@surfcity - I’m so jealous! I don’t have tickets to go until August 1st. I hope that at least SOME of the original cast is still there!!
Because I travel mainly in affluent old white guy circles, I know very few people who like rap or hip-hop at all. (As I understand it, “hip-hop” is the musical genre, which usually but not always includes vocal elements called “rap,” often along with other non-rap vocal elements like sung hooks.) I happen to, but I don’t have anyone to talk to about it north of my kids and their friends.
Because I travel mainly in affluent old white guy circles, I know a ton of people who love musical theater. And because I live within easy striking distance of New York, a fair number of those people have seen Hamilton.
Not one of them has failed to praise it to the skies. Lin-Manuel Miranda is fully conversant with the history of musical theater, and Hamilton includes all of it. And lots of hip-hop and rap, too, but in a way that is completely engaging to old farts who wouldn’t listen to Tupac or Kanye if you paid them.
I haven’t seen it, just listened to the cast album. A couple of dozen times. It’s just wonderful. What Miranda was trying to do was objectively impossible, and he succeeded to a degree that was unimaginable before he did it.
And, by the way, I pretty much disliked Rent. I almost left at intermission when I saw it, although I remember liking the second half better than the first. I don’t like things just because they are the latest popular thing. For me, the quality difference between Hamilton and Rent is enormous.
On my flight home, I finally got the chance to listen to the second act twice from beginning to end, and am certain I will need to pack some tissues in my purse, especially given I am seeing it with D1.
I did like Rent a lot - have seen it at least twice, but honestly, just was not enamored with In The Heights.
Count me in as another all-in Hamilton fan. I am a huge music lover, and I am not exaggerating when I say the cast recording is my favorite album ever. As others have said, it is so much more than rap/hip hop, although I do really appreciate those elements. I heard or read somewhere that by incorporating so much of the quick cadence of rap, LMM was able to condense 4-5 hours of “traditional” musical lyrics into 2 -3/4 hours. It was a proud day indeed for this 40-something suburban mom to finally be able to rap all of Daveed Diggs’ parts in Guns and Ships - haha!!
In addition to writing this masterpiece, LMM has done an amazing job generating and maintaining excitement for Hamilton. Between Ham4Ham, EduHam, Twitter, the Hamiltome, the upcoming Mix Tape, and all kinds of television appearances, he has been extremely generous to fans. LMM’s passion for Hamilton really shines through, and, even with all the accolades bestowed upon him, his aura remains one of humbleness and gratitude. It’s hard not to be delighted for his success.
I want to post this as a public service to anyone who has the good fortune of seeing the current Broadway production.: Don’t tarry outside the house during intermission. Act II starts as soon as the house lights go down; the action starts. There is no entr’acte. (At the prices most are paying you really don’t want to miss a second, much less the first two or three minutes of Act !!.)
Don’t you mean “decided he was not throwing away his shot”??? heh heh heh 
Another in the camp of not a rap/hip hop fan (and hated Rent for good measure as a horrid version of La Boheme) but huge fan of the cast album. It’s made me see why people are rap/hip hop fans. D2 says Hamilton is “old white people rap” which it may well be but it’s just so, so clever. “Burr, you disgust me/Ah, so you’ve discussed me, I’m a trust fund, baby, you can trust me”, hilarious. And King George’s songs, all done in retro brit pop. And the beautiful way in which Washington’s actual farewell letter is woven into the lyrics.
Anyway, we bought LA-area season tickets to ensure we have tix for when the touring company comes to SoCal in 2017. That was cheaper than a ticket to the NYC production, let alone flights and hotel rooms.
Since so many of you are LMM fans, I thought you might get a kick out of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GulYJnZC4Xk
And here is the tribute to his elementary school music teacher for Martin Luther King Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EITcerK6kM
And BTW, if LMM wins an EGOT, he’ll be the second Hunter kid Ms. Ames taught who has won one!
I’ll never be able to hear the word unimaginable in a conversation again without thinking of what it meant to Eliza and Alexander.
Oh my heavens that was an unbelievable scene. I must not have listened to the second half of the show album enough because that scene caught me off guard. Sigh.
Haha, there are so many phrases now that I can’t not associate with Hamilton. When someone asks “What time is it?” my mind immediately completes it as “showtime!”
I now have this urge to end all of my email correspondence with:
“I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant,”
As I mentioned, I was away earlier in the week, for a ladies getaway (which may or may not have included some CC ladies) on the New Jersey shore, and didn’t really listen to the second act until I was at the airport and on my way home. So imagine my surprise when I heard the lyrics, in Blow Us All Away that said, “Everything is legal in New Jersey.” I started cracking up, then looked around to see if anyone noticed I was laughing by myself.
Sirius XM is broadcasting a special on the Broadway channel with the cast and director RIGHT NOW!
Not that anyone is counting, but D and I see this in 16 days (or so she posted on my Facebook wall today along with the link). Neat article that follows from a sports writer whose 14-year old daughter probably now sees him as a hero for getting her tickets to Hamilton.
My D says Lin-M M has announced his last day with the Broadway show, which is July 9. 
He is also doing carpool karaoke on June 6!
Folks, I saw Jon Rua and Javier Munoz as Hamilton, and Austin Smith as Washington and it was still a fabulous experience. The show itself and the production are fabulous.
I also read that others in the cast are asking for large raises as their contracts come up for renewal.
We absolutely lucked out. A couple of months ago, D found out he had switched his performance off to the day of the week we had tickets to see him, so we were resigned to seeing the understudy. D texted me today and told me, as of now, he will be performing at the show we have tickets for. I may get slammed here, but I was actually OK with seeing the understudy - I am far more impressed by his writing and creating skills (although I was not a huge fan of Into The Heights) than his performance (which is my way of saying he is on genius level with creativity) and that’s not a part of him that you can experience on stage - witnessing that would have meant me being a fly on his wall for the last several years. I would have paid more money for that ticket!
D17 and D14 just had their minds blown when they discovered that LMM was also on one of their fav childhood PBS shows, Electric Company. He sang “Silent E is a Ninja” and other tunes – they are on youtube.
On the irony of Hamilton:
http://howlround.com/why-hamilton-is-not-the-revolution-you-think-it-is#sthash.2g395UUU.dpuf
I think it’s unfortunate that the POC who would most appreciate Hamilton are the people who cannot afford it. In true Cotton Club fashion, the cast entertains an overwhelming wealthy, white audience that is mostly unfamiliar with their life experiences and (mostly) can at best, marvel at the exotic culture of colored people. I’m glad that efforts have been made to make the show more accessible to public school students across NYC. It helps to address this irony. I do hope that I will be able to see it before Lin leaves, though that seems highly unlikely. Tickets for his last show have skyrocketed to $20,000.
POC?