New York Review: HAMILTON
By Toby Zinman
For the Inquirer
Like most critics, I never read reviews before I've written mine, but it was impossible to miss the buzz, the rave headlines, the Sondheim praise, and the line of hopeful returned-ticket buyers on a Wednesday morning. And now I've finally seen Hamilton on Broadway and all I can do is say this was one of the most thrilling theatre experiences I've ever had.
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the musical's book, the music and the lyrics for the show he stars in, and what a brilliant, moving performance it is.
Hamilton is a work of revolutionary musical theater about the American Revolution. It refuses to dumb down American history and the grandeur of the vision of a new nation (the stirring song, "They'll tell the story of tonight" echoes Henry V's Agincourt speech) stymied by political backbiting and infighting, and built by immigrants.
The story follows the life of Alexander Hamilton (based on the celebrated biography written by Ron Chernow) from orphaned teenager arriving in the colonies from his hurricane -destroyed Caribbean home to Founding Father. He is dazzlingly articulate, a man compelled by words, which makes rap, with its endless rhymes and word play and driving electric energy, his perfect stylistic medium, although the score is a complex and witty combination of many musical styles. Likewise, there are flash references to everything from Macbeth to The Pirates of Penzance
Hamilton's first friend in the new world and mortal enemy is Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom, Jr). It is remarkable that the show gives the villain equal time—both narratively and musically. They are perfect opponents and temperamental opposites: Burr is an opportunist, a man without honor, who smiles and waits and discovers he waited too long. Hamilton is ambitious and vigorous; his musical refrain is "I will not throw away my shot." Ironically, the duel that destroys his life (the only thing most people know about Alexander Hamilton is his fatal duel with Burr) happens when he, literally, throws away his shot.
The Founding Fathers are all played by black actors: tall, relentlessly serious Washington (Christopher Jackson), strong, silent Madison (Okieriete Onaodowan), and fun-loving, bouncy, Francophile Jefferson (played with relish by Daveed Diggs, who, in a amusing bit of casting, also plays Lafayette). They stand in contrast to the very white and very hilarious King George (Jonathan Groff is delectable).
Hamilton's love life is complicated by his marrying Eliza (the lovely, sweet Phillipa Soo) whose sister Angelica (the intense and beautiful Renee Elise Goldsberry) – another pair of opposites—also loves him.
There is a huge and talented chorus of multi-racial singers/dancers (choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler), all wearing fascinating costumes (designed by Paul Tazewell) that modulate through centuries of styles, just as the show's linguistic styles do, bending genders and filling the edges of the stage with the new American population, and making the battle scenes urgent and exciting—always tough onstage. Thomas Kail directs it all with astonishing speed and agility.
(I cannot believe that President Obama, having seen this knockout of a show, still wants to take Alexander Hamilton's face off the $10 bill!)