For the past 10 years, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop history lesson Hamilton has been enthralling audiences on Broadway, on tour and in productions around the world. So it is probably old news that it is a brilliantly original breakthrough work of musical theater. That it is, but by now the question on potential ticket buyers’ minds has shifted to the quality of the road show … [Read more...]
Cast members agree: There’s nothing like ‘Hamilton’
Playing immigrant founding father Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical phenomenon can be challenge enough. “First of all, ‘Hamilton’ has the most words of any musical ever. And the character himself says the most words ever said on the American stage,” according to Blaine Krauss, who will be playing the role … [Read more...]
Deft ‘Spamilton’ parody also a love letter to theater
For nearly 40 years, Gerard Alessandrini has been poking fun at the shows and stars of the musical theater in his Forbidden Broadway revues. Along the way he came to realize that the more successful the show, the more satirical he could be. So not only was it inevitable that he would get around to lampooning that hip-hop megahit, Hamilton, the hottest ticket in a … [Read more...]
‘Spamilton’ takes loving dig at Miranda and his musical
The more successful a show is, the more it deserves to be spoofed. That is the philosophy of Gerard Alessandrini, the creator and writer of Forbidden Broadway, which has been poking the commercial theater in the ribs for nearly 40 years. And with Hamilton, arguably the most successful musical in a generation, he decided it deserved an entire evening’s parody — which he … [Read more...]
‘Hamilton’ on Disney+ close to glory of stage show
If you were growing up in the late 1950s, like I was, you probably were enthralled by a Disney film about a Revolutionary War apprentice silversmith, Johnny Tremain. But from here on, when the Disney name is mentioned with our War of Independence, it will be because the entertainment conglomerate paid $75 million for the rights to a video recording of the award-laden, … [Read more...]
‘Hamilton,’ at Kravis, is every bit the miracle you’ve heard about
Every generation or so, the musical theater takes a quantum leap of originality, into unexpected, uncharted territory. The latest such milestone is unquestionably Hamilton, the saga of an orphan immigrant Founding Father, told with a largely hip-hop score by a cast of performers of color. For once, you can believe the hype. Hamilton is as engrossing, entertaining and … [Read more...]
The revolution that ‘Hamilton’ wrought
If Broadway composer, lyricist and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda had not taken a vacation to Mexico during the run of his Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, he might never have written his hip-hop history lesson, Hamilton. In the airport on his way to Mexico, you see, he popped into a bookshop and bought Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and read it while … [Read more...]
At Broward Center, ‘Hamilton’ shows it deserves the hype
If only my American history teacher taught with the same energy, passion and wit that Lin-Manuel Miranda brings to the tale of founding father Alexander Hamilton, I might have paid more attention in class. Surely you have heard of the monumental success of Hamilton, a cultural phenomenon by any measure. The biographical musical won 11 Tony Awards as well as the Pulitzer … [Read more...]
What’s on in New York: The Broadway season in review, Part Two
Here is Part Two of my survey of the current Broadway season in New York: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical – There were surely biographical jukebox musicals before 2005’s Jersey Boys, which celebrated the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. But it was the enormous success of that show that begat Beautiful about Carole King’s life, next season’s Cher musical and this … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway, No. 4: Semi-sort-of seeing ‘Hamilton’
Oh well, the odds of winning the Hamilton digital lottery are said to be 80,000 to 1, and — what a surprise — I did not win. But the next day, I ended up seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of Hamilton performing anyway. OK, they weren't actually performing the show Hamilton, but they appeared at the 30th annual Easter Bonnet Competition, where they did a new number … [Read more...]