You’re not just a musical, you’re a global phenomenon. We’d be hard-pressed to find anyone – even non-theatre goers – who haven’t heard of your creator, Lin Manual Miranda, or American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, because of you. You’re a Grammy, Olivier, Pulitzer and Tony Prize winner. Show-off.
Yet we can’t begrudge you. You took six years to fully develop before you first premiered off Broadway in 2015, and Miranda’s attention to detail and historical integrity shows. Almost all of your 27,000 lyrics are imbued with a meaning we want to google further (and yes, that’s a lot of lyrics – around double a normal musical). While you’re easily explained as being the story of Hamilton’s life, you’re actually just as much a story about his devoted wife, Eliza, or his frenemy, Vice President Aaron Burr – or about the American revolution, and creation of one of the world’s most powerful nations.
But you’re also divisive. You either have super fans, or people who just don’t get the fuss or think Alexander Hamilton is a bit of a douche. It’s tricky, because your brilliance isn’t immediately obvious until we’ve seen you multiple times (or listened to your soundtrack again – and again). Some musicals are best experienced without knowing anything beforehand. You, Hamilton, are not one of those. You’re pretentious like that. It’s why we developed a Hamilton Cheat Sheet.
Don’t worry though, you have fans aplenty in Sydney despite your last visit here being only three years ago. Steady fans will recognise many of the same faces from before – including Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, and Elandrah Eramiha as Peggy/Maria Reynolds. Jason – on a side note – has been in the lead role for four years now, touring internationally, which is even longer than Miranda himself was in the role. Basically, he is Hamilton.
Brent Hill also returns as King George III – a total crowd favourite (which we promise is not because he’s the only one we can all understand). New face Gerard-Luke Malgas smashes his first professional theatre role, as both our favourite fighting Frenchman, Lafayette, and cheeky Cabinet nemesis, Thomas Jefferson. Tainga Savage is loveable as both John Laurens and Philip Hamilton – we don’t even mind the absurdity of a grown adult playing a nine-year-old child. We’ll forgive you for all the double role actors too – you do have a hefty list of characters to get through, after all.
Now, can we talk show mechanics? You take us through almost 50 years of history, from 1757 to 1804 – including two military battles, two cabinet meetings, three duels, and a ball. And you do it all with a set design that barely moves for the entire show. Yet we hardly notice. How? You somehow fill the stage with action across dual set levels, and with dynamic choreography, lighting, and sound. Oh – and props (including Reynolds Pamphlets flying everywhere in Act II…what a display of Hamilton’s doom!).
Then there’s your epic song list. There’s a reason your superfans listen to your soundtrack on repeat. Your songs are so. darn. catchy – all 46 of them – and each so unique in sound. Who would have thought re-telling American 18th century politics through R&B and hip-hop would work? Turning cabinet meetings into rap battles was geniuus. Right from the initial riff, we never thought we’d enjoy policy debates quite this much. And having spent a whole year perfecting ‘My Shot’, Miranda might be happy to know it will take even longer for this earworm to leave our heads. And don’t even get us started on ‘Wait for It’, Aaron Burr’s big number – unimportant to the overall story arc, but crucial for showing us Burr’s humanity. Callan Purcell (and, it has to be said, understudy Iosefa Laga’aia), gave value to our overpriced tickets just with that performance alone.
You see, it’s easy to create a story with heroes and villains, but what you do is something else. You delve right into the uncomfortable truth that most of us could be either of those, depending on the circumstance. You give us Burr’s story and then let us judge for ourselves how much of a villain he was. And you don’t shy away from making your hero flawed either. You show us Hamilton’s immense love for his wife and son, but also how he causes them so much pain.
“Long as I’m alive, Eliza, swear to God you’ll never feel so helpless,” he sings. A hypocrite for sure – but who isn’t, really? Vidya Makan, as Hamilton’s helpless and hapless wife, reaches a new level of anguish in ‘Burn’ that feels justified. And then we all felt the emotion during ‘It’s Quiet Uptown’ (lots of sniffly noses – just a coincidence obviously, we weren’t crying..)
Yes Hamilton, what you’ve done on the stage is truly unique. You knew we knew that already – that’s why you came back again so soon. You’ve somehow made the late 17th and early 18th centuries classy, retro, modern and cool. Most importantly, you’ve made us wonder why we can’t learn about all our major historical events through musical theatre form (Edmund Barton The Musical, anyone?)
With Love,
Playing at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from 30 July 2024 – 5 January 2025. Photos by Daniel Boud.
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