HAMILTON Reviews

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 8:41pm

AM New York gives the show 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars:

"“Hamilton,” a new rap musical about the life and times of founding father Alexander Hamilton, written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda (“In the Heights”) and now receiving its world premiere at the Public Theater, has been more eagerly anticipated than any other show this season.

So anticipated, in fact, that the question for industry pundits has become not whether but when it will transfer from downtown to Broadway.

Having finally seen “Hamilton” for myself, I can report that it’s dynamic and smart but hardly a masterwork – at least not yet. In its current form, it is raw, overstuffed as a narrative and far too long (just under three hours)..."

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/hamilton-review-lin-manuel-miranda-takes-on-alexander-hamilton-1.9949020 Updated On: 2/17/15 at 08:41 PM

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 8:43pm

Time Out New York gives the show 5 Stars out of 5:

"History ticks to a syncopated beat in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s jubilant, overflowingly rich Hamilton. And just as syncopation achieves its energizing effect by disturbing the expected flow, so Miranda’s biomusical on founding father Alexander Hamilton is a rhythm-and-rhyme intervention for American iconography and ideology. This populist throwdown to the way we tell our stories and spin our songs is about the Revolution, and it is a revolution: hip-hop grooves stuffed with political critique, heroes of color taking over the old house and throwing a party. You’re invited, but you’ve got to learn new moves."

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/hamilton

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:17pm

Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking new musical about the life and times of the Founding Father whose face is on the ten dollar bill, is thrilling on at least three levels – as a series of exciting performances, as an entertaining history lesson, and as the first-ever hip-hop opera....
.A show that even before it opened received ecstatic praise from such gods of musical theater as Stephen Sondheim (“I was knocked out.”) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (“It raises and changes the bar for musicals”) is going to raise expectations too high. I feel it part of my civic duty, then, to point out that Hamilton is not a perfect show. Swirling with characters, crowded with incident, full of dense language, it’s simply too much to take in at a single sitting.
Lin-Manuel's Hip-Hopped History Musical

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:24pm

The Hollywood Reporter is a Rave:

"There's rarely been a history lesson as entertaining as Lin-Manuel Miranda's new hip hop-infused musical about Alexander Hamilton, or, as the opening number puts it, "The ten-dollar founding father without a father." Based on Ron Chernow's best-selling biography, Hamilton brings American history to musical-theater life in a style akin to the classic 1776, only with a hipper, more multi-cultural attitude. Currently enjoying a virtually sold-out off-Broadway premiere engagement at the Public Theater, where its run has already been extended twice before the official opening, the show seems inevitably destined for a Broadway transfer."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/lin-manuel-mirandas-hamilton-theater-774361

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:31pm

Newsday is a Rave:

"Yes, [Miranda] probably could take out two of every 10 ideas and still be left with piles of startling character development. And perhaps Hamilton's backstory, passed around different narrators, can be made easier to follow and the final scene lifted to the power of the rest of the show before the inevitable Broadway transfer.

Or maybe the musical and every charismatic actor and each swirling, popping dancer should just be left as they are..."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/hamilton-review-thrilling-show-by-lin-manuel-miranda-of-in-the-heights-1.9944463

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 09:31 PM

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:36pm

The Associated Press is Positive:

"The audience will get a tremendous amount of information about Hamilton. Did you know he had a thing for his sister-in-law? And they'll also get too much about the smaller moments in American history. The Whiskey Rebellion, anyone? The Battle of Monmouth?

When everything works, it's thrilling to watch. "The Room Where It Happened" is a real feat of choreography, performance and stagecraft, led by Odom, who is an anguished, multi-dimensional Burr. "The Duel Commandments" is a clever riff from the Notorious B.I.G's "Ten Crack Commandments," and "Satisfied" is a "Rashomon" love moment led by a glorious Goldsberry..."

http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/17/4563617/review-lin-manuel-mirandas-hamilton.html

[ZannaDo]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:40pm

(NVM) Updated On: 2/17/15 at 09:40 PM

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:45pm

Deadline is a Rave:

"Hamilton, which acknowledges its debt to both ['Les Mis' and 'Rent'] among others, is the rare show critics leave the theater thinking, This is the future of Broadway. We’re almost always wrong. Not this time, I think...

