Hamilton’s dizzying, brilliant rap battle lyrics: Use this simple tool to catch them all

Hamilton, the musical, arrived on Disney Plus July 3 for all its paid subscribers (Disney Plus is no longer offering a free trial for new members). If you watched the movie over the weekend for the first time, you may have had a hard time following along with the clever, catchy, yet fast, rap lyrics. 

Fortunately, there’s a simple tool within Disney Plus that will help you keep up with the lyrics so you don’t miss a beat. It’s the Subtitles tool — but if you don’t know where to find it, we’ve got you covered.

Hamilton is a lyrically layered treat that rewards a second viewing, so even if you saw it once, watching again with captions may reveal more clever wordplay, historical references and detail than you got the first – or second, or even fifth — time around. And here are some more spoiler-free things to look for when watching the award-winning hip-hop musical. 

Here’s how to turn on closed captioning on Disney Plus.

1. Open the Disney Plus app on your phone, smart TV or desktop.

2. Find the Hamilton movie (it’s still on the first page, or you can search by title) and click it.

3. Next, tap Play.

4. In the upper right corner of the movie screen, you’ll see an icon shaped like a square with dots on it (it looks like a keyboard). Tap or click it.

5. A screen will open with an option to turn on the subtitles. Tap English [CC]. Right now, English is the only closed captioning language available for Hamilton.

6. If watching on your desktop, you can customize the way the subtitles display on your screen. To do so, select the Gear icon located on the right of the subtitles screen.

7. From here, you can change the font, font color, size and edge. You can also change the background and window color. To go back to the original closed captioning settings, tap Reset to Default.

8. Note that when you turn on the subtitles, they will only display on the Hamilton movie. You’ll have to turn them on for each individual Disney Plus show and movie.

That’s it! Now you can sing along to the Hamilton musical like a pro.

Want to know more about the musical? Here are six surprising things to look for when watching Hamilton, CNET editors watch Hamilton for the first time and debate whether it meets the hype and Hamilton on Disney Plus is a heartwarming cross between a play and TV movie.