Hamilton: The Hidden Meanings Behind Burr’s Room Where It Happens Song

The Hamilton song “The Room Where It Happens” includes clever wordplay, but there’s a deeper meaning to the lyrics. Starring Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr, the Act II musical number explains the Compromise of 1790, in which Alexander Hamilton made a secret deal with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that affected the future of America. “The Room Where It Happens” is thematically about the legacy of the main performers, and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda incorporates historical facts for extra lyrical depth.

“The Room Where It Happens” pushes the narrative forward by developing Burr’s character arc. Early on, he befriends Hamilton and gives him advice before shifting his attention to the wife of a British officer. As Alexander Hamilton (Miranda) becomes a more active politician, Burr waits on the sidelines and watches events play out after the American Revolution. By Hamilton Act II, Burr realizes that his political peers made a dinner table deal with significant implications. In “The Room Where It Happens,” Burr expresses his intentions to be a major player in American politics, and ends the song with the line “click-boom,” which at once serves as an exclamation point for the performance while referencing a popular metaphor for taking action in hip-hop culture. Of course, “click-boom” also foreshadows the final duel in Hamilton, too.

According to Miranda (via Genius), the opening lyrics in “The Room Where It Happens” stem from a revelation that emerged during his research. Miranda wanted to know about the backstory of Mercer Street in Manhattan, and he verified that it existed during Hamilton’s time in New York. Miranda also discovered that Mercer Street was previously called Claremont Street, and had been renamed after Hugh Mercer, one of George Washington’s close friends who was killed at the 1777 Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War. In Hamilton, the opening lyrics about Mercer’s legacy establish the tone for the back-and-forth banter between Hamilton and Burr. Per Miranda:

“What’s funny is how the two of them were obsessed with their legacies. So that’s one of those things where the line actually led me to a really cool historical story and away into the tune. So sometimes you’re working the rhyme to fit the circumstances, but sometimes the line leads you somewhere you don’t expect.”

Miranda also confirmed that the “pièce de résistance” line in “The Room Where It Happens” isn’t merely a cultural reference to the Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette or a clever way to explain the gravity of Hamilton’s compromise with Jefferson and Madison. Instead, there are various meta layers that link to the song’s title and the overall structure of the play. Not only does the French phrase “pièce de résistance” translate to “an outstanding item or event, a showpiece,” but it can also apparently mean “the main dish of a meal.” So, there’s a dual meaning in Hamilton because the big performance is essentially about how America’s future was affected by a dinner meeting between three men.

The “pièce de résistance” line in “The Room Where It Happens” also links to a physical location, as “la pièce” translates to “the room” in French. So, Miranda took a familiar French phrase to reference the epic nature of “The Room Where It Happens,” all the while knowing that general audiences would naturally connect the line to Lafayette. From there, he developed the song title by breaking down secondary meanings to arrive at a “room” where a meal is served; the perfect narrative set-up for the historical handshake agreement that’s known as the Compromise of 1790, and also for the show-stopping Hamilton performance by Odom Jr.

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Q.V. Hough
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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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