During the song Right Hand Man, George Washington tells Alexander Hamilton: “your reputation precedes you”, a line which could also be very accurately applied to the show, Hamilton: An American Musical; since its first performance in 2015, millions have been enthralled by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s combination of showtunes, rap, hip-hop and R&B. Hamilton came to the West End in 2017, and embarked upon a UK and Ireland tour in November 2023. Having seen the 2015 pro-shot on Disney + during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was very keen to book tickets to the tour’s Birmingham run in August 2024.

Hamilton tells the life story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s founding fathers who played a key role in the framing of the constitution, was a military leader and lawyer, was the first Secretary of the Treasury and was the founder of the New York Post and the Coast Guard. Until 2015 he was only immortalised on the $10 bill, but Miranda’s hit musical retells some of his greatest successes and most tragic failures.

Despite travelling to each corner of the UK and Ireland, the Hamilton tour’s numerous stages are still set with David Korin’s original design for the Broadway show, and the book and music remain almost entirely untouched.

The performance, under the direction of Stephen Whitson, was lively, energetic and ingeniously-delivered. All the elements of the much-loved Broadway and West End versions remain, and the touring cast performed marvellously. Particular stand-outs for me were Billy Never as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson and Sam Oladeinde as Aaron Burr. The rap Guns and Ships always impresses, and Never’s rendition was no exception. As Jefferson, he brought a lovable charm to the character the audience is supposed to hate, almost reminiscent of that offered by Daveed Diggs’s in the 2015 pro-shot version. Oladeinde’s portrayal of Burr left little to be desired. He portrayed America’s third Vice President both as pained and over-shadowed and also as ambitious, intelligent and fierce.

While Alexander Hamilton may be the show’s titular character, it was Charles Simmons’s George Washington who stole the show for me. His vocals were unmatched by any other male character (particularly during One Last Time), and he conducted himself with the poise and stature expected of a great military leader, while allowing Washington’s softer side to shine through in numbers such as History Has Its Eyes on You, and towards the end of One Last Time, where Miranda weaved Washington’s actual resignation speech into the lyrics.

As expected, Hamilton was a masterpiece. Every line was delivered with passion and feeling, every movement performed with precision and impressive technique and poise.

I was fortunate enough to meet with associate director Stephen Whitson last week. I was keen to discuss with him a few of the changes that were made to the lyrics of the UK version of Hamilton compared to those of the original Broadway version: observant audience members will have noticed that the line “Angelica tell my wife, John Adams doesn’t have a real job anyway” in Take a Break was replaced by “Angelica tell my wife, Vice President is not a real job anyway”, and, in Your Obedient Servant, the line “Weehawken, dawn” changed to “Jersey, dawn”. Stephen recalled being sat in the stalls of the Victoria Place Theatre with Lin-Manuel Miranda when he came up with the first change, and said that the second change was made, since it was unlikely any British audience would have a clue what was going on if somebody said ‘Weehawken’.

We also spoke about the various reactions different audience have to the show. In cities like Manchester, Dublin and Cardiff, audience members were ‘insane’ for it, whereas viewers in Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh, cities which typically see more theatre, tended to respond in a more thoughtful manner.

It was also interesting to hear about the challenges of taking a show like Hamilton onto the road. I ought to have predicted the response: one of the biggest challenges of the tour is the tour itself – moving more than 100 people as well as the full set from theatre to theatre takes considerable effort. Last year, for example, the show closed on a Saturday in Dublin, and the whole of the set had to be broken down and put into trucks, transported across the Irish Sea, driven down to Cardiff, be rebuilt in the Millenium Centre and the show had to open the following Tuesday.

I am very grateful to Stephen for his time. It was such a privilege to pick the brain of the man behind such an incredible show, and hearing about his current role, as well as his wider career, was very enlightening.

I would highly recommend Hamilton to fans of musical theatre (obviously), but also those who aren’t quite convinced by sitting and watching people sing and dance on stage for a couple of hours: it’s a history lesson, a masterclass in R&B and hip-hop, and a piece comedic genius.