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 wor.