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Fair that the two are not synonymous, but Burr is also portrayed as a villain, albeit a sympathetic one.
Edit: Sorry, I misread you. What would be sufficient to show that Burr is a villain and not just an antagonist in Hamilton? At the bare minimum, a whole lot of viewers seem to identify him as a villain, so if the casting choices were made to avoid having audiences see a black actor as a villain then they failed.
In order to be a villain, he would have to be villainous. He would have to portray values that are antithetical to the values of the audience, such as acting in a cruel and wanton manner.
I would argue Burr is closer to a foil than a villain, whose role is filled by George.
Thank you for clarifying.
I thought Aaron Burr's ambition, portrayed as unbridled by beliefs, principles, morality etc was supposed to be that.
Honestly his Act 2 character reminds me of Commodus' lines in Gladiator (obviously Commodus is a far more straightforward villain for a whole host of other reasons, but his virtues are similar).
Fair enough. Maybe he's more villainous than I gave him credit in my one viewing of the staged musical.
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