I know I said my next post would be about audiobooks, and that’s coming, but last night I attended the musical HAMILTON ( http://www.hamiltonbroadway.com ) on Broadway and a few words are in order.

First off, my family has a strong tie to the name, Hamilton: my mother grew up in the city of Hamilton, Ohio, a one-time industrial (paper products in particular) center located approximately forty-five minutes northwest of Cincinnati. The city is now a commuter bedroom community, but nonetheless maintains a strong sense of history, even if it is now off-the-beaten-path. I’ve written about the city, and my kin, in my short-story “Those Chandelier Earrings” ( https://dwighthilson.com/those-chandelier-earrings ), so I won’t repeat myself here. Suffice it to say, in this stage of my life I have no reason to return to the City of Hamilton, but I’d go back to HAMILTON, the musical in a New York minute.

That’s if I could get a ticket!

This show is going to run for a long, long time, so anyone travelling to NYC will have a chance to snag tickets in the future, but it is well worth the currently required premium to see the show with Lin-Manuel Miranda in the lead. This is not to take anything away from the other players—they are superb—but this is Lin-Manual’s masterpiece, and almost from the opening number you can recognize that he’s created a truly original and enduring work of art. So why not see Lin-Manuel as Hamilton himself if you can? (Note: I overheard ladies sitting behind me say that he does NOT perform the Sunday performances…worth checking out ahead of time.)

I’m neither knowledgeable nor a particularly big fan of Hip-Hop, the musical style most on display here, but Lin-Manuel has made it work, and along the way infused Ellington, jazz, R&B, even shades of Grandmaster Flash into the music, and the result is sublime. You also learn a bit about American history!

I can’t surpass the critical acclaim this musical has already received, but come Tony Award time, I expect this will be the production to will take home all the hardware.

HAMILTON — An American Musical is an awesome experience!