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Hamilton : An American Musical - You HAVE To Check It Out!

kellystewart3
Dec 14, 2016
3 min read

‘I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable, I am an original.’

– Aaron Burr, Wait For It

If you didn’t recognize the quote from above, it is from one of the most successful and talked about musicals of the last decade; Hamilton; An American Musical.

Written by the fantastic Lin Manuel Miranda, it tells the story of the founding father Alexander Hamilton, and rise and fall in the tense political battle taking place in 18th to 19th Century. Filled with some of the most powerful lyrics ever written for a musical in a long time, and being a ground-breaking musical done entirely in the Hip-Hop/Rap genre, has meant that it has soared higher in box office sales than most, and broke the record for most Tony’s nominated (16) and went on to win 11 including ‘Best Musical’ – we 100% agree with that here at On It.

At the airport, while on a vacation from performing in his hit Broadway show In the Heights, (Currently on at the Kings Cross Theatre in London – Check it out it’s amazing!) Lin-Manuel Miranda bought and read a copy of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, a biography of Alexander Hamilton. After finishing the first couple of chapters, Miranda quickly began envisioning the life of Hamilton as a musical. He began a project entitled The Hamilton Mixtape. On May 12, 2009, Miranda was invited to perform music from In the Heights at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word. Instead, he performed the first song from The Hamilton Mixtape, a rough version of what would later become "Alexander Hamilton," Hamilton's opening number. He spent a year after that working on "My Shot", another early number from the show, now incredibly famous for its moving lyrics, and the intense rapping skill the song displays.

The musical made its Off-Broadway debut at The Public Theatre in February 2015, where its engagement was sold out. The show transferred to Broadway in August 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. On Broadway, it received enthusiastic critical reception and unprecedented advance box office sales. The soundtrack went on to win the Drama Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album, and then to be developed most recently into ‘The Hamilton Mixtape’, wherein Lin Manuel Miranda rounded up lots of famous Hip Hop/Rap artists, such as Sia, Chance The Rapper, and Jill Scott, and each perform either a remix, cover, or sample of the musical's songs. The album went straight to No.1 in the charts.

As you can see, the musical’s success is undeniable – but the true question is, why? Well, we feel we have the answer. Besides the amazingly crafted music, lyrics, and performances, the musical represents so much social commentary on the social and political climate of today, and particularly resonates with the youth of the world. It finally brings modern music into what can be seen as the ‘elitist’ theatre setting, and therefore allows theatre to reach a whole new group of people who previously may have found it inaccessible. To us here at On It, that is truly amazing, and shows exactly the exciting future performance is heading into.

Currently, the musical is only playing in New York, Chicago and San Francisco – but it is coming to London in 2017! The On It Team can’t wait, but in the meantime, we highly recommend giving the soundtrack a listen – it’s fun, educational, filled with laughs, tense moments, and tears.