Hamilton Reviews
NY Daily News- Highly Recommended
"...Since the Off-Broadway run, performances have all deepened, including Miranda's. He better conveys Hamilton's cockiness, contrition and all-too-human flaws. The charismatic Daveed Diggs aces his roles and lends laughs as Thomas Jefferson and the French general Lafayette. Jonathan Groff (HBO's "Looking") is the picture of pouty petulance as King George III, who appears now and again to warble a Brit-pop tune of vengeance, venom and venality."
Associated Press- Highly Recommended
"...Revolutions are messy, sudden, often brutal things. They're not meant to mature gracefully. Thankfully, no one told the creators of the pulsating 'Hamilton,' which arrives on Broadway sharper, tighter and cleaner than just a few months ago....It's all like nothing you've ever heard or seen before. In one song, the main ladies sing euphorically, 'Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! History is happening in Manhattan.' We couldn't agree more."
Hollywood Reporter- Highly Recommended
"...Having already become a cultural phenomenon in its off-Broadway premiere run earlier this year at the Public Theater, 'Hamilton' - written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, who previously made a name for himself on Broadway with 'In the Heights' - seems a shoo-in for smash hit status and a slew of awards attention...The musical is a triumph."
Vulture- Recommended
"...Even more powerful than such peacockery is the subtler wordplay that makes you nod with understanding. In that opening number, for instance, Miranda pairs the name Alexander Hamilton with the phrase "a million things I haven't done" - say them both out loud to appreciate the alignment of sounds - thus permanently joining, in the audience's ear, the main character with his main quality: impatience to make a mark. Hammerstein would have cringed, yet this and a slew of other verbal leitmotifs, none available to the traditional lyricist, work perfectly to tag each character and, through variation, mark his or her development."
NY1- Highly Recommended
"...It was phenomenal off-Broadway. It's even better now. 'Hamilton' is that rare musical that fires on all cylinders, even ones we never knew existed...In a sense, the collective talents of this bravura company pay homage to Broadway's founding fathers - and mothers - by pushing the envelope on an artform that at best, teaches us, enlightens us and entertains us like nothing else."
Variety- Highly Recommended
"...This innovative show is shaping up to be just as much of a phenomenon uptown, playing in a Broadway house with four times the seating capacity, and to a more traditional but no less enthusiastic audience. That universal appeal to crossover audiences is one unmistakable sign of a groundbreaking show...Like any true landmark."
USA Today- Highly Recommended
"...There has been nothing on Broadway in the past 20 years to rival the riveting, exhilarating and haunting 'Hamilton,' its vitality and ingenuity fully intact...American musicals have long combined social criticism with unabashed romance, a sharp eye with an open heart. Watching that tradition move boldly forward in 'Hamilton,' a fan can't help but feel a little pride."
New York Post- Recommended
"...Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'In the Heights' may have been a hit - but his 'Hamilton' is a phenomenon...But "revolutionary" the show is not. Truly radical art is divisive, and under its brash exterior, 'Hamilton' is warmly reassuring - a love letter to a land of opportunity where 'The 10-dollar founding father without a father/Got a lot farther by working a lot harder/By being a lot smarter/By being a self-starter.'"
Newsday- Highly Recommended
"...With the delirious praise swirling around 'Hamilton' since its Public Theater run, there was danger that Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop masterwork would seem anticlimactic - or at least overhyped - at its Broadway premiere. Instead, the show is even more nuanced, more cohesive in individual performances and its more focused finale. Most important, Miranda and director Thomas Kail have fine-tuned it without losing a shiver of its audacity and thrill."
amNY- Highly Recommended
"...To say that 'Fun Home' is the best new musical of this season would be an understatement. 'Fun Home' is a thoroughly dynamic piece that is just as emotionally piercing, good-humored and enjoyable as it is sharp, focused and culturally conscious. It belongs on the list of the smartest, most innovative musicals written in the past decade."
