I never had much interest in seeing a hip-hop Alexander Hamilton. I'm not big on rap (I'm old, after all). But since it came to TV I figured I'd take a look.
It's a bold, brave, revolutionary work that I really admire, but it's also a bunch of people rapping, which meant I found it musically less engaging than something like Cabaret and also that I often had difficulty following the story, since it's actually a rap *opera* in which all the dialogue is rapped (or sung).
The cast is very good, particularly Renée Elise Goldsberry and Leslie Odom Jr., who are electric. The weakest cast member, unfortunately, is the star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who I don't believe could have landed the part of Hamilton if he wasn't the playwright. He's not awful, but he never catches fire the way others do.
It's a very smart musical. It's beautifully staged (love that eye-of-the-tornado scene). If you like rap it's probably the best musical ever made. I probably would have liked it better with subtitles.
It's a bold, brave, revolutionary work that I really admire, but it's also a bunch of people rapping, which meant I found it musically less engaging than something like Cabaret and also that I often had difficulty following the story, since it's actually a rap *opera* in which all the dialogue is rapped (or sung).
The cast is very good, particularly Renée Elise Goldsberry and Leslie Odom Jr., who are electric. The weakest cast member, unfortunately, is the star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who I don't believe could have landed the part of Hamilton if he wasn't the playwright. He's not awful, but he never catches fire the way others do.
It's a very smart musical. It's beautifully staged (love that eye-of-the-tornado scene). If you like rap it's probably the best musical ever made. I probably would have liked it better with subtitles.