Raise your hand if you haven’t seen (or heard) the smash hit, Hamilton? Yes, we do exist, we are out here!

What’s it like to watch the musical for the first time? Read on for one musician’s perspective.

Act I

Here’s the obvious: Set design, costumes, lighting design, sound, choreography, direction, acting, dancing, rapping and singing, the book/story … Undeniably phenomenal and flawless on all counts.

However, being married to a man who has studied afrobeat and loves hip-hop so deeply — he has educated me over the last 11 years in that genre. The thing that annoys him and me the most about the Hip-hop orchestration of this production is how hokey it sounds during those songs. Super cheese. My ears cannot un-hear that.

Also, the instantaneous autotune overlay is obvious on many of the songs especially the ballads. Stylistically it works… It’s just a pet peeve of mine that society expects to hear autotune so much that they’ve now added it on Broadway. Such a shame.

Jonathan Groff,  playing the part of King George has stolen our hearts.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is talented AF… No doubt… But he chews the carpet a bit as an actor in the first act.

Having said all that, I am super impressed at the perfection and execution on that stage. They certainly did practice until they couldn’t get it wrong. Bravo!

Act II

Really!? We are going to open ACT 2 with a swing number for Thomas Jefferson? So out of place and super cheap. But then they do their rap battle and we see how cheesy Jefferson really is as a character, so the cop-out swing number might be fitting, I suppose.

In all, I find Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acting is more subdued in the second act.

“The room where it happened”… Another swing number. I find this to be “easy” and lazy to fall back on.

In the midst of this, Eliza and Angelica are perfection.

OK, I’ll admit it, the death of Philip and A. Hamilton at the end of the show made me cry. But why did Eliza have to do that silly gasp at the end? Couldn’t she just die in silence? I think that would have been a better choice. It would’ve been much more effective.

With all this being said, I absolutely loved it. I’m so glad I got to watch it through a streaming service and I didn’t have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to see it in person. Truth! It was never really affordable if you wanted to see it close up.

Thank you for reading my honest opinion and thank you to all my die-hard Hamilton fan-friends for encouraging me to watch it.

I also want to acknowledge the recent outcrys about this musical and its ties to slavery. You can also read Lin-Manuel Miranda’s response.