Watching Hamilton tonight? Try using this simple Disney Plus setting

Whether you’re watching it for the first time or the 10th, if you’re planning to stream Hamilton on Disney Plus this weekend, you probably already know that the award-winning lyrics fly fast and furious. They’re crammed with references to historical moments and musical theater, packed tight with zingers and digs. To get the most out of the cultural phenomenon that is Hamilton, you need to capture every lyric.

If your ears are like a sieve, good luck parsing all of Lafayette’s 32 words rapped in 6 seconds in Guns and Ships, a number on the Revolutionary war. Even after listening to the original Broadway cast recording on Spotify multiple times (and the Hamilton Mix Tape of celebrity covers) and watching the movie musical twice, it can still be tricky to grasp every word of every rap battle.

Fortunately, there’s a simple tool within Disney Plus that’ll help you keep up with the lyrics so you don’t miss a beat: the Subtitles tool. Don’t be afraid that using it will take away from the experience. Hamilton stage productions often include supratitles for the very purpose of helping you follow along. 

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.