...As of-the-moment as Pitbull and yet timeless as Rodgers & Hammerstein, Hamilton also certifies the Public as the country’s premier incubator for new-musical talent. If there’s any justice, Hamilton will follow the same route as that earlier Broadway show about the American Revolution, 1969’s 1776, which was equally adventurous in its way, just as unlikely—and a Tony-winning box office hit."

http://deadline.com/2015/02/musical-hamilton-opens-public-theater-1201375233/ Updated On: 2/17/15 at 09:45 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:49pm

John Madison? Seriously?

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:50pm

I do not understand AM NY's review at all. I think you could certainly find things to criticize but I do not believe this score relies too heavily on rap. A large portion of the score ranges from R&B to reggae to pop to indie rock. And as for the actors "playing themselves" - they are indeed playing somewhere between modern-folk and the founding fathers - and by doing this they are drawing parallels between the stories of modern-day immigrants and these historical figures. That, to me, was the brilliance of the show.

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 9:56pm

I will also just add that it is ridiculous the wealth of new and innovative musicals the Public continues to churn out (Here Lies Love, Fun Home, Passing Strange, Caroline or Change, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson). Even those that did not get the benefit of the hype-machine (Giant, Fortress of Solitude, February House) are better than anything the other non-profits are creating. Kudos to Mr. Eustis and his team.

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:01pm

Talkin' Broadway is Negative:

"When history comes alive (something it seldom does) in Hamilton, which just opened at The Public Theater, it tends to do so on the wave of a yawn. This new musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda may be many things — or, more accurately, it may be too many things — but exciting is not one of them.

To those familiar with In the Heights, the musical for which Miranda earned a 2008 Tony Award for Best Score, this should not come as much of a surprise. Miranda works well in the contemporary idiom, and is as skillful at deploying of-the-minute genres like rap and hip-hop as he is weaving in elements of more traditional theatrical forms, but generating excitement is not what he does. He's more of a comfort technician, gifted at making you feel better about what you already know and like than exposing you to anything new.

It's one thing when your subject is an Independence Day weekend in the barrio, and something else altogether when it's the circumstances and people surrounding America's actual independence and the growing pains associated with it. For Hamilton, Miranda, who has reunited with his In the Heights director (Thomas Kail), choreographer (Andy Blankenbuehler), and other assorted personnel, has attempted to adapt Ron Chernow's 2004 biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton using the tricks and techniques that served him so well on that earlier, lighter show. And the results are about as cluttered as you'd expect..."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/2_17_15.html

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:09pm

The New York Times is Very Positive:

"They’re brewing up a revolution down on Lafayette Street. And even theater reactionaries seem destined to be swept up in its doubt-defying ardor.

“Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s independent-minded new musical for the masses at the Public Theater, shot open like a streamlined cannon ball on Tuesday night. When one of the young rebels who populate this vibrant work says, “History is happening in Manhattan,” you can only nod in happy agreement [...]

The show finds the vivacity in matters of constitutional debate and financial structuring, while pausing to assess the human casualties of glory-chasing existences, lived consciously in the eyes of history. That’s the stuff of the second half, which isn’t quite the unqualified upper that the first act is. (At two and three-quarter hours, the production could still be trimmed by 15 minutes.)

But it’s probably not possible to top the adrenaline rush of revolution, when men can chant, “Hey yo, I’m just like my country/I’m young, scrappy and hungry/And I’m not throwing away my shot.” Ambitious, enthusiastic and talented in equal measures, Mr. Miranda embodies those sentiments in a show that aims impossibly high and hits its target.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/theater/review-in-hamilton-lin-manuel-miranda-forges-democracy-through-rap.html Updated On: 2/17/15 at 10:09 PM

[indytallguy]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:12pm

Rave from USA Today **** out of four stars:

"Live entertainment doesn't get more exciting than this, in any form. So believe the hype: Hamilton is revolutionary in its own right, and an extraordinary achievement."
USA Today review

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:16pm

"groundbreaking"

Oh no! There's that word again.

"Innovative"

Oh no! That other word again.

"The New York Times."

Oh no, no, no!

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:16pm

The New York Post gives the show 3 Stars out of 4:

"For months now, a deafening buzz has surrounded “Hamilton.” Rumor had it that creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda — a Tony winner for “In the Heights” — would apply his magic hip-hop touch to first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and the American Revolution, and make them cool.