Wall Street Journal- Highly Recommended
"...'Hamilton' is the best and most important Broadway musical of the past decade. Why important? Because it sounds as though it had been written last week instead of a half-century ago...So do whatever you have to do short of grand larceny to score a ticket to 'Hamilton.' It'll make you want to stand on your seat and yell with delight."
NorthJersey- Highly Recommended
"...The first question critics usually consider when a hit off-Broadway show moves to Broadway is whether it works as well in a larger space. 'Hamilton' does. Emphatically...It's an event that hasn't been over-hyped. The show is spectacularly unique, an endlessly clever history lesson that links us to the country's Founding Fathers in an ingenious and compelling theatrical way"
Washington Post- Highly Recommended
"...`Hamilton' is a captivating mirror of the man whose life it surveys: blazingly original, restlessly innovative, magnetic from start to finish...The intense pride you feel on an evening such as this, when America's story is retold with such style, verve and imagination, is not of a sort that's come by easily on Broadway. There's a magnitude of joy summoned here that suggests that King George is absolutely right. You most certainly will want to be back."
Chicago Tribune- Highly Recommended
"...The Founding Father never had a friend so loyal and true as Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose audaciously ambitious and supremely executed new musical is surely the most entertaining, provocative and moving civics lesson in Broadway history...Many of the songs are quite staggeringly beautiful - richly melodic and passionately performed ballads of fear, hope, determination and pain. They feel traditional and revolutionary at the same time."
Time Out New York- Highly Recommended
"...Thomas Kail's sexy past-is-present staging-a carnival of perpetual motion choreographed to pop-and-lock perfection by Andy Blankenbuehler-has comfortably expanded on Broadway while retaining its intimacy and scenic economy on David Korins's attractive wooden set. There have been judicious cuts in the first act and the second (covering the Whiskey Rebellion) that few will miss. The work's human drama and novelistic density remain astonishing. Lyrical drama, never forget, is a wondrously compact yet expansive form that can spring across years and lifetimes in the twist of a couplet."
The Wrap- Highly Recommended
"...It's the question most asked of theater critics these days: 'Is 'Hamilton' really that good?' Yes, 'Hamilton' is that good, and the still youthful Lin-Manuel Miranda can be mentioned in the same sentence with Sondheim and even Cole Porter."
Deadline- Highly Recommended
"...Every great musical improves on second (and third, and fourth) hearing; 'Hamilton' is no exception. Lin-Manuel Miranda's magnificent adaptation is not, to use that tired cliche, a game-changer. It is, in truth, the quintessence of a Broadway musical destined for the record books...Like 'Rent' 20 years ago and 'A Chorus Line' 40 years so, 'Hamilton' is accessible without pandering and inspirational in sneaky ways that permeate a skeptic's shell."
Talkin Broadway- Somewhat Recommended
"...Does 'Hamilton' live up to all - any - of this hype? And does it need to? From my perspective, the answers are, respectively, a definite no and a solid yes...Though much has been made of the myriad musical and lyrical references that pockmark the evening, they're more about calling attention to themselves than contributing to a consistent texture or sensible narrative. To my reckoning they brand 'Hamilton' even in its slightly altered.."
Cititour.com- Highly Recommended
"...The show creates a swirling intellectual and emotional portrait of one individual that matches, if not bests, any we've previously seen on stage. To accomplish this rare feat, Miranda is aided by the seamless direction of Thomas Kail, the extraordinary, and the stirring orchestrations of Alex Lacamoire, who finds the precisely right sounds for Miranda's wonderfully wide musical vocabulary...Its inventiveness is practically unparalleled. Miranda's book is a marvel, as well."
American Theater Web- Highly Recommended
"...I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But "Hamilton," directed by Thomas Kail and starring Mr. Miranda, might just about be worth it - at least to anyone who wants proof that the American musical is not only surviving but also evolving in ways that should allow it to thrive and transmogrify in years to come."
