Hamilton: An American Musical, known colloquially as Hamilton, is a sung-and-rapped-through biographical musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Based on the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, the musical covers the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his involvement in the American Revolution and the political history of the early United States. Composed from 2008 to 2015, the music draws heavily from hip hop, as well as R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors as the Founding Fathers of the United States and other historical figures. Miranda described Hamilton as about "America then, as told by America now".
From its opening, Hamilton received near-universal acclaim. It premiered off-Broadway on February 17, 2015, at the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan, with Miranda playing the role of Alexander Hamilton, where its several-month engagement was sold out. The musical won eight Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical. It then transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, opening on August 6, 2015, where it received uniformly positive reviews and high box office sales. At the 70th Tony Awards, Hamilton received a record-breaking 16 nominations and won 11 awards, including Best Musical. It received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2020, a filmed version of the Broadway production was released on Disney+, followed by a theatrical release in 2025 by Walt Disney Pictures.
The Chicago production of Hamilton began preview performances at the CIBC Theatre in September 2016 and opened the following month. The West End production opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on December 21, 2017, following previews from December 6, winning seven Olivier Awards in 2018, including Best New Musical. The first U.S. national tour began in March 2017. A second U.S. tour opened in February 2018. Hamilton's third U.S. tour began January 11, 2019, with a three-week engagement in Puerto Rico in which Miranda returned to the role of Hamilton. The first non-English production opened in Hamburg in October 2022 for which it had been translated into German. As of 2026, no amateur or professional licenses have been granted for Hamilton.
I have never attended a performance of Hamilton, but I have seen the recorded LMM performance on Disney+. I've also performed a medley of the songs in my community concert band.
I fucking hate this shitty musical and it's talentless one-note hackey faux-rap schtick.
I hate how this entire musical glosses over one of history's great assholes because LMM didn't actually read a history book. I hate how centrist liberals love this musical because of representation or whatever when in fact the real Alexander Hamilton was the embodiment of the opposite of the ideals they profess to love.
Look, I love a lot of musicals. I don't hate musicals. I love a ton of hip hop. I don't hate hip hop. I even like some of LMM's other projects (the songs from Moana, to name one). My unmitigated hatred for Hamilton is not borne out of any sort of blanket prejudice of any of its facets. It is borne out of thinking that these songs are dogshit.
putting a musical as an album here is such a dick move. This now is the first of 1233 I have actually skipped. Every single one I've given a chance up till now. I'm not listening to the music from a musical I haven't seen. I don't have much interest in musicals but there's a chance I might one day go see it and this would spoil the story, so I'm not going to listen to this. I'm quite annoyed at whoever submitted this.
I respect the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda has written all music and lyrics of the musical and also plays the main role. Too bad not all of the music is great. His singing is ok, but the rap parts... As another reviewer states: "talentless one-note hackey faux-rap schtick"
Another issue is that a musical is created for a stage with acting and visuals. It is not only the music. So an album containing a musical is missing several of the dimensions of a musical.
At this moment a story that glorifies the American founding fathers and the consitution and democracy they created sounds misplaced. As have these stories about the USA have allways been. Praising the "democratic" history of a country grounded on wiping out the complete native population.
This is such a great recording of a great musical! Always up for some more musical theater representation and this is an EXCELLENT choice! It is one of those times when I was one of the last to see this and it completely lived up to expectations. Terrific!
https://youtu.be/6gGwhSE0nvo
First time listening to the original musical. I remember how big this was but as a non-American, I was completely indifferent to their history.
Now a decade later, this musical comes off as very quaint and naive. We've seen the complete failure of the American institutions and it makes the founding fathers look like naive fools. This musical comes from a different time that has since passed in America and isn't coming back for a long time.
Also should we including musicals on the OG list? There are so many musicals that could be included. I'm hesistant.
Musically though, it's great, although it is too long because it is literally the full musical. The Weird Al polka version gets all the highlights and is more fun.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 4/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Another show I’ve never seen, but given how big this was I’m a bit more familiar with the songs. I think given the modern take this is one that’s maybe worth y of the list if you are wanting to include musicals, totally understand everyone who votes it lower because it is a musical.
Already said it once. This is not an album. It's an audio only musical. So a few minus stars for that.
On the other hand, the story is kinda followable. And the music is catchy.
Yes, the cast is inclusive, the vocals rap-focused, and the arrangements done impeccably well. Yet, at the end of the day, Hamilton is just another entry into the long canon of American Exceptionalism – conflicts are resolved by the end of the song, moral failings swept aside as quickly as they’re introduced, and America stands victorious once again as the moral is wrapped up with a nice neat little bow for you to easily digest. I’ll never mentally unlink the Hamilton summer of ‘16 from Trump’s election the following fall, a story of our Founding Fathers in popularized, sound-bite form preceding the utter shitshow free fall we find ourselves in now. This musical continues to fill seats for who knows how much money and lecture its audiences about American greatness as the experiment collapses around us – the whole project rings hollow as a result, and no matter Miranda’s intentions feels like a symptom of our sickness rather than an exaltation of the nation’s triumphs.
You Bastards, I had made it this far without hearing more than the odd fragment of this damn thing. I'll freely admit that I instinctively tend to indiscriminately reject these cultural phenomena that everybody loses it over, and I don'tview this as a virtue. The modern musical is not really my genre, and top of that an assignment of almost two and a half hours is a pretty ballsy decision in choosing a contribution to this list.
So I went into this with definitely but generally genial animus. And while I can see the charms, I did find the whole thing pretty silly. As history it has a real Schoolhouse Rock vibe and the point is pretty obviously to make it all about human personality drama. As rap it is very evidently the product of theater-kid type uber-nerds and gets regularly mired in long, monotonous exposition dumps. I didn't hate it I guess.
I liked "Phantom of the Opera" being on here, but I'm less sure about this. I mean it's great, and obviously a really important and totally unexpected musical, combining the tropes of the form with hip-hop songwriting.
But I've never seen it. Listening to the audio alone is kind of like reading the Wikipedia plot summary and getting all the spoilers. I guess if you've seen the musical this will mean a lot to you, but I'm not sure it belongs on here.
Read more on Wikipedia