What a great post! We could even go out on a limb (pun intended) and consider how the Reciter is like Aaron Burr--(spoiler alert for those who don't know PACIFIC OVERTURES): after all, the Reciter reveals himself in the final scenes to be the Emperor who will out-technologize and surpass the West! How sharp of Miranda to craft his view of power structures and their systemic exclusion of citizens; how lucky of us to have yet another few of Sondheim's vividly drawn outsiders redefining the center of lived experience.
What a great post! We could even go out on a limb (pun intended) and consider how the Reciter is like Aaron Burr--(spoiler alert for those who don't know PACIFIC OVERTURES): after all, the Reciter reveals himself in the final scenes to be the Emperor who will out-technologize and surpass the West! How sharp of Miranda to craft his view of power structures and their systemic exclusion of citizens; how lucky of us to have yet another few of Sondheim's vividly drawn outsiders redefining the center of lived experience.