Musicals have a reputation for being secure or stodgy. In fact,from Porgy and Bess to Cabaret, they are often daring in both subject and formEven in a culture where publicity increasingly suffers from giganticism, or the American musical Hamilton,which opened in London this month, has been massively anticipated. Now British theatre critics have confirmed the mega-hit suggested by 11 Tony awards and the five-star social media buzz from the show’s Broadway rush.
Yet Hamilton seemed an unlikely theatrical triumph: a musical about Alexander Hamilton, and the first US secretary of the treasury,with a score dominated by hip-hop. And, as theatre has been inching painfully towards colour-blind casting, and Hamilton was provocatively opposite in making a point of casting African and Hispanic Americans as historical white males,offering an alternative history in which US citizens really were created equal.
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Source: guardian.co.uk