Well, mission half-accomplished..."

http://nypost.com/2015/02/17/lin-manuel-miranda-creates-an-ambitious-musical-portrait-with-hamilton/

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:21pm

New York Magazine is a Rave:

"I don’t mean to suggest that you’re unpatriotic if you aren’t moved by Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s sensational new hip-hop biomusical at the Public. But in order to dislike it you’d pretty much have to dislike the American experiment. The conflict between independence and interdependence is not just the show’s subject but also its method: It brings the complexity of forming a union from disparate constituencies right to your ears. It may confuse your ears, too; Few are the theatergoers who will be familiar with all of Miranda’s touchstones. I caught the verbal references to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, West Side Story, and 1776, but other people had to point out to me the frequent hat-tips to hip-hop: Biggie Smalls, the Fugees, “Blame It (On the Alcohol).” And I’m sure that historians in the audience (the show was “inspired by” Ron Chernow’s 800-page Hamilton biography) will catch references that the rest of us fail to notice. (“The world turned upside down,” a repeated phrase in a number about the Battle of Yorktown, is the name of the ballad supposedly played by Redcoat musicians upon Cornwallis’s surrender there, in 1781.) But for all its complexity — its multistrand plotting and exploding rhyme-grenades — Hamilton is neither a challenge nor a chore. It’s just great."

http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/theater-review-lin-manuel-mirandas-hamilton.html

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:25pm

Theatermania is a Rave:

"Sometimes a show is crushed under the weight of its own hype. In recent weeks, Hamilton (now making its world premiere at the Public Theater with book, music, and lyrics by the show's star, Lin-Manuel Miranda) has been compared favorably to Tony Kushner's Angels in America and William Shakespeare's Henriad. Many have called it a game-changer. TheaterMania even predicted a Pulitzer Prize for the hip-hop bio-musical before it began public performances. How could any theatrical production live up to such expectations? Well, like its extraordinary subject, Hamilton exceeds all expectations. Exceptionally smart and unexpectedly timely, this story of an American patriot is the best new American musical in years."

http://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/hamilton_71754.html

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:31pm

Variety is a Rave:

"There should be a huge audience for this irresistible show. Although the premise sounds outlandish, it takes about two seconds to surrender to the musical sweep of the sung-through score and to Miranda’s amazing vision of his towering historical subject as an ideological contemporary who reflects the thoughts and speaks the language of a vibrant young generation of immigrant strivers. It’s a wonderfully humanizing view of history."

http://variety.com/2015/legit/reviews/review-hamilton-public-theater-lin-manuel-miranda-1201435257/

[GroupAGroup1]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:36pm

The Washington Post is a Rave:

"Lin-Manuel Miranda is showing us the way. To anyone who might suggest musical theater has hit a creative dead end, the actor-songwriter unfolds a spectacularly persuasive counter­argument in the myriad melodious ­masterstrokes of “Hamilton.” [...]

You get the feeling, courtesy of “Hamilton,” which had its official opening Tuesday night at off-Broadway’s Public Theater, that the nation’s first Treasury secretary would have deemed it fitting that we find his name and likeness not only on a $10 bill, but on a New York marquee as well. And for the world to see him — through the eyes and in the guise of Miranda himself — as the evocation of what America was, and still can be. It’s gratifying to discover that at the intersection of scholarship and showmanship there exists a consoling affirmation of how we’re all in this together..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/history-as-youve-never-heard-it-before/2015/02/17/e803502e-b6e4-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html

Updated On: 2/17/15 at 10:36 PM

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:48pm

Oh no! After Eight is commenting again!
Oh no! He's being snarky and dismissive about the reaction to a new respected piece of theatre!
Oh no no no no

[Kad]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 10:55pm

Of course After Eight hates words like "innovative" and "groundbreaking." What else can be expected from someone who once said, and I quote here verbatim the entirety of a post:

"Change can often be a very bad thing. Indeed. it can be a disastrous thing"

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 11:15pm

Several reviews have mentioned the "inevitable" move to Broadway, which I presume would happen next season so as not to compete with Fun Home or interupt the extended-extended run. This already looks like a frontrunner for the Pulitzer.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 11:15pm

Several reviews have mentioned the "inevitable" move to Broadway, which I presume would happen next season so as not to compete with Fun Home or interupt the extended-extended run. This already looks like a frontrunner for the Pulitzer.

[Kad]

Posted: 2/17/15 at 11:20pm

It is still possible the extension could be cancelled at the producers' discretion.

As for Fun Home - it doesn't really matter. The Public is not producing its Broadway production and the two wouldn't be sapping audiences from each other. They'd be in competition for the Tony, naturally, but Fun Home has already received many accolades, including a Pulitzer shortlist.