Man” has a new main character – the COVID-19 virus – and a message of unity through international arts. Starring actors from touring musical theatre productions and posted on social video platforms within China and on YouTube, the video has garnered nearly 2 million views (as of this writing).

“The virus becomes the villain but a clownish villain,” says Zhou in a call from his home in Beijing. Culture has a power that inspires and transcends and this is clear in “In Lockdown You Can be A New Man,” which alters the lyrics from Hamilton’s opening number.

Like other American imports, musical theatre and hip hop are prominent parts of mass culture in China, where both home-grown musicals and touring international productions have succeeded in recent years. Zhou saw Lin-Manuel Miranda’s production last year when he visited the U.S. and thought he might be able to capture the crisis through parody. He was aware there were many Hamilton parodies on the web but decided to take a different direction, with the virus at the center.

The virus becomes the villain but a clownish villain.

He struggled to find a rhyme scheme that would work until he discovered “COVID-19 Quarantine” for “Alexander Hamilton.” Zhou then called on some of the best musical theatre singers and actors in China and asked them to perform from their homes in quarantine. They each filmed themselves at home and Zhou worked with his editor Maney to put the clips together as a cohesive whole before sharing the finished video online.

Globally, we are more culturally interconnected than we realize. This work underscores how artists reach out across the globe to feel a sense of community in this time of physical isolation but virtual connection. His final lyric changed Aaron Burr’s words in the original from “I’m the damned fool who shot him” to “I’m the damned fool who ignored it.” The bigger message is that we indeed are in this together and none of us can ignore this.

Raymond Zhou interviewed by Rachel Cooper, April 19, 2020.

About the Author

Rachel Cooper is Director of Cultural Diplomacy at Asia Society.

Rachel Cooper is the Director of Culture as Diplomacy initiative at Asia Society, a global not-for-profit institution devoted to building bridges of understanding across policy, arts and culture and education. She is widely recognized as a leader in arts and culture and was the head of Asia Society’s renowned performing arts and cultural programs department for 27 years prior to taking this new position. She has produced and toured over 600 performances and developed new collaborative projects between Asia and the United States. She is a fierce advocate for the live arts and the artists who create in real time on a spectrum across definitions, from contemporary to traditional, from culturally specific to globally inclusive. Some of the major projects she has helped create include New Voice in Screenwriting Fellowship, India, Dance the Spirit of Cambodia, Creative Voices of Muslim Asia, and NY City-wide Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas Festival, Crossovers: the Performances of Asia America; Festival of Song; India Pakistan. She has worked with a wide range of artists – from hip hop to classical, from those based in heritage to the most experimental, including Yin Mei, Malavika Sarrukai, Bun Ching Lam, Yoyo Ma, Vijay Iyer, DJ Spooky; Shahram Nazeri, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Meryl Streep among many others. Culturally traditional performanceshave included Korean Chindo Sikkim Kut, Indonesia’s Court of Yogyakarta, Burmese Saing Waing.Asian American artists such as Ma-Yi Theater, Keo Woolfrod, Roberta Uno, Jon Jang, Brenda Wong Aoki, Mark Izu, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Parul Shah, among others.

Cooper’s work focuses on process, cultural context, and relationship, exploring the connections between arts, culture, community and contemporary society. She is a frequent participant at major conferences and a commentator in the media from CNN to the NY Times. She has also served as an advisor or panelist for major international projects and institutions in the United States and Asia, including the Smithsonian Institutions, including the One Shared World, National Endowment for the Arts, US State Department, CenterStage ,Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts, Aga Khan Music Initiative, Jaipur Literary Festival, among others.

Cooper received the Global Citizen Diplomacy Award for Best Practice in the Arts Award, Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, Manhattan Award for Preserving Cultural Diversity in New York City, and a Rockefeller MAP award for choreography. From 1989-1993, she directed the Festival of Indonesia In Performance, bringing over 200 artists from Indonesia on 12 different tours across the United States. She serves on the boards of Cambodian Living Arts, American Indonesian Cultural Foundation. Cooper is the co-founder and former director of the California-based Balinese music and dance company, Gamelan Sekar Jaya in1979. She lived in Indonesia from 1981-88. She studied at UCLA in World Arts and Cultures and Dance Ethnology.

Rachel Cooper directs the Culture as Diplomacy Initiative at Asia Society as leader in global culture. Cooper’s explores the connections between culture and contemporary society. She is a frequent participant at major conferences and a commentator in the media addressing Asian performing arts, international arts exchange, and cultural diplomacy. She served as advisor and panelist for major institutions, including the US State Department CenterStage, Duke Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, NEA, Aga Khan Music Initiative.

Cooper has received numerous awards including Borough of Manhattan Award for Preserving Cultural Diversity, a Global Citizen Diplomacy Award for Best Practice and Award for Sustained Programmatic Excellence from APAP. She directed the Festival of Indonesia InPerformance, bringing over 200 artists from Indonesia on 12 different tours across the United States. She did her undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA in World Arts and Cultures and Dance Ethnology. Cooper conducted research in Indonesia from 1983-1988.

@rachelanncooper