![]() ![]() However, Miranda has as much love for Sondheim as he does for Tupac. To be honest, it’s not even Miranda’s first musical to combine hip-hop with a more traditional Broadway approach. After all, his first musical, In the Heights, blended hip-hop rhyme schemes and Latin rhythms with more typical, musical style. Hamilton is not the first show to put hip-hop on a Broadway stage, as even the 1957, wholesome as apple pie, The Music Man featured songs that dipped their toes into rap’s waters. Hamilton tells the story of America’s past, using a cast that represent America’s present. The casting, not just color-blind but intentionally diverse, makes the show feel unique and alive in a way few Broadway shows do.īroadway musicals are often perceived as risk-averse, art playing it safe when it should be breaking new ground. It’s a show about historical figures we can’t help but picture as stuffy establishment representatives, when in fact these guys were the rebellious free-thinkers of their time. It’s not just the score (which is brilliant), but the deliberate diversity on display every night at the Richard Roger’s Theatre. It’s the biggest Broadway phenomenon of the 21 st Century. After all, the Broadway-rap hybrid about the titular revolutionary founding father has been lauded to the point of rhapsodic exhaustion. It may be clichéd at this point to heap more praise upon the Broadway smash that is Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Hamilton. ![]() The goal of “Music Theater 101” is to dispel those notions by highlighting worthy, quality contributions to the genre, challenging you to conclude that musicals might not be so pointless after all. To some, musical theatre is a trite, pointless art form, more or less the audible equivalent of fingernails upon a blackboard. ![]()
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