I went to see the touring version of the stage play Hamilton this week and I wasn’t at all impressed. I am having trouble understanding what all the uproar was about.

I have to admit that I might have been prejudiced on two levels. First I had to pay through the nose for mediocre seats so I expected to see a great play. Second, I’m not hip-hop kind of guy so the fact that vast majority of the play consisted of the characters rapping the dialog was not a positive factor for me. The play is supposed to be a musical and I don’t consider rap music. More importantly, the rapid rap made the dialogue difficult to understand unless you were sitting in seats costing well over $400 apiece.

In addition, I thought the actual musical numbers were somewhat scarce and mostly too short. That was a real shame because they only hinted at some the great voices on that stage.

Lastly, it is a historical fact that Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were often at odds when they served on the Washington’s cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury respectively. So it might be expected that in a play about Hamilton Jefferson might be portrayed in a bad light. However, the character playing Jefferson made him look like a fool, and an effeminate one at that.

Final opinion: Not worth the money. And, dispite all of the hipe, certainly not in the class of the some of the great musicals that I’ve seen such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia.

Cajun (Rick Guilbeau)