As this UK and Ireland tour is launched, it’s tempting to say that Hamilton is back. But Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phenomenal musical has never really been away. Right now there are five rooms where it happens: in New York, Chicago, London and Manila as well as Manchester, where an outstanding new ensemble deliver its irresistible lyrics with verve.
Miranda’s subject is unwieldy – the US’s newfound independence and constitution, seen through the eyes of its first treasury secretary and told in a whirl of rap battles and revolutionary pamphlets, equestrian attire and elegant robes à l’Anglaise. It runs at more than 20,000 sung-through words but what is most striking, seeing the musical again, is the clarity, economy and unity of storytelling in the songs whose phrases return to be cast in a new light.
