Hamilton (Picture: Broadway Company Images)

Praise be! Hamilton The Musical couldn’t be opening at a better time.

Finally, this month, previews are beginning for the smash hit ‘All American Musical’ Hamilton, which is an impassioned romp through the story of the life of American founding father Alexander Hamilton.

If that sounds dull as dishwater, a quick Google will reveal that the show is the most highly-awarded of a generation. Its stunning score captured the hearts of Broadway when it opened in 2015, and tickets for the final show starring writer-director Lin-Manuel Miranda were reportedly shifting for $10,000.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and wife, Vanessa Nadal (Picture: Getty Images)

The musical celebrates the American revolutionary Hamilton, the immigrant who was an early adopter of the US constitution, an innovative intellectual who founded The New York Post newspaper as well as establishing America’s first national bank.




Hamilton also established the first friendly trade relations with the United Kingdom. All the while, America’s current President Trump, who called the musical ‘overrated’ even though he hadn’t seen it, has of late moved onto trolling a new subject: UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

‘.@TheresaMay, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!,’ he tweeted at her after she criticised him for sharing videos from the far-right political group Britain First.

Trump’s approach to international relations will be turning Hamilton in his grave – Trump is harbouring the pig-headed ignorance the Founding Fathers fought against by establishing some of the earliest democratic values in the US.

Hamilton is a proud slice of activism (Picture: Broadway Company Images)

Trump’s behaviour re-affirms why we all desperately need this history lesson in American politics done the right way.

Trump’s inability to hold a conversation with a leader-ally like May epitomises the big man’s bullying approach, even with those he likes and works closely with. It speaks mountains for the people whom he doesn’t. Not that we need to imagine – Trump recently provoked a genuine world threat by calling Kim Jong-un ‘Little Rocket Man’.

Hamilton features innovative musical arrangements (Picture: Broadway Company Images)

Determined to glam up politics, Hamilton’s award-winning score makes its arguably dry subject matter leap around on stage.

Tickets sold out in January and are harder to pin down than Trump’s tax returns as Londoners flood to learn about the empowering story of Alexander Hamilton, told with bundles of fun.

It is important that we view the arts, and the action of going to the theatre, as protest and a response to the current happenings in politics on our home turf.

Hamilton provocatively twists its historic subject matter by making it a musical with a hip hop and R ‘n’ B soundtrack. Hamilton innovates. Hamilton praises diversity. Hamilton encourages those at the bottom of the ladder, like orphan Hamilton was, to climb to the top.

Hamilton has reimagined how we present politics on stage. Its serious themes and light-hearted approach has modernised the musical. And in the light of an increasingly tumultuous and backwards-facing US political climate, where it seems we have regressed, Hamilton is a vital reminder of the good that can happen despite the odds – it is a message of tolerance and acceptance. It is a message we need more than ever right now.



MORE: Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda has a baby on the way as show prepares for prolific London launch

MORE: Lin-Manuel Miranda is not throwing away his shot, will reprise lead role in Hamilton for Puerto Rico