TheaterMania- Highly Recommended
"...Yes, it's as incredible as everyone says....With his new musical, 'Hamilton,' Lin-Manuel Miranda has an eye on both. He's created a work sure to be enjoyed by generations to come, proudly drawing on America's past as a guiding light to the future. It unequivocally asserts that the revolutionary ideals of 1776 are still valid in 2015. It is nothing short of a masterpiece, destined to change Broadway forever."
TheaterScene.net- Highly Recommended
"Lin-Manuel Miranda's ‘Hamilton' does for the American Revolution what ‘Les Miserables' does for French 19th century history. However, its contemporary sound turns ‘Hamilton' into a theatrical revolution that is just short of titanic. From the expert cast to the impeccable design team to the splendid score and text, ‘Hamilton' makes musical theater history. Just a warning: don't come tired! ‘Hamilton' is fast moving and jam-packed with information. You will want all your faculties about you."
Theatre Is Easy- Highly Recommended
"With Kail's clever direction and Blankenbuhler's athletic choreography, 'Hamilton' 's large cast embodies a bloody war, heated political rivalries, and the outright joy of starting a new nation...Miranda's score is a triumph by itself with a wide range of influences and some of the best lyric writing seen yet this century...The modernity of the production is refreshing and prescient—we might actually be entering a new era of musical theatre."
Huffington Post- Highly Recommended
"...'Hamilton' is not just an excellent and rousing musical; it brings something new to the musical theatre, and does it so very compellingly that superlatives are in order. I--and I expect just about all my critical colleagues--would tell you to stop reading right now and get yer tickets, except there aren't likely many to be had for the next year or three."
Theatre Reviews Limited- Highly Recommended
"With a refreshing book, profoundly innovative music that includes hip-hop, jazz, blues, R&B, and Broadway, and scintillating lyrics, 'Hamilton' exceeds all expectations of theatergoers and rocks the stage with engaging performances and exhilarating choreography...The diverse cast is uniformly outstanding and brilliant...Andy Blankenbuehler's choreography is innovative and precise."
DC Theatre Scene- Highly Recommended
"...When Hamilton opened Off-Broadway in February, I called it groundbreaking and breathtaking - and I was trying not to gush...Analyzing the importance of 'Hamilton' misses the main takeaway from the musical: It's thrilling to watch. It seems always in motion, thanks to a creative team including director Thomas Kail, and especially choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, who keeps the sexy ensemble very busy. They help enhance what are some terrific performances."
As Her World Turns- Highly Recommended
"...What can I say that hasn't already been said about this lauded new musical, perhaps the best this art form has seen in decades? It lives up to the hype. It is indeed brilliant...Composer, lyricist, and star Lin-Manuel Miranda seamlessly blends musical theater and hip hop in a wholly original way...'Hamilton' is as epic as 'Les Mis' and as relevant as a Jay Z album. It is nothing less than revolutionary."
The Clyde Fitch Report- Highly Recommended
"...'Hamilton' joins the ranks of great American musicals...Considered as an American musical dealing directly with Americana an argument could eventually be made for 'Hamilton' as the nation's greatest musical...If a musical even close in quality to this one emerges this season, we're lucky. If a musical even close in quality emerges in the next 10 years, we'd better count our lucky stars."
WNBC- Highly Recommended
"...Miranda's sweeping, largely sung-through musical about Alexander Hamilton, an orphan who became George Washington's right-hand man, took on a second life as a master class in musical theater creation...Miranda's music and lyrics are too textured to be absorbed in one sitting. Turns out, once you've gotten over the first wow, there's plenty more wow to be uncovered."
Broadway World- Highly Recommended
"...As with 'In The Heights', Miranda's ear-popping material kinetically fuses with the exemplary work of director Thomas Kail to explosively tell the story of a man considered one of the first quintessential New Yorkers - a poor immigrant with radical ideas who pushed his way to prominence for the betterment of society."