Hamilton at KeyBank State Theatre

This summer, Hamilton will be running in KeyBank State Theatre, the highly praised venue of Cleveland and the No.1 possible theatre for this spectacular Musical. The acclaimed and award-winning show continues to tell its astounding tale from town to town all over the Nation.

Debuting off Broadway in 2015, Hamilton was not the instant Broadway play that it is here. Lin-Manuel Miranda has spoken honestly about its origins, starting as a concept album in 2009, with Miranda sharing that he was “thrilled that the White House called me tonight, because I’m actually working on a hip-hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop: treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton.” That one single performance gained praise and a well-deserved standing ovation from his crowd at the time, as well as former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and directly led to Miranda’s creation of the Hamilton musical we know today.

Due to his previous experience in musical theater, Lin-Manuel Miranda has also gained influences from other popular theater pieces such as Les Misérables, which follows a similar theme that tells the history of a struggle, and succeeding from that struggle, instead of the usual musical theatre biases that follow the trend of being very positive and happy. Hamilton is no different, being about the struggle of an orphaned immigrant from the Caribbean who climbed the ladder and became the first American Treasury Secretary. With the greatest respect to its source material, Hamilton shows us both the good and bad in Alexander Hamilton’s rise to power, by not only showing us a look into his character and struggle, but also his influence and lasting legacy in being able to significantly shape North America during its time period.

With its story, Hamilton continues to display its importance in popular culture and even international public discourse, confronting themes and challenges that are deeply relevant not only to North America, but also globally. Even the use of musical genres like hip hop, jazz, and R&B as the main score has solidified its place in pop culture, making it one of the most exciting hit Cleveland musicals today.