Hamilton’s return is spectacular – and exactly what we need right now

Hamilton
Lyric Theatre
July 8
Until January 5
Reviewed by CHANTAL NGUYEN
★★★★★

In Hamilton, bad-guy Aaron Burr has an epiphany: his life’s desire is the inner circle, “the room where it happens”.

“I gotta be in the room!” he sings, eyes gleaming with yearning, “Click, boom!”

Blockbuster musical Hamilton has returned to Sydney.Credit: Daniel Boud

Hamilton triggers a similar gleam in audience eyes. It has smashed box office sales all over the world since it was first performed in 2015, hoovered up a record-breaking number of awards (Tonys, a Pulitzer, Grammy, Emmy, and Olivier), and catapulted creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to global fame. The hip hop musical about the USA’s Founding Fathers is a cultural juggernaut, a revolution in itself.

On Thursday’s opening night for Sydney’s second season at the Lyric Theatre, the audience screams with each character’s entrance (Hamilton! Lafayette! THOMAS JEFFERSON!). The hysteria is justified because watching Hamilton is like being blinded by genius. The costumes, set, and lighting (all the original Broadway designs) are serviceable but unspectacular, and some of the singing in the second act had minor pitch issues. But who cares?

It’s Miranda’s music and above all his electrifying words – over 27,000 of them – that leave you dazed, buzzing. Like Hamilton, he “writes like tomorrow won’t arrive”.

Hamilton averages 144 words per minute, boasts Broadway’s fastest rap (Guns and Ships at 6.3 words per second), and requires leads that are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Colour) who can act, sing, and rap.

My distinguished colleague John Shand recently likened Miranda’s word-smithery to James Joyce. I’ll add Miranda went further because Joyce never pushed an entire demographic into the limelight, writing them “back in the narrative” (as Eliza sings) like Miranda did with BIPOC artists.

The Australian cast is brilliant. The ensemble is a hothouse of triple threats, featuring plenty of fan favourites from previous seasons returning as leads.

Jason Arrow makes Hamilton his own – smoother, more youthful and honey-voiced than Miranda’s acerbic interpretation. Callan Purcell brings complex humanity to Burr. Akina Edmonds is a powerhouse as Angelica. Elandrah Eramiha shines then smoulders as Peggy/Maria. And Brent Hill steals every scene as King George.

Brent Hill in all his regal glory as King George III. Credit: Daniel Boud

The newcomers also impress. The night’s discovery is Googoorewon Knox’s Washington: world-weary, commanding, and richly voiced. Gerard-Luke Malgas is pure glee as Lafayette and even more riotous as Jefferson. Etuate Lutui and Tainga Savage shine as Mulligan and Laurens. Vidya Makan’s Eliza is sweet-voiced, though her theatrical depth in the role seems still developing.

Hamilton has been criticised for sidestepping thorny historical issues inconvenient to its racially diverse casting, like slavery (the historical Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson and Schuyler family are all tainted). But on this second season viewing, it’s clearer than ever that Hamilton was never about textbook history. Its central premise is a romantic dream of the American mythos: that anyone – regardless of race, status, or privilege – can shape a nation. With enough talent and determination, even migrant outsiders like Hamilton (and Miranda) take their place “in the room where it happens”.

It’s this that led Hamilton to be described as the supreme artistic expression of Obama-era multicultural nationalism and optimism. In today’s tired, divided political climate Hamilton especially charms, with its brilliant story of statesmen who are flawed but sympathetic visionary heroes, and its core message that there are values worth living for, and dying for.

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it every Friday.