Hamilton — Straz Center, Carol Morsani Hall
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is a sung-through musical based on Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton — the orphaned immigrant from the Caribbean who talked his way into George Washington’s inner circle during the Revolutionary War, became the first Treasury Secretary, built the foundation of the American banking and credit system, and died at 49 in a duel with the sitting Vice President, Aaron Burr. The score moves between hip-hop, R&B, traditional Broadway balladry, and British-pop pastiche, with almost no spoken dialogue — it’s closer to a hip-hop opera than a conventional book musical.
Act one covers the Revolutionary War years: Hamilton’s arrival in New York, “My Shot,” meeting Washington and the Schuyler sisters, and his marriage to Eliza. Act two moves into the fight over the new federal government — the cabinet battles with Jefferson and Madison dramatized in “The Room Where It Happens” and the “Cabinet Battle” numbers — then the Reynolds Pamphlet affair, the death of Hamilton’s son Philip, and finally the duel with Burr. The cast is deliberately multiracial playing the Founding Fathers, a choice Miranda has described as telling “America then, as told by America now.”
This isn’t a new or untested title. It opened at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre on Aug. 6, 2015, and has run continuously there ever since — more than 11 years — while separate productions ran simultaneously in Chicago, the West End in London since 2017, and multiple US national tours since 2017. It swept the 2016 Tony Awards (11 wins out of 16 nominations, including Best Musical), won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and took a Grammy for the cast album. Reviewing the Broadway opening for The New York Times, critic Ben Brantley called it proof the American musical “is not only surviving but also evolving,” writing simply: “Yes, it really is that good.” A decade later it’s still one of the hardest tickets in touring theater.
Runtime is roughly 2 hours 45 minutes with one intermission; it’s generally considered fine for middle-school age and up, with some mature content (an infidelity subplot, a graphic death by gunshot) but nothing explicit on stage.
One of our own has seen Hamilton twice already — once on Broadway, once previously at the Straz — and is going back again for this run, a third time overall and a second trip specifically to see it at this venue. Not the kind of repeat recommendation we hand out often. Their pick for best song: “You’ll Be Back,” King George III’s breakup-letter-to-the-colonies number, sung from the losing side of the Revolutionary War as the colonists push for independence from English rule — the show’s comic relief, and somehow one of its catchiest songs.
Hamilton’s national tour lands at the Straz Center for a three-week run — 24 performances total, with extra matinees added on several dates. A run this long means there’s an actual window to plan a night around it, not just one Saturday to fight for.
Good to know: Carol Morsani Hall, Straz Center, 1010 N W.C. MacInnes Pl, Tampa, FL 33602. Oct. 21-Nov. 8, mostly 7:30pm evenings with some 1pm matinees on select dates. Tickets from $102. Outside Pasco County — a worth-the-drive pick.