Hamilton (NYC)

"With 'Hamilton,' Broadway is officially the coolest place on the planet. And the smartest. And most exhilarating. Yes, composer, lyricist, author and leading man Lin-Manuel Miranda’s magical musical tour of the life of the '10-dollar Founding Father,' Alexander Hamilton, is that great. It’s even richer and more eloquent since its run earlier this year at the Public Theater." Full Review

"With a refreshing book, profoundly innovative music that includes hip-hop, jazz, blues, R&B, and Broadway, and scintillating lyrics, 'Hamilton' exceeds all expectations of theatergoers and rocks the stage with engaging performances and exhilarating choreography...The diverse cast is uniformly outstanding and brilliant...Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography is innovative and precise." Full Review

"'Hamilton' is not just an excellent and rousing musical; it brings something new to the musical theatre, and does it so very compellingly that superlatives are in order. I--and I expect just about all my critical colleagues--would tell you to stop reading right now and get yer tickets, except there aren't likely many to be had for the next year or three." Full Review

"The show creates a swirling intellectual and emotional portrait of one individual that matches, if not bests, any we’ve previously seen on stage. To accomplish this rare feat, Miranda is aided by the seamless direction of Thomas Kail, the extraordinary, and the stirring orchestrations of Alex Lacamoire, who finds the precisely right sounds for Miranda’s wonderfully wide musical vocabulary…Its inventiveness is practically unparalleled. Miranda’s book is a marvel, as well." Full Review

"Every great musical improves on second (and third, and fourth) hearing; 'Hamilton' is no exception. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s magnificent adaptation is not, to use that tired cliché, a game-changer. It is, in truth, the quintessence of a Broadway musical destined for the record books...Like 'Rent' 20 years ago and 'A Chorus Line' 40 years so, 'Hamilton' is accessible without pandering and inspirational in sneaky ways that permeate a skeptic’s shell." Full Review

"'Hamilton' is the best and most important Broadway musical of the past decade. Why important? Because it sounds as though it had been written last week instead of a half-century ago...So do whatever you have to do short of grand larceny to score a ticket to 'Hamilton.' It’ll make you want to stand on your seat and yell with delight." Full Review

"The Founding Father never had a friend so loyal and true as Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose audaciously ambitious and supremely executed new musical is surely the most entertaining, provocative and moving civics lesson in Broadway history...Many of the songs are quite staggeringly beautiful — richly melodic and passionately performed ballads of fear, hope, determination and pain. They feel traditional and revolutionary at the same time." Full Review

"The landmark new musical presents a soulful, electrifying retelling of America’s birth. Its ingenious use of hip-hop, a medium and a culture in many ways born from that oppression, to reclaim American history is nothing short of revolutionary...The musical’s ability to combine the sensational with the theoretical is one of its greatest strengths." Full Review

"This show, despite a major cast change, is a 10 out of 10. It's crisp, loud, and strong. I saw the swing cast - and even with these 3rd stringers - the show was magnificent and I cannot imagine it being better...To be fair - it's dense - very dense...I think the ensemble may just be the hardest working ensemble on Broadway today...It's a bona-fide hit and I am incredibly thankful for the ticket and will treasure my experience even more because of it." Full Review

"Director Thomas Kail keeps the story moving along with fluid precision and at an exhausting, nonstop pace at all times. The fusion of direction and choreography complement each other in the frenetic goings-on in this nearly three-hour, monumental show. 'Hamilton' has truly started a Broadway revolution and will continue to influence the American musical theater for years to come." Full Review

“Miranda puts eloquence in every mouth…‘Hamilton’ does offer enough musical theater touchstones to please the purist...Tom Kail’s direction and Andy Blankenbuehler’s choreography make for a seamless, sure-handed musical replete with stunning stage pictures...So Miranda has become one of those comparatively rare musical theater writers who follows his first success ('In the Heights') with a much greater triumph.” Full Review

"Lin-Manuel Miranda has turned a Founding Father’s largely forgotten narrative into one of the most joyful, kinetic, and extravagantly original musicals ever imagined for the stage...The play’s intrigue comes mostly from its potent stew of friendship and romance and outsize ambition; it’s as if 'House of Cards' were folded into a sort of 'Days of Our Colonial Lives' fever dream, then filtered through the minds of Tupac and Sondheim. It’s that strange and that spectacular, and you’d be crazy t... Full Review

"This ambitious, inventive show remains strong across the board: the entertaining, informative and emotionally involving book is filled with moments of humor and pathos, the characters are vividly drawn, the lyrics are extremely clever, the choreography supports the action brilliantly, the cast is uniformly strong and the direction is fluid and assured...The good news is that the newcomers to the cast are generally fine and the production is as sharp as ever." Full Review

"As with 'In The Heights', Miranda's ear-popping material kinetically fuses with the exemplary work of director Thomas Kail to explosively tell the story of a man considered one of the first quintessential New Yorkers - a poor immigrant with radical ideas who pushed his way to prominence for the betterment of society." Full Review

"It’s the question most asked of theater critics these days: 'Is ‘Hamilton’ really that good?' Yes, 'Hamilton' is that good, and the still youthful Lin-Manuel Miranda can be mentioned in the same sentence with Sondheim and even Cole Porter." Full Review

"Revolutions are messy, sudden, often brutal things. They're not meant to mature gracefully. Thankfully, no one told the creators of the pulsating 'Hamilton,' which arrives on Broadway sharper, tighter and cleaner than just a few months ago....It's all like nothing you've ever heard or seen before. In one song, the main ladies sing euphorically, 'Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! History is happening in Manhattan.' We couldn't agree more." Full Review

"Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 'In the Heights' may have been a hit — but his 'Hamilton' is a phenomenon...But “revolutionary” the show is not. Truly radical art is divisive, and under its brash exterior, 'Hamilton' is warmly reassuring — a love letter to a land of opportunity where 'The 10-dollar founding father without a father/Got a lot farther by working a lot harder/By being a lot smarter/By being a self-starter.'” Full Review

"Does 'Hamilton' live up to all — any — of this hype? And does it need to? From my perspective, the answers are, respectively, a definite no and a solid yes...Though much has been made of the myriad musical and lyrical references that pockmark the evening, they're more about calling attention to themselves than contributing to a consistent texture or sensible narrative. To my reckoning they brand 'Hamilton,' even in its slightly altered, more precise uptown incarnation, as unsatisfying and un... Full Review

"You will never enjoy a story of the American Revolution more than this one as written and told by Lin-Manuel Miranda...This was not so much about the story for me as it was about how the story was told by this beautifully sculpted and colorful; mainly African-American and Latino cast...This production is truly masterful, and brings a modern twist to nearly 300-year-old history...This show fills the stage, and will fill every one of your senses." Full Review